The new qualifying format produced a mixed-up grid in Australia

Symonds has no problems with deciding the grid on aggregate times from two sessions, but said it was a mistake to have final qualifying on Sunday.

"Newspapers should be able to give a meaningful judgement of what is going to happen in the race," he said.

"That means knowing the qualifying result. Equally, the Sunday workload is perhaps too intense for teams."

Symonds said the change in rules had achieved something the format in 2003 and 2004 had not - making the first qualifying session meaningless.

In the last two years, the first session merely set the running order for the second.

The qualifying system doubles the 'chaos factor' before the race, which is not intrinsically bad Pat Symonds Renault engineering director

He added that having two one-lap qualifying sessions made it more likely that there would be some surprises in grid positions, with top cars further back than expected, promoting better racing.

"The system also doubles the 'chaos factor' before the race, which I do not think is intrinsically bad," Symonds said.

"The benefit of the Sunday session has been increased on-track action, but in my view, that is the point and purpose of support races, something racing enthusiasts also enjoy.

"Sunday morning should feature junior formulae, such as the GP2 series we will see this year and some saloon racing, to build up to the Grand Prix as the pinnacle of the event."

Symonds said he believed the rules restricing aerodynamics had worked well, despite criticisms that lap times were barely slower than they had been last year.

"The aim was to contain escalating speeds around the lap, and Melbourne gave a first indication that this has been achieved," he said.

"The fastest race lap in 2004 was one minute 24.128 seconds, whereas in 2005 it was 1:25.683.

"When we take into account that an organic year-on-year gain in performance is of around one and a half to two seconds a lap, then Melbourne indicates that lap-times are three or more seconds off where they would have been had we not acted.

"Indeed, we seem to be at around 2002 performance levels, when Rubens Barrichello took pole in a time of 1:25.843."

BAR face engine penalty

He added that the two-race engine rule was a "good one" but said the loophole allowing teams to change engines by deliberately retiring their cars - which was closed by governing body the FIA on Wednesday - had been "ridiculous".