Whilst their colleagues, at the official FIA press conference, were defending last week's open letter from the GPDA to the sport's powers-that-be, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel were holding court elsewhere in the paddock.

Reflecting the current mood of the drivers as to some of the more unfathomable decision being taken, the multi-world champions took particular issue with the failure to learn from Melbourne and retain the controversial new qualifying format.

Whilst the teams had agreed in Melbourne to revert to the old (2015) format, this wasn't an option provided by Jean Todt when he attended the F1 Commission last week. Instead, despite the Melbourne agreement, Todt wanted a hybrid format, featuring Q1 and Q2 as seen in Melbourne, whilst Q3 would revert to the old style.

Unhappy with the volte face, and the way the matter had been handled having reached unanimous agreement in Melbourne, McLaren, Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Force India voted against Todt's proposal meaning that the new format is used again this weekend.

"If you sell vanilla ice cream and everybody that comes to the shop asks for chocolate ice cream, the next day you open you are expected to sell chocolate ice cream, but instead you decide to sell vanilla ice cream again," said Vettel. "So, I think that usually you do what your clients would like you to do, but you're not really doing the job, I guess, if you do exactly the opposite.

"We, the drivers, didn't give any proposal (about qualifying)," he added. "We just made it clear that something is not right and that something has to change.

"We are drivers and we are not here to make the rules but I think for some decisions it would be beneficial to listen more to the drivers and to the fans. You have to do what's the best for sport at the end. We just have to find the best system."

"It's strange we've kept it the same," said Hamilton, "particularly because the most important thing is the fans were unhappy.

"My engineers say it's going to be exactly the same this weekend," he admitted. "So the fans are going to be unhappy again, and I just hope that they do something afterwards."

Referring to the GPDA letter, which has the support of all drivers even non-members of the 'union', Vettel said: "Obviously, if you write the letter it doesn't change tomorrow, we didn't give any proposals, we just made clear something is not right and something has to change. our intention was to really question our current situation and decision-making and hopefully improve that in the future."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by TokyoAussie, 31/03/2016 22:30

"F1 must listen to the fans, before they cease to have any. "

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2. Posted by Ro, 31/03/2016 20:46

"All that's been done is to cure the "end" of qualifying. I just think its a crass idea altogether! Qualifying is qualifying, Drivers should have more of a chance to drive flat-out, if the car isnt right from the beginning, youre screwed. Well lets look at it this way, at least the guy with the flag will be waving it at cars and not the pigeons !"

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3. Posted by Kkiirmki, 31/03/2016 20:20

"What, the drivers and fans have a better understanding of what F1 needs than a little troll sitting behind a desk does? I'm hoping for an even more spectacular failure come Saturday. Well, at least I know why Vettel and Kimi are such good friends, their love for ice cream."

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Hamilton and Vettel puzzled by qualifying U-turn

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