Fernando Alonso thinks the live elimination system is "unfair" on less competitive teams but says it should be given more time after a farcical debut in Australia.
F1's first session under the new rules was labelled "rubbish" by Mercedes boss Toto Wolff and prompted an apology from Christian Horner, with both calling for it to be immediately scrapped in time for Bahrain. The new format did not create the mixed up grid it was introduced to do and took away much of the excitement which existed under the old qualifying rules.
Alonso qualified 12th -- having risen as high as 10th in Q2 -- as McLaren continued to show progress from the winter. The Spaniard feels the limited amount of tyres, coupled with the increased running the slower teams need to do to make it through Q1, shifts the advantage to the quickest cars under Saturday's new format.
"I'm quite comfortable and we seem much more competitive," Alonso said. "We need to give a bit more time to the new qualifying system, I think it favours the top teams a little bit because they don't need to use so many sets [of tyres] in Q1 so for us I don't think that is the right change.
"We didn't have new tyres, I think it's a little bit unfair for the small teams or the less competitive teams. In Q2 you have one chance, in that chance I felt competitive and we were 10th I think and then we sit in the garage to see how qualifying goes. It's a little bit sad but that's how it goes."
Alonso thinks McLaren can use the new format and its own performance in Australia as motivation this season.
"We need to make the car more competitive to try and pass Q1 with only one set in the future but I'm very happy with the car and the performance. [To be] 1.2 seconds off Mercedes in the same conditions at the same time is a nice surprise. We didn't expect to be too fast here because the car is still lacking some performance in areas. We are looking stronger than we thought."