How to fix F1

UPDATE: A meeting between F1 team bosses has been concluded and the new qualifying format has been scrapped. It will be replaced with the previous format from the second round at Bahrain.

The debacle that was the new elimination-style qualifying format premiered at the 2016 Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix in Melbourne (which already looks set to be abandoned or at least modified for the next round in Bahrain) is the least of F1's worries.

Even boss Bernie Ecclestone has admitted the popularity of motorsport’s pinnacle formula has been waning the last few years. Indeed, he’s gone so far as to dub it "unwatchable".

During a group interview at this weekend’s 2016 Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix, connecting with fans, improving interaction and levelling the playing field with engine parity were hot topics.

Understandably, dominant Mercedes-AMG F1's team principal, Toto Wolff, said the only thing that needed improving was "the engine noise" as his team continues to show dramatically faster pace than its nearest rivals, Ferrari.

Toro Ross team boss Franz Tost contended: "The most important thing is we must have an interesting race.

“We want more entertainment, more overtaking, which means power unit parity," he said.

The Austrian team boss' wishes for a level-playing field to deliver less predictable race results has troubled the sport for the last few years but it's not the only problem.

Ferrari F1 team boss Maurizio Arrivabene said fans who attend races have been let down by organisers and that punters need more reason to buy tickets.

"First of all give a chance to the fans to go inside the paddock. Otherwise we are not offering anything to the fans," said the outspoken Italian.

"The other thing to do is to talk the same language as the fans, to use a bit more digital, create more apps, more interactivity. We need to use the tool of the new generation. We want to talk to the fans, but we talk in an old language.

"Open the paddock and use digital more," reiterated Arrivabene.

Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner concurred with his Italian colleague: "We have got to engage with the fans more.

"The drivers need to be more seen, we need to get more access and engage with fans more," said Horner, to whom Australia's only F1 contender, Daniel Ricciardo, reports.

McLaren team principal Eric Boullier agreed that fan engagement was "key" but said a big part of achieving this was to "make sure we can agree together to make the show better on track".

The first part of this will be ditching the controversial new qualifying format, which saw a lack of action for the last four minutes of the final 'Q3' qualifying session as drivers ran out of tyres and/or desire.

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone's original idea was to "…take the results of the last race, and the guy that won that race would have so many seconds, or tenths of a second, added to his qualifying time.

"So that might put the guy on pole in sixth or seventh or wherever, and then we would get a mixed-up grid and some good racing for at least half the race."

While we can’t see any teams signing off on that one, there’s no doubt everyone wants more overtaking and more excitement.

It seems like there'll be plenty more 'fine-tuning' ahead if the sport wants to return to its halcyon days.