Massa expects new F1 qualifying system to create “chaos”

Felipe Massa said today that the new F1 qualifying rules are likely to cause “chaos” as frontrunners get it wrong and find themselves bumped out of the session.

The Williams driver also said it was too early for him to decide if he prefers the new arrangement.

“I don’t know if it I like it or not,” said Massa tonight. “I think I need to have a little bit of time to sit down and understand the rules, understand the change. The only thing I understand is that they want to create some chaos around, and this will happen for sure.

“I’m sure it will happen, some chaos, cars that should maybe qualify more in the front have problems and they need to start in the back. So this is something that can be interesting for you [the media], but if it’s better or not, I don’t know yet.”

Asked if qualifying was the area that the sport needed to address he added: “I think the most important thing is that fans want to see fights, they want to see cars overtaking, cars close by. Fans don’t want to see only one car winning the race. Whenever you can make a championship better, the fans will be happy. I think that’s the main issue.

“Which is not something easy to fix. Maybe the noise of the car, but apart from this I think the fans want to see different cars winning the race, that’s the main target, which is the most difficult thing for F1 to make happen.”