Alain Prost has warned that the qualifying saga of recent days could drag on even longer.

While the World Motor Sport Council rubber-stamped the controversial new 'musical chairs' format on Friday, a statement declared only that it "should" be introduced for Melbourne in two weeks.

"I do not think that it will come," Renault ambassador Prost, told Speed Week in Geneva.

"And I also hope that it will not come."

Indeed, the quadruple world champion is not the only one who wonders why F1 is tinkering at the edges of the rules, especially when the existing qualifying format in particular was widely regarded as being a positive aspect of the sport.

Prost will therefore not follow the lead of Bernie Ecclestone, who recently said the sport is so bad he would not buy a ticket as a spectator.

"I don't want to criticise something that I don't have a complete picture of," he said.

"It seems that everybody wants to change something in F1, but if you change in only one area, it does little for the whole package."

The 2016 calendar gets underway with the Australian Grand Prix on March 20.