Jenson Button says the current disparity between teams is a bigger issue for F1 than the need to artificially mix up the grid in qualifying.
Qualifying has been a big topic in F1 this year, with the controversial live elimination format adopted at the start of 2016 finally scrapped this week after two farcical sessions in Australia and Bahrain. F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone and the FIA are still keen to tweak the qualifying format next year in order to mix up the grid and force the likes of Mercedes, which has failed to take pole on just two occasions since the start of 2014, towards the back for the race itself.
Button disagrees with the criticism that F1 is no longer exciting, saying the battles away from the front have been incredibly close.
"The problem is there's such a big difference between the first two teams and everyone else so maybe it doesn't look so exciting," he said. "Where I've been racing it's been very exciting, a lot of action, we've just got to try and close that gap -- maybe it does take a rule change to do that, I don't know.
"I'm sure next year Ferrari and Mercedes don't want any rule changes whereas every other team does want rule changes. It's a tricky one. Hopefully in the future we will see a lot more competitive [qualifying sessions]."
"I was watching qualifying in Brazil from 2003 and one second covered the top 15. It's was five tenths for the top ten. We're so far from that at the moment. It's a shame because you look at the cars and they all look the same so it's amazing there's such a difference in lap time."
Button says Formula One has always rewarded the fastest qualifier with pole position and sees no reason to change that.
Asked if no compromise could be found, Button said: "It's like going to Wimbledon and the guy who got kicked out at the first round ends up in the final. It's not the way it's supposed to be, it's supposed to be the quickest guy starts at the front and the slowest guy at the back and then you deal with it in the race. You're not necessarily going to be the quickest in the race if you put it on pole in qualifying.
"That's the way the sport's been for the last 60, 70 years, it's not changed. Maybe the pace delta is a little bit different, bigger than it has been. But qualifying should be exactly as it is -- the quickest guy starts from the front row. It's still getting mixed up, with Lewis' bad starts, for example, or Ferrari's great starts in Melbourne. It's very mixed up."