Emergency meeting Sunday morning to address qualifying format

Formula 1 team bosses have scheduled an emergency meeting Sunday morning in Melbourne's paddock in order to address potential changes to the sport's new qualifying format which was met with overwhelming criticism earlier today in Melbourne.

Time constraints imposed on drivers during the knock-out based scheme led to unwarranted elimination for some and a premature end of running for others who wished to conserve tyres.

Fans and viewers were not only deprived of any sort of crescendo or battle royal between the fastest runners, they were also ripped of any track activity.

For any eventual change to be considered, teams must agree unanimously on a proposal which would then be submitted for approval to the F1 Commission and the FIA's World Motor Council.

Given the circumstances, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes the change could be decided rapidly and in time for the next race at Bahrain.

"If all the teams were to come together and say this is a unanimous opinion then we have a pretty good chance of getting it through," he said.

"The obvious choice is to return to what we had before. It's in the regulations. If we were to come up with a different format we need to think carefully what that would be."

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who did not travel to Australia, was one of the first to voice his opinion on the new format, just a short while after qualifying had concluded, calling it a "pretty crap" spectacle.

Ecclestone believes there is no reason the system cannot be changed in time for Bahrain.

But whether he will be pushing once again for the radical reverse grid scheme  he initially promoted before the current system was voted, remains to be seen.

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