By Andrew Benson & Jonathan Legard |
 Ferrari's domination of the first race exacerbated criticisms |
Formula One teams have rejected a proposal by the sport's boss, Bernie Ecclestone, to change the controversial new qualifying format. Ecclestone asked the teams to vote on Friday on two choices - reverting to last year's two-day system or dumping one of the two Saturday sessions.
But the teams were not unanimous in their desire for change so it will remain the same for the time being.
The new system has been criticised for being boring and unwieldy.
Three teams rejected Ecclestone's proposal. It is not known which ones, although Minardi boss Paul Stoddart and Jordan's director of business Ian Phillips told BBC Radio Five Live that it was probably three of the top teams.
An F1 insider said the most that would happen would be minor tinkering with the new format, in which drivers have a single lap in each of two sessions run back-to-back.
BBC Sport understands this may be simply extending the gap between the two sessions, with only the decisive final one shown on television.
A spokesman for F1's governing body, the FIA, reiterated that it was "too early" to make changes, and that the impact of the new system would be assessed after the first three races.
 |  It would be inappropriate to act until we have seen how it works over a few races |
"Many people didn't warm to the changes in 2003 at first but the season turned out to be one of the best," he said.
The spokesman added that it was the teams' initial idea to change the system over the winter.
"Just to be clear, this was something that the team principals discussed at length in their own meetings and came to us and said: 'This is what we think'," he said.
Renault team boss Flavio Briatore is one of several influential F1 insiders who have criticised the new format.
"It's rubbish. It's too long for TV and makes no sense. It needs to be changed. It's stupid for us, stupid for the spectators," Briatore said.
The criticism has been heightened by the fact that Ferrari dominated the first race of the season in Australia on Sunday.
The one-lap format was introduced last year, when one session on Friday determined the order in which cars ran in the decisive Saturday session.
For this year, the Friday session has been moved so the two sessions run back-to-back. Cars go out in the first session in the order in which they finished the previous race.
The order from the first session is then reversed to determine the slots for the final run.
Ecclestone's other proposal was to have a single Saturday session run in the reverse order of the finishing positions from the previous race.
Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn said at the Australian Grand Prix that the world champions would veto that idea.
The FIA spokesman said: "It would be inappropriate to act until we have seen how it works over a few races.
"Once we've looked at it, and there is a consensus among the stakeholders in F1 and the fans, then we will consider the issue."
MMIX
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