Formula 1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone said that the introduction of a new elimination qualifying format "will be delayed until the fifth race of the season," according to Andrew Benson of the BBC. He said that the software controlling the new system "would not be ready for the start of the season" on March 18-20. Ecclestone said, "My guys who do the timing said, 'Mr. E, we don't want to be put in the position because we don't think we can get it done properly in time.'" He added the system "wasn't my idea" and he wanted a different approach. Ecclestone said that the new system "would go ahead, however." The teams were to spend the next few days "making sure there were no unintended consequences before it was formally adopted, but the problems have instead been discovered by Ecclestone's Formula 1 Management company, which handles the timing software." Ecclestone: "It's not quite that easy. You've got all the graphics to go on the screen" (BBC, 2/27). REUTERS reported under the new procedure, the "slowest drivers will be eliminated as the three sessions progress rather than at the end of each phase." After seven minutes of the first session have elapsed, the "slowest driver is eliminated with others following at 90-second intervals." Fifteen of the 22 go through to the next phase, with "the slowest eliminated after six minutes." The same 90-second sequence ensues "until eight drivers are left." The final session sees one driver eliminated after five minutes and then one every 90 seconds "until two are left fighting for pole position with one-and-a-half minutes remaining" (REUTERS, 2/28).
