L1: remove obsolete conversion of the triplet q/p to char

remove obsolete conversion of the triplet q/p to char.

It fixes https://redmine.cbm.gsi.de/issues/2127. Some things pop up that need to be understood: https://redmine.cbm.gsi.de/issues/2194

This MR changes the efficiencies a bit (most of the numbers are slightly improved).

The MR should be merged after !420 (merged)