German likens decision to stick with elimination qualifying to an ice-cream shop continuing to sell a flavour no-one wants; Hamilton brands decision "strange"
Monday 4 April 2016 14:37, UK
Sebastian Vettel says F1's "cannot be proud" of continuing with its elimination qualifying format - a decision Lewis Hamilton has branded "strange".
The revised knockout format introduced at the Australian GP will remain in Bahrain despite being heavily criticised by drivers, pundits and fans.
Ahead of the race in the desert, Vettel used a bizarre metaphor of an ice-cream shop only selling a flavour no one wanted to underline his point.
"If you sell ice-cream and you sell vanilla ice-cream, but everybody that comes to your shop is asking for chocolate ice-cream and the next day you open and you expect to sell chocolate ice-cream, but instead you sell vanilla ice-cream again," the German said.
"So usually you do what your clients like you to do, but you are not really doing the job I guess by doing the exact opposite. It is something we can't be proud of."
World championship rival Lewis Hamilton admitted it was "strange" that the little-loved system remained in place for Bahrain.
Although team bosses agreed to drop the new format a day after the debacle in Melbourne, the proposal to revert to the 2015 rules was never put to a vote of the F1 Commission. A plan to keep the 90-second eliminations for just Q1 and Q2 was instead put forward, something McLaren and Red Bull voted against.
"I heard that all the teams had to agree and some of the teams didn't, which seems a bit weird because, ultimately, it's not what the teams feel it's what the fans feel and you do whatever is right for the fans," Hamilton told Sky Sports News HQ.
"Formula 1 wouldn't be anything without the fans, so it is very strange. My engineers say it's going to be exactly the same, so we shall see. Sometimes you have to try something twice before you realise it's the wrong thing, so I guess that's what we're going to do."
Haas's Romain Grosjean agreed that the Saturday spectacle was unlikely to be any more exciting in Bahrain, saying: "I do not like this format. I think none of the drivers do, none of the fans do, none of the media do, but it has been decided to give it another go here. I don't see why it will be massively different, but we have to deal with it."
Meanwhile, Vettel was one of the signatories on a letter which criticised how F1's decisions were taken, but he emphasised the letter was not aimed at one individual.
"Some ideas are not as good as certain others and we had a lot of ideas that were bad and they didn't happen, we had other ideas that were good and they did happen," he said.
"I think that is normal when you try to progress. But I think if everybody is against something and you still decide for it, qualifying now is just one example, then something is not right.
"I don't think you can pinpoint one person in particular, but I think it is clear for all the drivers what we think is wrong and we are happy to help with the future.
"Our intention was that we really question our current situation, current decision making and hopefully improve that in the future."
However, Vettel believes while drivers should have a say in the rule-making process, they shouldn't be responsible for their creation.
"We drivers are not here to make the rules. In no sport do the sportsmen make the rules and we don't want to be the ones who decide where the sport is going," he said.
"We are not asking to be in charge of the rules, there are people in charge and if there are currently regulations in place that stop people doing their job then we should rethink those and change the system.
"For certain decisions I think it would be beneficial to listen to the drivers as we are the ones driving the car."
