Charles Leclerc has insisted F1 should refrain from introducing "jeopardy" into the sport as teams gear up for another new qualifying format at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Whilst the basic structure of qualifying remains the same, drivers will be obliged to run on Hard tyres in Q1, Medium tyres in Q2 and Softs in Q3 as part of an 'Alternative Tyre Allocation' trial. The test sees Pirelli offer only 11 sets of tyres per car rather than 13 as part of an ongoing push for greater sustainability. Should the trial be a success, as well as a follow-up at the Italian Grand Prix after the summer break, the ATA could be voted in for use from next season. But with fewer tyres to run across the weekend and mandatory compounds for different stages, Leclerc told media including RacingNews365 : "It's going to be very tricky. "The practice preparations are mixed across the grid, because there are so many different options you can choose now with this new format. "So we'll see, it can be an opportunity. If you take the wrong decisions, it can go a bad way for your weekend, but it's part of the game. "Q1 and Q2 will be tricky with different compounds. It is something we are not really used to - pushing on a Hard tyre in qualifying mode. "That will be quite new for everyone and might be a surprise for a few people."
Very tricky
As ever with a shuffle of the status quo, there is an opportunity for a surprise to be thrown up on Saturday, but on whether the extra jeopardy was good for the sport, Leclerc conceded: "No, I don't think so. "I don't think that jeopardy should be a part of the sport. The best should win. "It might be a bit of an unknown for now, the more we do this format, the more people will know how to connect and more things will come back. "I don't know what to expect, so maybe after qualifying, we will know more about it. It is going to be very tricky with the amount of tyres we have. "You need to run those tyres at one point during practice - or no, by choice - but this is why it makes things very unpredictable."
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