Ecclestone: No F1 qualifying changes in Bahrain

Formula One will persist with the new qualifying format at the Bahrain Grand Prix, according to supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

The elimination style session at the opening race of the season in Australia was heavily criticised by teams and drivers alike as confusion reigned about when drivers would be excluded.

The battle for pole position was expected to be full of excitement under the new guidelines, but Lewis Hamilton coasted to top spot well in advance of the end of Q3 and no cars took to the track in the final five minutes.

Ecclestone too was frustrated by the Saturday session on race weekend in Melbourne but believes part of the new qualifying format can be salvaged as attention turns to Bahrain.

"They're going to do what I proposed, which is leave things as they are for this race [in Bahrain]," he told Autosport.

"After that we will then have a good look and decide whether what was done was the right thing to do, the wrong thing to do, does it need modifying, does it need scrapping?

"This was an FIA idea in the first place, so I've said to them we'll support whatever they think is the right thing to do.

"But as nobody knows what the right thing to do is, we've said we'll stay where we are and have a look after this race.

"Then two races in we'll see, as it was a prototype, what was right or wrong.

"The teams didn't understand what they were doing either, which didn't help at all."