There were less restrictions in qualifying sessions however, as we were to find out in Rio.
The level of competition in Formula One makes it vital for all the teams to relay data as quickly as possible, especially during practice and qualifying sessions.
John Hindhaugh, who has commentated on the race for the hugely-popular trackside and online broadcaster Radio Le Mans, since 1989, and who will be covering all the qualifying sessions and the race itself again this year, concurs with McNish.
The new rules prevent any driver who has competed in six or more grand prix races over the past two seasons from taking part in the Friday qualifying sessions by driving a third car for one of the teams.
A scene toward the end of the acclaimed documentary "Senna" shows the driver talking with Newey and the Williams technical director, Patrick Head (who was also charged), after one of the qualifying sessions.
He finished 14th in the Kentucky 300 earlier this month, his first race with the team, but at Las Vegas he had not been happy with the car's performance in the qualifying sessions.
Weeding out the meek and the spineless takes place through marathon qualifying sessions, during which contenders are weighed and then dropped into two sides of a clear plastic ring.
NEW DELHI – Sebastian Vettel continued his domination of qualifying sessions this year by scoring his 13th pole position of the season at the inaugural Indian Grand Prix outside New Delhi on Saturday.
Last year, there were 5.5 billion viewers for the races themselves; 1.1 billion for the qualifying sessions; 4.1 billion for race-previews and 40 billion for news items on Formula One.Suspicious Eurocrats claim Formula One's popularity, and its dominance of motor racing, has been achieved and is being preserved by foul means as well as fair.
Full results from the qualifying sessions in Belgium.
Hamilton has now lost out to Rosberg in three consecutive qualifying sessions.
