Formula 1 chiefs are always looking at ways to make their sport a better spectacle and after the farcical scenes during qualifying for the Russian GP last weekend, FIA race director Charlie Whiting has suggested a potential solution to encourage drivers with impending penalties to at least participate in qualifying.

Currently, drivers who change enough power unit elements to earn a back of the grid penalty start the race in the order that those elements were first used, which is based on who exits the pitlane first in FP1.

That means these drivers don't have any incentive to run in qualifying.

On the weekend in the Russian Grand Prix, three of the five penalised drivers were quick enough to progress to Q2, but none of them ran in that session, because there was no point in wasting tyres or engine mileage.

Because of that, Renault chose not to run their drivers in Q2 either as they would already be guaranteed to start in 11th and 12th and with a free choice of tyres for the race.

As a result, the FIA are considering a change that will see the grid order of penalised drivers determined by qualifying time, thus encouraging them to run more.

The change would also put a stop to the unusual sight of penalised drivers lining up early at the pit exit at the start of FP1 purely to claim their grid positions.

Whiting said what happened on Sochi was unforeseen but he has consulted with some other teams and may have come up with a fair solution.

"I think what we could do based on this weekend is instead of having cars line up at the pit exit in a rather farcical way, and that sort of thing will only ever get worse, if you have five drivers you will arrange them at the back in the order in which they qualified," he said, per Motorsport.

"I think that would provide some incentive for drivers to actually go and qualify, and try to qualify as high as they could at least.

"At least they would be arranged in 16th to 20th positions in the order that they qualified, rather than the order that they left the pitlane.

"That's one suggestion that's going to be discussed."

When asked about the chances of his solution being given the green light, Whiting is feeling fairly confident.

"I would have thought quite high. I like to think that's a sensible solution.

"There may be some drawbacks that we haven't thought of yet, but it's a relatively new idea."

You always need a sense of motivation to reach your best level, so if this measure can help those unlucky drivers then it is a good thing for the sport.