Albon Advocates for Split Q1 to Tackle Pit Issues

Williams F1’s Alex Albon suggests dividing Q1 into two groups to solve persistent pit lane problems.

In China, Nico Hülkenberg stood out negatively by speeding in the pit lane to save time exiting. Alex Albon, who noted this incident on the radio and had suggested splitting the qualifying into two groups, still believes action is needed on the qualifying rules.

“I said it to make sure Nico didn’t come out in front of me,” Albon explained. “Normally, Kevin [Magnussen] and Nico like to jostle, so it was more about keeping them under control.”

“That’s what’s going to happen, that’s what’s happening more and more. You know, we now have this minimum delta time, and at Suzuka and in China, everyone was running at the minimum—trying to be just legal and to be as slow as possible with these highly degrading tracks.”

Albon is not complaining about the situation at Williams, in this search for good track position, which creates a compromise of waiting at the end of the pit lane and cooling the tires: “It just creates a bit of a mess. But it’s okay.”

“It doesn’t bother me because Williams is somewhat in the middle of the pit lane, so we can be a bit selective when we go out. Obviously, for a top team, it’s a bigger problem—but they’ll be fast anyway, so it doesn’t matter.”

And the Thai driver reiterated his proposal for a Q1 split into two groups: “I’ve always been in favor of splitting the qualifications. Let’s do Q1 in two groups and we’ll get rid of the problem at the Austrian Grand Prix and the Red Bull Ring.”

“When the circuits are big enough, I don’t think we need it, like at Silverstone or Spa, for example. We could shorten Q1 and make sure everyone has, I don’t know, the same amount of time as in Q2, and we could just go for it—but maybe not, maybe it’s a stupid idea.”