Bahrain ‘proved beyond doubt’ that qualifying must change – Horner

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says it is now time to ditch elimination-style qualifying following another lacklustre event on Saturday in Bahrain.

Team bosses originally agreed to drop the format in favour of returning to the original system used between 2006-15, but that request was blocked, with FIA president Jean Todt and Bernie Ecclestone keen to give it a second chance.

In Bahran, pole was once again decided three minutes before the session had ended, whilst Q2 would have seen four minutes of empty track had Williams not sent its drivers out – which team principal Claire Williams later admitted was to fill the time.

Horner insists it is yet further proof that the new format doesn't work and believes returning to the former format that "isn't broken", rather than tweaking the current one, is a better option.

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"I don't think there was any great surprise in what we saw," Horner told Motorsport. "There's too much emphasis on the beginning of the sessions, and they just peter out and you end up burning all your tyres and not having the right of reply.

"We need to have a sensible discussion about it tomorrow. Let's see what happens out of tomorrow's discussions, because we can't keep going with this system.

"It was right to give it a go, and we've done that, and I think we've now proved beyond doubt that it's not the way forwards.

"Okay, Q1 is quite interesting at the beginning, but you quickly run through your tyres, and then you're done. What we had worked, and if it's not broken, don't fix it."