FIA president Jean Todt believes the governance of Formula One must not be dictated by its fans after the sport faced a fierce backlash for keeping faith with the qualifying format which failed so spectacularly on its debut.
Formula One fans vented their anger with the sport on social media for the introduction of a new system which resulted in the closing moments of Q3 - the supposed big crescendo to determine who starts from pole - proving to be a no-show in Melbourne.
Teams decided to save their tyre allocation for the race which meant that there was no on-track action as the chequered flag fell.
Red-faced team bosses agreed to ditch the new format, but in a subsequent meeting they failed to decide whether they should revert back to last year's more successful system or combine both. As such, the sport is braced for further criticism after Saturday's qualifying session here in Bahrain.
"I must say I unfortunately spend too much time every day to read about 150 pages of social media so I am aware," said Todt when asked if he was up to speed with the backlash from fans on Twitter. "We are aware of social media, but it should not be what guides us to run our organisation.
"We are in a world where there is too much over-reaction. We must give a chance to things to be settled and more understood."
Referring to the decision to change last year's qualifying format, Todt added: "It was a strong request from the promoters who said we need some change to please our spectators.
"That was the main reason as to why it was unanimously agreed to give chance to the promoters to have some satisfaction."
Todt, the former Ferrari team principal, has flown to Bahrain specifically for a summit with the sport's chief executive Bernie Ecclestone, team bosses and Pirelli, to determine what changes, if any, will be made to qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix later this month. The meeting will take place ahead of Sunday's race.
"I hope the decision will be a decision which respects the fans, which respects the media, which respects the promoters and which will respect everybody and which will be a good step forward," Todt added.
Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel led home a Ferrari one-two in the final practice session for the Bahrain race.
The four-time world champion, who endured a troubled day at the Sakhir Circuit on Friday, finished 0.040 seconds ahead of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.
Nico Rosberg, fastest in both sessions on Friday, was third fastest, nearly half-a-second slower than Vettel, with Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton one place further back.
The timings however, are unlikely to provide a good barometer as to what will happen later in qualifying which will take place under floodlights and in much cooler conditions.
Source: PA
