Image source, Getty Images

Kayleigh Gray: #ifiwereinchargeoff1, external I would fund Maldonado's very own team so he could come back and cause havoc.   

What would you do if you had the top job in F1?

Let us know via #ifiwereinchargeoff1, external

A super-soft charged Max Verstappen powers up to P2 courtesy of a 1:23.650. That's the fastest time of the day so far on that compound. The next best is Fernando Alonso's 1:24.870.

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

One way out would be to put the new proposal straight to the World Council on the basis that the F1 Commission agreed a new system that was subject to change if any problems emerged - and one has, so it has been solved. But that could risk a legal challenge.

BBC 5 live reporter Jennie Gow put it to Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff that the world was laughing at F1 about it. He replied: “Yeah, we are having a laugh as well. It is the normal wrestling around regulations and various standpoints and all of them have reasonable grounds of purpose so we just need to find the best common denominator and come up with the best possible solution.

“One thing is for sure - Bernie needs to come up with the best possible format of show and entertainment, combine that with the seriousness of the sport and that is not always easy with the environment changing. the way we consume media changes and what function yesterday does not always function tomorrow.”

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

The format that will be used for qualifying in Melbourne remains in the balance. The latest idea is to adopt the new elimination format agreed last week for Q1 and Q2 and then go back to the old system for Q3, the reason being that there was concern there would only be action in the first half of Q3 if the elimination format was retained because everyone would have run out of new tyres. 

The problem is that the F1 Commission agreed the elimination format for all three parts. And, legally speaking, if that is to be changed, then it has to go back to the F1 Commission. But there is some reluctance at the FIA to do that because any agreement needs unanimity among the teams and not all the teams were keen on changing the format so there is a suspicion that won’t be achieved.

Some great ideas coming on how to improve F1, both light-hearted and serious.

Of course the powers that be are already trying to find the winning formula that will make it more exciting, with their focus on tweaking qualifying...

Andy Webb: At every circuit replace the chicane with....  

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A slight improvement from Max Verstappen on the soft tyres - 1:24.492 - but it isn't enough to move him any further up the timesheet. 

He heads in not long after that lap and the circuit is currently empty.

Nico Hulkenberg is on a soft tyre run and he is into P1 with 1:24.230. Kimi Raikkonen has also switched to the yellow walled tyre and the result of that is the Finn putting the Ferrari top of the pile, clocking 1:23.591. That's seven tenths of a second quicker than Nico Rosberg's time set on mediums.

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

Wednesday finally provided some hope that Ferrari might be able to put up a genuine challenge to Mercedes. 

Sebastian Vettel was a second off Lewis Hamilton on headline times but if you took the tyres they were using into account there was only 0.1secs in it. However, Hamilton was 0.6secs slower than team-mate Nico Rosberg had been when he did a similar low-fuel, soft-tyre run on Tuesday, and Hamilton said he had not been happy with the car. 

That would put the Mercedes the 0.7secs clear it has appeared to be so far this winter. So the jury remains out.

Plenty of suggestions coming in on how to improve F1 via #ifiwasinchargeofF1, external.

From the silly...

To the serious...

1. Nico Rosberg 1:24.309 44 laps

2. Kimi Raikkonen 1:24.770 10 laps

3. Fernando Alonso 1:24.870 39 laps

4. Nico Hulkenberg 1:25.296 24 laps

5. Daniil Kvyat 1:25.751 33 laps

6. Felipe Massa 1:25.962 8 laps

7. Max Verstappen 1:26.758 26 laps

8. Jolyon Palmer 1:27.181 24 laps

9. Felipe Nasr 1:27.337 26 laps

10. Romain Grosjean 1:28.442 14 laps

11. Pascal Wehrlein 1:28.624 10 laps

Two hours in and Felipe Massa makes his first appearance of the day. He's opted for a run on the super soft tyre and posts a 1:25.962, the fourth fastest time.

Looks like a wishbone.

I wonder what Kimi's wish for the season would be? Better reliability probably. He's had a fair few issues in testing so far. In contrast, Sebastian Vettel has had no problems that I can think of.