Christian Horner says F1 owes fans an apology for the farcical live elimination system and expects it to be changed in time for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The controversial new format was adopted after being voted in by F1 bosses during winter testing, with the hope that it would achieve a mixed up grid. Not only did it fail to do that, it also took away much of the excitement of the end of the three qualifying sessions, with the final order set in stone with over three minutes remaining with every car sat in the garage.
Red Bull boss Horner thinks the intentions behind the change were good but admits it must revert back to the previous system immediately, something advocated by Mercedes boss Toto Wolff in the aftermath of qualifying in Melbourne.
"I think we need to apologise to the fans and viewers because that's not what qualifying should be," Horner said. "It should crescendo into something, to have fast cars sitting in the garage ... The intentions were well-meaning but I think we have to accept it has to work, we got it wrong. I think we have to address it very quickly and my personal view is we should go back to what we had in time for the next race because what we saw today was not good for Formula One.
"I'm sure [F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone] wasn't happy with what he saw. Formula One just needs to act collectively, stick a hand up and say we didn't get it right, address it in time for the next grand prix. There's 20 races left, deal with it quickly instead of letting it drag on."
Horner says the end of Q3, which saw both Mercedes and Ferrari sat in the garage with the grid set and three minutes remaining, highlighted the problems created by the new rules.
"I didn't like that the fast car didn't have a right of reply, you've got Ferraris sat in the garage because there's no point them running again. Qualifying should build up to a crescendo and everybody bolts their last set of tyres and see what you've got. That didn't happen today and I think it's not achieved what the objective was, the objective was to mix up the grid a bit like a wet qualifying but it's taken away the whole spectacle of what qualifying is.
"I think we just have to accept we got it wrong and react quickly and change quickly. The intention was to mix the grip up a bit but we have to hold our hands up and say we got it absolutely wrong. It was done for the promoters to give them a better show and I can't see that we've done that."
Asked if the format can be changed with unanimous agreement before Bahrain, he replied: "Absolutely, I'd be amazed if anybody didn't agree. We gave it a go, it didn't work, let's sort it out for Bahrain."