Haas driver Kevin Magnussen may be foregoing Formula 1’s upcoming Azerbaijan Grand Prix due to a penalty, but the Dane still has a few ideas about how to make qualifying much better.

In fact, Magnussen suggested an IndyCar-style qualifying format that could ease traffic while drivers attempt to set their fast laps.

Kevin Magnussen: “It would be nice with split qualifying”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher and Sam Cooper

Speaking to assembled media ahead of the Italian Grand Prix, including PlanetF1.com, Kevin Magnussen was asked how he felt about ongoing problems with slow traffic during Formula 1’s qualifying session. Further, he was asked if he felt the series should adopt an IndyCar-style split group qualifying.

“Some tracks are inevitably going to be difficult: Monaco, Austria, couple other places,” Magnussen said.

“Maybe on those tracks, in Monaco for example, it would be nice with the split qualifying. Two groups.”

On road and street courses, IndyCar utilizes a very particular qualifying format that starts off by splitting the field into two randomly selected groups — though in Formula 1, where every team has two drivers, it would be simple to send out one driver at a time in each group.

One group hits the race track at a time for Group 1 and Group 2 qualifying; each group has the same amount of time on the track, and the whole goal is to whittle down the field for two subsequent combined sessions.

The fastest six drivers from Group 1 and the fastest six from Group 2 then move into a session called the “Fast 12.”

The drivers who do not advance are given a slot on the grid based on their qualifying time, with Group 1 drivers taking odd-numbered staring grid positions and Group 2 drivers taking even-numbered starting positions.

Next comes the Fast 12, where the six fastest cars of the previous two Group sessions attempt to set a qualifying time good enough to warrant a transfer to the Fast Six — the final round of qualifying. In that final round, the six fastest drivers of the day attempt to secure pole position.

In the Fast 12 and Fast Six, drivers are awarded qualifying positions based on their time from slots 7-12 and 1-6, respectively.

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The whole goal for IndyCar’s split-group qualifying sessions is to reduce on-track interference — which is a particularly pressing problem in a series that regularly draws 24 or more cars to a road course race.

In any one qualifying session, IndyCar will have a maximum of 14 cars on the track — and when it comes time to secure pole position, there are only six drivers on track, meaning they have ample space to set fast laps.

In Formula 1, the field could be split into two groups of 10 cars, with the fastest five moving on to the second stage of qualifying, and the fastest five from that stage moving onto the pole session.

By preventing any more than 10 cars from being on the track at the same time, Formula 1 could reduce some of the congestion issues that have been resulting in slower drivers interfering with drivers on their faster laps.

Magnussen would have experienced the split-group qualifying format in 2021, when he signed with Arrow McLaren SP to replace an injured Felix Rosenqvist at Road America.

That being said, the Dane didn’t discount the fact that there are other options out there that could help solve qualifying interference issues as well.

“I think a big help would be more information on our dash with all the timing that we have available and all the GPS and stuff,” Magnussen suggested ahead of the Italian Grand Prix.

“Feed that more into the dash so that we don’t rely on our race engineer, so that we can actually take it into our hands.

“I think having more timing, more visuals to show whether cars are coming on a push lap, whether the car behind this is on a slow lap.”

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