Force India supports revised elimination qualifying

There were whispers on Sunday that the "unanimous" support for scrapping the new qualifying wasn't quite so unanimous as it first seemed. 

Force India deputy Bob Fernley is apparently in favour of sticking with a revised version of the newer format, most likely a hybrid of elimination during Q1 and Q2 and the traditional format for Q3 rather than returning to the old system..

Dieter Rencken at Autosport has the story, here's the "juicy bits" in case you didn't read his column...

"It was too knee-jerk a reaction and I think some very interesting things came out of it."
Fernley said Force India would not stand in the way of changing qualifying back at all costs.
"Force India is not going to do something that is detrimental to Formula 1," he said.
"It will fight like hell for fatigues in the system but it won't do something detrimental if it is in the best interest and everybody feels that way. We were not necessarily against [making a change] but making a decision without time to reflect on what had gone on."

Williams too have been rumoured to support some hybrid style of qualifying, with the idea originally being shouted down by Jean Todt in favour of a full elimination style ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, but when it came time to swallow the shit-sandwich that was Q3 in Melbourne he suddenly became more receptive to the hybrid idea. Go figure.

Fernley has thrown around the term "knee-jerk" a lot, but surely anything is better than the full-body spasms that qualifying provoked. 

Next we'll be going full-reality TV formats and bringing eliminated cars back from the dead to exact their revenge.