No white smoke on F1 qualifying format - the stand-off goes on

The F1 team bosses met with Bernie Ecclestone and FIA president Jean Todt in Bahrain on Sunday morning, but failed to agree a solution to the qualifying format issue which has dogged the start of the season.

After an arguably more disappointing session in Bahrain than we had endured in Melbourne, the teams were once again minded to go back to the 2015 format. But Ecclestone and Todt, both arguing that the race promoters have demanded a more exciting format, refused to accept going back to the future.

Claire Williams said that the pair feel, "just going back to 2015 will create more confusion than is necessary."

The only decision was to hold another meeting next week, but team engineer sources have the feeling that the elimination format will be used again in China in two weeks time and are currently planning accordingly.

Various options were tabled at today's meeting; Ecclestone, who has mooted drawing names out of a hat during this weekend, came up with the suggestion of obliging the top eight drivers to make two runs in Q3, requiring an extra set of tyres and the aggregate time would decide pole. This would have handed pole to Nico Rosberg here in Bahrain, as Lewis Hamilton dropped half a second with an error in his first Q3 run.

But the problem of shifting the emphasis remains. The elimination format prioritises the early runs, but at the expense of drama at the end. There were over three minutes at the end of Q3 when none of the top drivers were out on track.

If the sport insists on maintaining elimination for Q1 and Q2, our suggestion at JA on F1, which we have mooted with several team principals and the FIA, is to make Q3 just five minutes long. The eight drivers will have no obligation to go out straight away as they have just enough time for an out lap, a hot lap and an in lap and we would once again have the drama at the end and some pressure on the drivers to get it right first time.

Such a format yesterday would have seen Rosberg on pole with Vettel second and Hamilton third.

Either way, today was yet another junction in an increasingly farcical situation, which is now looking more like a political battle in what is becoming a war of wills, than an isolated issue that needs a quick fix.