Two F1 teams, Marussia and Caterham, had to miss the U.S. Grand Prix. This forced FIA stewards to change the qualifying format for the rest 18 race cars left on the grid.
As we already know, two teams were missing on the grid due to bankruptcy issues. Not everyone was ready for a situation like that, including the current Formula 1 regulations. The document describes the qualifying format for 26, 24, 22, and 20 race cars. The final qualifying session had to determine top 10 drivers, meaning that six participants were dropping out in the first and second qualifying sessions.
FIA stewards decided to introduce the following changes — starting from the U.S. Grand Prix, four cars will drop out in the first qualifying session with another four slowest cars joining them after the second qualifying phase.
Despite all the difficulties faced by the teams and organisers, the stewards showed understanding and decided not to impose any penalty on Marussia and Caterham F1 teams for missing the U.S. Grand Prix.
