"I watched it, but I have to say I wasn't enthusiastic about it from day one," said Ecclestone.
"It was pretty crap. But this is what we've got, until we can change it.
"The only thing about this [format] is that the quick guys could have run off the road, or done anything a little bit silly, and then you would get a mixed-up grid, which is what we wanted.
"It just happens that Mercedes are still very, very good."
Ecclestone said he was "sure" the format could be revised in time for the second round of the season in Bahrain on the first weekend of April, but he warned against simply going back to the previous format.
"If we go back to the old system, I tell you what would happen: Mercedes would be first and second," he said. "Pretty simple.
"What I don't want to see is where you and I could predict how the grid is going to be for the start of a race, and how that race is going to finish.
"You and I could sell everything we've got and put our money on Hamilton winning. It's not what the public want.
