The ABB FIA Formula E Championship has scrapped the lottery element of the current qualifying procedure for Season Five.
Instead, qualifying groups will be chosen based on championship position- with the six best-placed drivers in the first group and the six worst-placed drivers going out in the final group- where the track condition will theoretically be better.
At present, the four qualifying groups are determined by championship position, but are drawn from a lottery to decide in which order they will take to the track. Then, the fastest five drivers progress to a Super Pole session to determine who will start from pole position.
Next season, there will be four qualifying groups with the a maximum of six drivers in each session with 22 cars in the series from next season thanks to the addition of HWA-AG. In which, the drivers highest in the championship standings will go first and the drivers at the bottom of the championship order will go last. Then, the six fastest drivers will progress to Super Pole to determine who will start from Pole Position.
The move has overall been supported by the drivers, with 2016/17 ABB FIA Formula E Champion Lucas Di Grassi describing the move to e-racing365 as ‘an improvement’.
The Brazilian went on to say that: “This will improve racing for sure on some tracks as theoretically slower cars will be better in qualifying conditions.”
