New season gets off to worst possible start as new qualifying format proves shambolic and anticlimactic.

Despite the hard sell by some sections of the media before the session, today's qualifying format proved to be just as bad as many had feared.

This ill thought-out, rushed through concept, supposedly aimed at mixing up the grid and thereby making Sunday afternoon's more exciting, proved yet again that tinkering with the rules and introducing artificial concepts doesn't work.

Following an exciting final practice session, race fans were subjected to an hour of confusion as teams and drivers appeared to be caught out by the limitations of the new format.

Everything that fans had predicted would go wrong did go wrong, and consequently the fact that Lewis Hamilton took his fiftieth F1 pole passed by almost unnoticed.

Whilst Toto Wolff described the session as "rubbish", Christian Horner said the sport should "apologise to the fans", yet as team principals these two men must accept their share of the blame.

Whilst the sport needs some serious reworking, the previous qualifying format was one of the few things that didn't really need fixing, but once again the powers-that-be insisted that they know best and began rearranging the deckchairs...

What should have been a thrilling introduction to the new season, especially after the build-up in FP3 ended up an unmitigated disaster, a total let-down.

Carefully chosen words from team bosses and drivers are as meaningless as the 'your opinion is important to us' nonsense we hear from businesses and corporations every day. A sport already haemorrhaging fans cannot afford to take such a wild, reckless approach.

Be it the FIA, CVC, Bernie Ecclestone, the Strategy Group or whoever, someone needs to develop a taste for humble pie and fix this... PDQ.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Kkiirmki, 19/03/2016 11:27

"Well, at least we have a completely mixed up grid...nope, that didn't happen. Well, at least that was exciting...nope, complete rubbish (I was so tempted to use a string of profanity instead). Can someone tell me why, we had a timer counting down the remaining seconds when, on a number of occasions, drivers were walking down the pitlane? "

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2. Posted by oldestmike, 19/03/2016 10:54

"That certainly was the most confusing shambles I've seen in 60 years of watching motorsport. And, the final insult, with four minutes or so left in the qualifying time, everybody packed up and quit. HUH? If they're going to keep this format they will definitely lose me watching qualifying."

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3. Posted by Simon in Adelaide, 19/03/2016 9:22

"Describing that as an unmitigated disaster is too generous, more appropriate adjectives would have this post censored.
"

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4. Posted by Ro, 19/03/2016 9:19

"How does the saying go? "DONT FIX SOMETHING THAT WORKS" Qualifying should have been left as it was, its the cars and engine rules that need changing."

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5. Posted by glcebl, 19/03/2016 9:16

"How can they make such a mess of something so simple. Why not just have a raffle and draw postions out of hat. At least that way it would save on the agony of having watch such a shambles. "

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6. Posted by TokyoAussie, 19/03/2016 9:02

"Total farce. The one thing that I did not expect to see was the guy with the chequered flag waving it to absolutely nobody. Twice!"

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7. Posted by Jonno, 19/03/2016 8:54

"Even funnier and probably not going to be reported. Those (in the UK) who've got enough money to waste on the F1 timing app, were getting the times about 30 seconds before the cars crossed the finish line on screen. All *excitement* was lost to the nerds too.
Where was the architect of this mess? At home in London, Bernie didn't want to travel to Aus. Now we know why.
"

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New qualifying an unmitigated disaster

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