Qualifying change by Bahrain should be the target

Formula 1 should target changing its qualifying format by the second round of the season in Bahrain.

That's the view of Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, who has already had early discussion with F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone regarding the largely negative reception the new elimination qualifying format received. The majority of fans, drivers and team members were critical of the new qualifying which saw pole position decided long before the session was complete.

Asked what had been discussed after a phone call with Ecclestone, Wolff said: "I think we got it wrong.

"I think there is a will [to change qualifying]. Nobody tried to really damage the spectacle in qualifying on purpose. The basic idea of having a shootout and making it very exciting that every 90 seconds someone drops out, could trigger results that give a certain variability and mean that a favourite gets it wrong. So the basic concept was not completely stupid.

"As with many things, the devil lies in the detail and we’ve seen today that we actually complicated things in the time where we should simplify them. There was periods when no car was running and we saw that at the end and it wasn’t really exciting. Everybody has an opinion and I doubt if there is somebody in the room who thought it was great."

Asked if it will change by Bahrain, Wolff replied: "I think that should be the target."

REPORT: Hamilton takes pole amid farcical qualifying scenes

Silbermann says... An unqualified failure

Qualifying as it happened

2016 F1 season: Team-by-team preview

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter