Formula 1 will be trialing a tweaked Qualifying format at the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix, something originally planned for the cancelled Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
The new Qualifying format was planned for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix back in May, but that race was cancelled after the Northern Italian region was hit by floods, so the experiment will take place for the first time this weekend in Budapest.
The new format will see the teams and drivers restricted on tyre choices in Qualifying, as they will have to use the Hard compound in Q1, the Medium in Q2, while the Soft tyre will be only allowed in Q3. If the session is considered a Wet Session, then tyre choice will be free.
Currently, the teams have the free choice to use any tyre they want in any session, with slower teams using opting for Softs even in Q1 to try and make it into Q2 and beyond, while faster teams usually save their Softs for later attempting to make it out of Q1 on harder compounds.
The sport is running this experiment to try and see whether Pirelli can bring fewer tyre sets to race weekends as only 11 sets of tyres will be available per car while currently each driver gets 13. This means tyre consumption will be reduced by 40 sets (160 tyres per weekend), which adds up to 920 sets (3680 tyres) over the course of a 23-race season.
Under the new Qualifying format trial, each driver will have three sets of Hards, four sets of Mediums, and four sets of Softs at his disposal for the whole weekend. On a standard weekend, each driver gets two Hard sets, three Medium sets and eight Soft sets. These are only dry weather tyres.
This experiment will be repeated again during the 2023 Italian Grand Prix at Monza in September.