F1's qualifying reversal

The new format, which comprised two 25-minute free-for-all sessions on Saturday afternoon providing aggregated times to decide drivers' grid positions, has been rejected in a meeting at a hotel at London's Heathrow Airport between FIA president Max Mosley, F1's promoter Bernie Ecclestone and the ten team bosses.

F1 will now stick with the current system of two, one hour-long single-lap qualifying sessions which has been almost universally panned by competitors and fans alike as boring since its introduction at the beginning of the 2004 season.

"The FIA (International Automobile Federation) did not want to go ahead with the qualifying that is being proposed," Ecclestone told Reuters. "It will stay the same as we've got now. No change at all - just as boring as it was before."

Last week's edition of Autosport magazine reported that team bosses were having second thoughts about the change, which they had previously universally voted to introduce. The team bosses argued that the new system might prompt a return to predictable racing with the fastest cars qualifying at the front and then driving off into the distance. There were also concerns that an aggregated qualifying system might make it too confusing to follow for television viewers.

"There was a feeling that the proposal wasn't much different to what we were doing in 2002 and maybe it needed something a little bit more radical," said Mosley.

Jaguar's team principal Tony Purnell told Reuters that he believed that the constant indecision over the issue will be bad for Formula 1: "We announced a change, everybody agreed to it and now we've suddenly had it stopped. I'm bemused by it. I think it's bad for Formula One, it sends a bad message out.

"Bernie was the prime mover and I was a bit surprised that he didn't seem very passionate about keeping it. I'm a bit lost by it. I'm mystified."

F1's privateer teams Jordan and Minardi had also voiced their concerns over the new system at the US Grand Prix fearing that they would lose vital guaranteed television coverage that they receive from the one-lap system.

The commission also voted for a revised F1 start procedure subject to ratification by the World Motor Sport Council on Wednesday. The existing start-abort system will be scrapped due to the delays it can cause to TV coverage. Under the existing start-abort system, a restart procedure (enduring for about 10min) is triggered if a car is stalled on the grid. In future the rest of the field will simply perform another parade lap while the stalled car is removed.