Qualifying to remain the same?

FIA president Max Mosley has admitted that Formula One qualifying could remain in its much-derided current form unless the teams can agree on an alternative solution for 2005.

Several options have been put forward, and the system appeared certain to change during the summer, only for several teams to object to the proposals at the last minute. The same objections, predominantly centring a lack of television airtime, remain to the fore in ongoing discussions, and Mosley admitted that he saw no change on the horizon, despite the outcry from fans.

Unable to impose a new format without the complete agreement of all ten teams, the president insisted that the qualifying race plan put forward by Jaguar boss Tony Purnell - and championed heavily by one UK-based magazine - looked likely to be consigned to the backburner.

"I like the idea of all these races, but there are two arguments against it," he said during a press conference at Monza, "One is that the teams would find it very stressful, the other is that the start of the race is probably the most dangerous moment and what you are doing is multiplying the dangerous moments, so there could be a safety issue.

"The trouble with the qualifying is that, every day, I get three or four letters from all over the world, with some quite ingenious ideas for qualifying. And I always write back saying 'it is a great idea, but we are not short of ideas, we are short of agreement'. We can never get the teams to agree, but maybe we will. The 31 October is the deadline. If we can get the Formula One commission to agree before then, it can go through. Once we get past 31 October, we need unanimous agreement to change - and that is as far as near impossible."

Mosley also surprised the assembled throng by saying that he had not been inundated with calls for Purnell's system to be put in place - despite claims from other quarters.

"Actually, there hasn't been enormous support, not overwhelming support, for it," he said, "Unless, of course, the magazine in question has failed to send on the faxes or our fax machine has not been working. It's not been enormous."