F1’s qualifying format will change for 2008, with the contentious Q3 cut to ten minutes to remove the ‘fuel burn’ phase.

The qualifying practice session will take place on the day before the race from 14.00 to 15.00. The session will be run as follows :
a) From 14.00 to 14.20 (Q1) all cars will be permitted on the track and at the end of this period the slowest seven cars will be prohibited from taking any further part in the session. Lap times achieved by the seventeen remaining cars will then be deleted.

b) From 14.27 to 14.42 (Q2) the seventeen remaining cars will be permitted on the track and at the end of this period the slowest seven cars will be prohibited from taking any further part in the session. Lap times achieved by the ten remaining cars will then be deleted.

c) From 14.50 to 15.00 (Q3) the ten remaining cars will be permitted on the track.
The above procedure is based upon a Championship entry of 24 cars. If 22 cars are entered only six cars will be excluded after Q1 and Q2.

Previously teams had an incentive to run the cars for ten minutes to burn fuel purely to earn ‘fuel credits’ for the race, which did make something of a mockery of the FIA’s attempts to make the sport more environmentally friendly.

Adrian Valles will return to the GP2 series in 2008 for FMS. The Spanish driver was Spyker’s test driver in 2007. Meanwhile, ART have signed British F3 driver Stephen Jelley to contest the GP2 Asia series alongside reigning F3 Euroseries champion Romain Grosjean.