This year format brings an additional characteristic on it. As cars have to join parc fermé after their out-lap, the amount of fuel that remains at the end of the qualifying session is the amount of fuel in which they have to start the race. This has led many people to say that the qualifying is nothing more than the first lap of the race.

Many purist of the sport have argued that the new format does not allow the chance to see the fastest drivers on pole but the one with the lowest level of fuel in the car.

However, the fact that Michael Schumacher has been on pole on 4 of the 6 races means that the driver that knows how to cope with a one-lap qualifying can still exceed under the new system.

It is also a fact that this year we are missing the exciting and thrilling minutes of the end of the session when most of the drivers were conducting their final qualifying lap at the same time. However, nobody is missing the first 20 minutes of qualifying that we used to have last year in which the only driver out to do a flying lap will be Alex Yoong on his Minardi and mainly for commercial purposes. The track used to be empty during the first 30 minutes and crowded on the final 30 minutes. Later on we could always hear the drivers complaining of ruined laps because of the traffic at the last minutes.

The grid is formed by 20 pilots this year, and anyone who has been to any internet forum on the net knows that there is quite a popular support for each driver. Fans, eager to see their driver drive and to analyze each and every movement made by their idol. A fan of Jos Verstappen, a driver with immense support in many countries, could only see his favourite driver do a qualifying lap maybe once per season two years ago. Now he or she can see Jos “The Boss” try to avoid the last row 16 times this season. This also brings more air time to the back makers and therefore better commercial opportunities for current and potential sponsors.

So now drivers do one flying lap with their deposits full based on their race strategy. Some drivers are finding this one shot qualifying hard to cope with. Especially rookies as Da Matta, Firman or Pizzonia do not seem to find the fine line between doing a perfect lap and pushing too far.

If we look at the last 6 races, who has been able to find that compromise better? Michael Schumacher indeed. The German driver is showing why he is considered the best driver of the grid.

The following is the list of the average position on the grid by driver:

01. M.SCH 2.3
02. R.BAR 3.0
03. J.PMO 6.0
04. J.TRU 7.5
05. J.BUT 8.2
06. ALON 8.5
06. D.COU 8.5
06. R.SCH 8.5
09. N.HEI 9.0
09. K.RAI 9.0
11. O.PAN 9.5
12. J.VILL 10.2
13. M.WE 11.2
14. HH.FR 11.7
15. G.FISI 13.0
16. D.MAT 14.0
17. A.PIZZ 14.8
18. R.FIR 17.2
19. J.WILS 18.7
20 J.VERS 19.3

Obviously, from this list we can clearly see that Ferrari continues to be dominant on the qualifying sessions despite the new rules. And that thanks to the lacks of mistakes, both Michael Schumacher and Ruben Barrichello are on top of this category followed by a group of driver that can not keep their consistence in each track of the season.