Formula One will return to its old qualifying format on April 17 at the beginning of the next season in Shanghai, international motorsport federation FIA confirmed Thursday.
The move follows criticism of the new rolling elimination format introduced this year in which drivers were gradually knocked out throughout three qualifying sessions.
F1's 11 teams argued in a letter to FIA president Jean Todt and F1 commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone that F1 should revert to the 2015 system, the BBC and other media reported.
A change this season introducing three knockout sessions finishing in a shoot-out of the fastest two flopped at the opening race of the season in Melbourne.
The system was retained for last weekend's Bahrain GP without noticeable improvement.
Todt and Ecclestone had wanted to introduce a compromise format that would combine the two best lap times to reach an aggregate in each of the three qualifying sessions.
