Bernie Ecclestone wanted time penalties in qualifying to mix up the grid this year, but voted for the new system set to debut in Australia next weekend because F1 "needed to do something".
After a week of back and forths, the FIA World Motor Sport Council agreed to go ahead with a new live-elimination style qualifying last week that will see drivers knocked out of qualifying at 90-second intervals. The system and its implementation have been criticised in recent weeks and Ecclestone admits that he sees it as a compromise solution.
"I voted for it because I think we needed to do something" he told Sky Sports. "I'm not particularly sure that this will achieve exactly what we wanted to do, but we've got to try it and see."
The aim of the new system is to increase the likelihood of mixed up grids, but Ecclestone wanted a fail-safe system for ensuring the fastest cars start lower down the order.
"What I wanted to do was leave qualifying currently as it is because I think it is probably in some ways more exciting than the race. Then whoever won the race before the session, the last race, we'd have to come up with some sort of a format so that the winner would have time added onto their qualifying to mix the grid up.
"I still believe the guy would win the race, but at least he would have a bit of a problem and we might get some good races."