Double Points for the Final Round.

[cosworth151]

Not much chance of rain, is there? Is there any good reason for Abu Dhabi to be the last race other than having tire tests there afterwards?

[Dare]

from auto123

F1: Controversy explodes with new ''double points'' finale

By Auto123.com,


International publications have described the highly controversial decision to award double-points in the 2014 season finale as "strange" (Bild) and "crazy" (La Gazzetta dello Sport).

And Reuters correspondent Alan Baldwin said F1 fans expressed "dismay and anger on social media", while former driver Taki Inoue described the change as "something like a Nintendo Mario game.

"No mushroom?" the Japanese added on Twitter.

The reaction followed a Paris meeting on Monday of the strategy group and F1 Commission, with the rule change "immediately applicable" because of the "mandate" given to FIA president Jean Todt at the recent World Motor Sport Council meeting.

The FIA said in the statement: "Double drivers' and constructors' points will be awarded at the final race of the formula one season in order to maximise focus on the championship until the end of the campaign."

The move is obviously a reaction to the 2013 season, which was utterly dominated by Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, with the title decided long before the Brazil finale.

In 2014, the season finale will be Abu Dhabi, an often processional race that is nonetheless now worth double the points of classics like Monaco and Spa.

Writing in the Daily Mail, correspondent Jonathan McEvoy said F1's decision-makers have "undermined the sport with a gimmick that should have been filed away with sprinklers and reversed grids in the file of batty ideas".

France's L'Equipe points out that, if the system had already been in place, Felipe Massa (not Lewis Hamilton) would be the 2008 champion, and Fernando Alonso would have beaten Sebastian Vettel to the 2012 crown.

"Why should a single race be worth more?" the Brazilian correspondent for Globo, Rafael Lopes, said.

"It's a very artificial way to keep the championship alive until the last grand prix. Why should an average driver with an unreliable car have the same chance just because of the scoring system? And that's not to mention that Abu Dhabi, to date, has hosted almost no good races on a pretty boring track," he added.

[Jericoke]

This is why the FIA publishes their 'draft' rules.

What seems like a good idea to a committee locked in a room after 23 hours and 7 pots of coffee deserves to be mocked in the light of day.

Keep on the FIA, and they will listen. 

Double points is a bad idea.

Making one race 'more valuable' than others is a surefire way to give promoters a way to negotiate a better deal with FOM.  The British GP could be run for no points, and still get the same attendance and TV figures.

How about completely revamping F1 into a Tennis/Golf/World Football (soccer) style ranking system.  A win over a full field is a 'bigger' win than one because the top three drivers had mechanical problems.  (And then like tennis/golf, they can still put greater emphasis on certain races... though I don't really like that idea)  Money can be paid out based on race results, not some convoluted formula.

[F1fanaticBD]

 

Why would F1 take such a pathetic rule? Stop making the racing rules ridiculous, remove the aero dependence and bring on a decent way of revenue distribution so that the financial health of the teams not CVC remain in good shape. Also give back the sports to the people, who has supported you coming this far, so please stop using the strategy of reducing people to Pay-per- View sort of channel.

This are not easy steps, but surely this will ensure sustainability for long term, while all these miserable ideas will only make this series worse.  

[vintly]

Tinker tinker tinker.

The desire for the championship to come down to the last race is understandable, we all want an exciting season. But excitement isn't just in the points tally, it's in the racing. A dramatic football match may end 3-3, but no one's complaining for lack of excitement. Hence let the points take care of themselves, and produce more exciting racing by simply making it more dangerous.

[Scott]

Another artificial tweak, but this one squarely aimed at boosting TV audience if we have another dominant season. 

[Scott]

I'll give Vettel credit when it is due...he is so far the only driver to voice his opinion on the double point plan - and he thinks it's as stupid as we do.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/25324100

[Irisado]

Here is a sentence that I thought that I would never write:

I agree with Sebastian Vettel.

Now that you've all recovered from that shocking statement.....

I'm glad to see that we're all pretty united on this.  The more I read about the double points issue the more absurd it becomes.  I can just imagine all sorts of shenanigans and dirty tricks being potentially pulled at that last race, and if there are mechanical failures or a collision, it's going to be so disproportionate that it's not even funny.

We also have to think about the lower teams too.  What happens if there's a very close tussle for the midfield placings, and there's a pile up on lap one which eliminates one team's cars and not the other?  It's just not right to have double points on offer when a freak incident could really skew the season's result.  There's a lot of money at stake for the teams here.

It's also a really shoddy way to treat the viewing public.  We don't need artificial points inflation to spice up the show, we need them to change the cars and the rules to make the racing more genuine, and we need them to make the circuits more interesting.  As usual, the FIA is looking to fix things which are not the cause of the problem in the first place.

[John S]

That's a very good point about this rule possibly affecting the midfield more than the front.    It's a terrible shame that Marussia & Caterham will at last have all to play for in the last round. 

If this D/U goes through they'll have to also return to a drop score system to stop disproportionate financial losses occurring to Bernie's deserving, if sedentary, midfielders in the last race.   

An extra rule for teams only in the constructers championship:- Drop any two results from season, unless you drop the last race result which counts as two anyway. - there sorted.   

After all who cares how hard it is for Marussia & Caterham when the likes of Williams, Sauber and Lotus have to be fawned over. 

 

 

[Jericoke]

Oh no... I just thought of a good reason to have increased points at the end of the season:

Currently teams that aren't having a successful season 'give up' development over the summer and start focusing on the next season.  Having the possibility of one big score earning a team millions of dollars means they might think continued development might be worthwhile.

I don't think this is a good enough reason to double the points, but it's one for the 'pro' column.

[Irisado]

It's not really a tick in the pro-column when you consider that it would go against the ethos of the budget cap and cost cutting approach that the FIA wants to take.  After all, if the teams all start spending mega bucks just to do well in the last Grand Prix, it makes a laughing stock of the whole cost cutting agenda.

[Jericoke]

It's not really a tick in the pro-column when you consider that it would go against the ethos of the budget cap and cost cutting approach that the FIA wants to take.  After all, if the teams all start spending mega bucks just to do well in the last Grand Prix, it makes a laughing stock of the whole cost cutting agenda.

When you put it that way... it almost sounds logical to make the last race of the season worth the most... it's the car that's had the most money spent on developing it!

(I still don't agree with the idea... just having some fun as the devil's advocate  )

[F1fanaticBD]

Why would someone add up such ridiculous regulation, that undermines the ability of teams' as well as driver's. Every passing day, F1 is more and more becoming like WWE, where entertainment is what matter. Why would F1 have to drag itself into that level. F1 is a fiesta of engineering as well as the courage of drivers, instead of harnessing that legacy, that aura why regulatory bodies are trying to become just another spectacle and nothing else?

May be they are trying to avoid the drop of spectators, when the championship is decided earlier, may be they are trying to convince the teams to keep pushing till the end, but there are other ways of doing it. The immense expense of aero development makes things worse for teams, getting rid of it, and then letting the teams do testing will surely give teams the ability to push till the end without increasing the current cost of the teams. Make life harder for the drivers by removing those run-off areas,make life miserable and let the win be as hard as possible, rather than looking like a stroll in the park.

Then you don't need to make F1 spectator friendly, it has enough beauty itself to attract people all around to see it.

[cosworth151]

Did I miss something, or did this stupid idea just seem to pop up out of nowhere? Usually, rule changes this massive are leaked weeks in advance. Most of us were totally blindsided by this one.

[John S]

Did I miss something, or did this stupid idea just seem to pop up out of nowhere? Usually, rule changes this massive are leaked weeks in advance. Most of us were totally blindsided by this one.

It came from the strategy group, which is mainly the top teams in F1 + Williams. Since this strategy group is a new initiative, giving the bigger teams more say in the affairs of the series, they probably kept most of the agenda secret so it seems the delegates are making a bigger difference. 

Apparently the idea was for the last four GPs in the season to be double pointers, well that's what Marko is claiming in his briefings to rubbish the idea, 4 was too many but the majority backed the last race plan. Red Bull voted against any doubling, as we might expect, However the others seem happy to poke RBR with a sharp stick but don't want to try and gouge their eyes out.