General
Wolff: "Even F1 fans don't like reversed grid races"
- GPblog.com
Since the F1 season has already largely changed in 2020, F1 is also looking to experiment with other formats for qualification, among others. One of those ideas was to hold qualifying races, with a reversed grid. However, it soon became clear that Mercedes was not in favour of this idea and Toto Wolff, team boss of Mercedes, has now given additional explanations.
"Actually, we only have three main reasons why we're against this idea," Wolff tells Motorsport.com. "First, I think it should always be in F1 that the best car wins. We don't think it's necessary to turn the grid around to get exciting races".
New tactics through reversed grid
Moreover, Wolff expects that the rule will be abused if you ride a lesser Grand Prix. "Imagine a driver having a lesser race in that first race. The team then decides to drive the car into the garage. That means that car is on pole for the qualifying race. If he can defend his place there, he'll have a clear lead before the real race on Sunday."
As a third argument against the idea of reversed grids Wolff says that the top 3 teams will experience a lot of problems. "The last one is purely performance related. The fastest car on the grid, which is not automatically Mercedes, will experience disadvantage from starting behind the other top teams. You give those teams an advantage because they start for you". Wolff is clearly not an advocate of the reversed grids and prefers to see the races run normally.
Also the fans are not enthusiastic
To conclude, Wolff also brings in a research result about what the fans think of the new plans. "We don't think now is the time to experiment with things that interestingly enough don't even have the support of the Formula 1 community. A study showed that only 15 percent were interested in reverse grids".