Briatore Supports Qualifying Change

Renault boss Flavio Briatore supports Bernie Ecclestone's idea of using a ballot system for Formula One qualifying.

The teams had agreed last month to change the qualifying format from Sunday's British Grand Prix, but the decision was rejected after a meeting of the FIA's Formula One commission last week. However, the sport's supremo Ecclestone, as well as some team bosses, are still hoping to see the changes applied.

"My proposal is to award ten points for pole position, then less points for the positions at the front," Briatore told Italian newspaper La Repubblica. "On Sunday, however, at least for the first ten positions, numbers would be drawn to form the grid, thus determining the starting positions for the race.

"This way it might happen that (Michael) Schumacher on Saturday is faster than anyone else, and on Sunday he starts from ninth position."

Qualifying has been modified twice already since the end of last season but remains far from satisfactory for broadcasters and spectators. Briatore said Ecclestone's proposed qualifying system would be applied next year to the new GP2 series, which will replace the current F3000 championship.

"Let's award the top ten in qualifying with the same points awarded in the race, then on Sunday morning we'll have a pretty girl who on live television will draw numbers to assign the positions on the first five rows," Briatore added.

"Bernie and I agree on this and we'll apply this novelty to GP2 in 2005."