With two weeks until the season opening race, officials have yet to agree on a qualifying format.

The farce that is the proposal to change the format, took a turn for the worse tonight after a number of drivers met with F1 Race Director, Charlie Whiting.

At what is understood to have been a "heated" meeting the drivers, who included Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen Nico Rosberg and Sergio Perez, expressed their unease at the proposed elimination style format.

"We are obviously not very happy with the new plans they want to implement," Perez told Sky Sports F1 after the meeting. "Let's see if they can change it.

"We feel that it could be very complicated for the fans to understand," he admitted, "it's complicated for us.

"We also feel that qualifying is really good at the moment and there is no reason to change that."

Despite being at the 'coal face' the drivers are powerless in terms of changing the rules. However, in the wake of proposals that would see a further revision to the format, the waters are further muddied by the fact that a number of procedural tasks would need to be carried out in the next 48 hours.

Ahead of Friday's meeting of the World Motor Sport Council, the move for a revised format would need to be voted on by the Strategy Group and F1 Commission. As well as the drivers, a number of teams are now thought to be against the idea, Ferrari President Sergio Marchionne having said earlier in the week that he is against the idea.

The proposal put forward following a meeting of the FIA with team bosses would see the new 'knock-out' style format used in Q1 and Q2, with the current format used in Q3.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Kkiirmki, 03/03/2016 11:28

"If Kimi's moved to say something then surely there's an issue with the whole idea? "

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2. Posted by Ro, 03/03/2016 10:18

"You could use this "new" qualifying in Scalectrix, 'cos thats all F1 has now become. The drivers can no longer express themselves and show their true abilities. Its all done remotely now. Has anyone watched a Hermit crab race? Its brilliant, and far more entertaining than F1 !"

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3. Posted by SideGlance, 03/03/2016 1:31

"I guess Jens and I think the same, F1 should be 10 secs faster than ANY other racing series, hate the V6 sound (not noise but sound - ugly sound!), but F1 is so far removed from road cars the hybrid engine concept is silly - its a sport NOT a road car series !!! BETTER sound (V-12, V-10, V-8 NOT V-6) and more physical hard tough close racing !!

We want a fun to watch, not a fun to engineer & build racing series - F1 is for ENTERTAINMENT, NOT a road related series (in any civilized country I have ever heard it would be illegal) !! These engines suck for a fun series BACK to the simple but still complex engines of yesteryear, and try to make engines nearly equal !!"

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4. Posted by The stogie, 03/03/2016 1:09

"Why do the 'tall foreheads' keep trying to screw up F1? The fans are still upset about the lack of noise, the TOTAL domination by one team and the constant 'review by the stewards' that seems to hit every race. It has become just glorified club racing only about one thousand times more expensive."

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5. Posted by TokyoAussie, 03/03/2016 0:30

"Somebody please tell me that it is April 1st."

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Drivers "not very happy" with qualifying proposal

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