Double Points at season final agreed by FIA Strategy Group/Permanent Numbers & New Penalties

Formula One has taken the unprecedented step of awarding double points at the final race of the season in a bid to keep the title race open.
The change in ruling, which was agreed by the F1 strategy group and Formula One commission in Paris on Monday, will see the winner of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix secure 50 points with 36 for second place and so on.
The controversial step, had it been introduced in previous seasons, would have seen Felipe Massa crowned champion in 2008 instead of Lewis Hamilton, and Fernando Alonso seal his third championship rather than Sebastian Vettel four years later.

All Drivers will now being given a permanent number with #1 reserved for Champion must be below #99

Five-second penalties

One of the criticisms of penalties in F1 of late has been over their severity, with a drive-through the minimum applicable punishment.

A five-second penalty is a good way to tackle this. Ideally, some way to implement such a penalty needs to be found that does not leave cars out of position with a virtual race time to allow racing to continue as before.

This would require some kind of bespoke penalty lane, which would require a lot of work for circuits, so most likely it will just come down to a post-race time penalty.

It will appease those critics who think penalties are too harsh. But it will lead to drivers battling each other when they are five seconds ahead or pulling off overtaking manoeuvres when on a different part of the track.

Overall, this is a pragmatic rule and probably for the best.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article-2520942/F1-makes-controversial-decision-award-DOUBLE-POINTS-final-race-season.html#ixzz2n0bYYK2Q
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interested to see how the numbers play out.

This is embarrassing. What is this sport being turned into?

A race win should be rewarded with equal points, irrespective of it being in Silverstone, Monte Carlo or Abu Dhabi. 50 points to appease some casual fans? Just like when the casual fan complained Alonso could not overtake Petrov, so we had to introduce ridiculous, artificial DRS overtakes.

My God. I might follow Webber out of this sport......  

Isn't it a little unfair as some cars excel on certain tracks more than others so if that's the last one of the season they get double points

Another hair-brained scheme (double points) I wonder who thought that one up? Daft question as I have an idea who it was.

Basically, you can see what will happen. We have a cracking season, there's a driver who has drive superbly &deserves the title & is about 45 points clear going into Abu Dhabi. He's leading, blows up, through no fault of his own & loses the title because of this idea. Embarrassing. How can one race be worthy of more points? Utterly embarrassing from Bernie. Sport was already turning into a joke & this just rubber stamps it. I thought forcing & watching the supposedly best drivers in the world drive at 50% was shocking enough through over-excessive fuel, tyre & engine conservation, I didn't know there was more ridiculous ideas in the pipeline, just to spice up the show.

          

Actually it is no longer about the best drivers in the world as many F1 drivers get drives because they bring sponsorship money.

The single worst sporting idea I think I've ever seen. Total #headsgone

has to be one of the most ludicrously stupid ideas i have ever heard of, let alone passed!! struggled with f1 this season. the constant changes are just making it worse and worse. this smacks of money men ruling a sport they have no clue about, wheres the final race again?? oh abu dhabi, its not like them to throw stupid money at events is it.

other races circuits should protest all join in and say they wont hold unless its fair for all. cant see it happening though, too many rubbish middle east circuits would spring up to take there place. give me spa any day over these new circuits

Formula 1 is becoming a laughing stock. DRS and Kers making overtaking too easy haven't help. Neither has the Sky Sports deal which has seen audiences for half the races shrink to next to nothing. Then letting teams have team orders, I thought, was the pinnacle of their stupidity but no.

F1 is becoming nothing more than WWE in cars.

Agree with the masses here, its absolutely ridiculous. There's something very american about this (no offence intended, my girlfriend is american), im just imagining over excited American commentators getting really excited in the last race over this double points system.

Seems artificial but if it works...

Would've made Massa Champ in 08, Alonso last year

GSC, explain how it might work? the circumstances? the fairness? the right to give one race, over the others, more importance?

It's a shocking, shocking, shocking & embarrassing attempt to spice up the entertainment side of the event. As we said months ago, it's not about motorsport fans now & traditions, it's about making money & attracting more casual fans to the sport, who want to be pleased immediately. It's turned from the pinnacle of motorsport to racing x-factor, full of gimmicks & conservation.

It brings a tear to my eye. It's a sad day for the sport. I'm amazed we haven't heard responses from various people associated with the sport, past & present, who share the same disappointment as the majority of fans.

A. Complete. Joke.

That is all...

Well, not quite. I'd just like to have a mini-rant at the FIA. For God's sake grow a pair and take the necessary steps to return F1 to being the serious motorsport it used to be.

Every season for the last 5 years or so they've been taking the sport closer and closer to becoming a real-world Formula Mario Kart.

The only way I could see this plan working is if they also embedded sensors in all the tracks, switched on and off randomly throughout the race, which would award a random number of bonus points to any driver going over them.

Double points for the last race would open up other cans of worms. Would teams worried about engines/gear box changes in the penultimate race take it a little more cautiously to save themselves for the last race which would hold more importance to them?

If this rule change of awarding double points for the last race goes ahead you could end up with the ridiculous situation whereby someone who has finished in 5th position four times and sixth position once is on 48 points. He could theoretically be beaten by somebody who had not finished a single race all season but because of accidents, mechanical failures etc in Abu Dhabi, manage to win the last race and ends up on 50 points.   

I see Brundle has tweeted regarding this issue,

'It's answered a question, that nobody was asking'.

FIA  

Ha! Good response from MB.

Cheer up. If F1 gets too ludicrous, we can always start watching Formula E. I see Leo Di Caprio has formed a team in conjunction with an electric car maker...

Leonardo Di Caprio forms racing team to help speed up elctric car sales

Well the double points won't happen of that I am certain. Seb Vettel now wading in to call the idea 'absurd'. Bernie will be crestfallen.

Yeah - just read that myself. If Vettel complains about it, they're sure to do a U-turn before the start of the season.

I now dislike him a tiny bit less...

Sebastian Vettel criticises "absurd" double points plan

Yes at least Seb can see the nonsensicalness of this plan. I am certain this rule will NOT get passed. I have yet to see anyone involved in the sport come out in favour of the idea.

Jeez I thought this was just some made up from thin air rumour, can't believe it's in place for next year. So a team could score 86 points for one weekend? I remember until 2002 the maximum was 16, complete stupidity.

Monty as I understand it the rule has not been passed yet. If, as seems likely, the teams vote against it it won't happen.

Thank god it hasn't been passed. Ridiculous. Bunch of twits around a table, bored before Xmas, coming up with embarrassing new rule changes, that aren't & weren't called for to improve the sport.

Mandatory two pitstops per race - rejected
New points system - hopefully rejected
Anything else they propose - reject immediately

Thank god for that, I was also under the impression from reading the BBC article that this change was set to go ahead for next season.

I won't be watching F1 anymore if the double points gimmick goes ahead.

Time for a break away series me thinks!

dangerous_mouse wrote:Thank god for that, I was also under the impression from reading the BBC article that this change was set to go ahead for next season.

Yea I had only read the BBC article too and they basically seemed to have confirmed this was happening. Glad it's not, moronic!

If you want to know the latest goings on with F1, just avoid BBC & stick with Eurosport for example. I see BBC are announcing Perez at FI today. Pretty much confirmed within the paddock weeks ago.

To be fair, this double points idea, while ridiculous, may not be the most ridiculous rule ever applied to Formula 1 points scoring.

1981 to 1990 drivers could only count 11 of 16 results through the season (cost Prost a title against Senna), whilst between 1967 and 1980 the rules were even more complicated, with drivers having to count up to a maximum number of results from each half of the season (e.g. 1972 was count 5 from first 6 and 5 from last 6).

Yeah, remember those results where you could only take certain points forward towards a Championship, pretty stupid.

FIA have also come up with a trophy for next year to be awarded to the man who achieves most poles. Great  . Sure they would prefer points.

Well, its been confirmed. The final race of the season will see double points awarded:

Double points for last race gets go-ahead in 2014

The introduction of a cost cap in 2015 is also being discussed. This would limit teams' expenditure to £150m a season, which they reckon could lop £100m off the top teams' budgets, though it would have no effect on the smaller teams who already spend much less than this.

Disappointed in that decision. Just hope we don't get a farsical ending in Abu Dhabi, in determining the title. In a way, I know this is wrong, however, I probably want the title wrapped up in the second to last race, just to go against this stupid double points idea.

I agree John.

Seems that the teams haven't had chance o vote on it either and the Ayatollah's idea so it is being pushed through.

i really hope the titles are wrapped up before the last race of the season, a madcap idea.

In other news the weight limit will be increased for 2015 and the stepped noses will be gone

GSC wrote:In other news the weight limit will be increased for 2015 and the stepped noses will be gone

Good news for the likes of Button and Hulkenberg, if they're still around then.

No so much re the stepped / platypus noses. They may have gone, but seem to have been replaced with "anteater" noses.   


Back to the double points issue, I SO hope Ecclestone is convicted and forced to step down...hopefully to have nothing more to do with F1. Bloke seems to be doing his level best to turn the sport into Super Mario Kart.

I see Toto Woolf is another to decry this double points nonsense and drivers aren't enamoured with it either. He feel that 99% of fans he has been in touch with hate the idea.

Just seen this on the BBC live text, during today's testing:

Starting this year, drivers will pick up penalty points on their super licence for rule infringements or race incidents. If a driver picks up 12 penalty points over a 12-month period, he will be suspended from the next grand prix. The points will then be reset.

I wonder if this will be in addition to, or instead of things like drive-through and grid penalties?

I sort of like the idea of a driver being suspended for a race, but I'm not sure about the justice of it occurring potentially several months after a serious offence (and brought into effect for a relatively minor infringement).

I don't think punishments for cumulative offences really work in motorsport, at least not without the sense that they can unfairly affect the outcome of a season (potentially).

I think the system in place now generally works okay and only really needs more consistency in the application of the same penalties for the same (or similar) offences. Can see the same problem afflicting this new system...protests and appeals by the teams when drivers are penalised...accusations that some drivers are let off lightly, while others are punished unduly...

If they get to 12 will they be able to appeal the ban on the grounds it would prevent them going their job, just like in real life?

The frantic rule changes are just increasingly desperate efforts to stave off the inevitable result of huge budgets on technology; DRS was because as aerodynamics became everything it became so hard to pass, but it's artificial. Budget limits because it became impossible to compete, but it's artificial. Tyres also. Now the engines (2014 version), which may turn 2014/5 into a more one-sided season than for donkeys years (rendering the final race thing immaterial).

It's technology that's at the root, and while these ideas are awful they're in a no win situation. If they do nothing then the sport rapidly reaches a steady state situation where the richest team just romps off. Football in Britain is already there, changed only when someone appears with even more money. Tennis has reached the same point, with the top players able to maintain position because they have vastly greater resources than upcoming ones.

I think the engine stuff is unrelated. F1 teams pump millions into F1 cars and most is irrelevant to real life. In an economic crisis and with climate change about, I think F1 had to come into the real world a bit.

Something I find interesting is the long term effects of competition. I run a business in a highly competitive environment myself and I'm fascinated by the impact of what's sometimes called 'a race to the bottom'.

What I'm really saying is that as technology advances it's inevitable that the rule makers have to introduce more and more contrivance to prevent monopoly positions developing. In the course of this they are being forced into more preposterous positions, but it's not really their fault.

What fans have to recognise is that the 'pure' sport can only survive a short time before the rewards of competition promote monopoly positions, and at that stage those who want their sport free of artificiality, and remain competitive, probably have to look elsewhere.

Tbh I look to the NFL for parity. Salary cap and allowing the worst teams to have top pick of young players works

Yes. I'm sure over here though it would be challenged in the Courts though, or trashed to be more accurate.

More to the point can F1 afford to keep a crook in charge?

As for spending, technology and aerodynamics being the cause of the problem that may be so but we have been heading down this route for decades. The chief beef with F1 fans tends to be when one team dominates the rest - that is when the sport becomes a turn-off. It happened with Schumacher when he ruled the roost and with Vettel now.

Anyway, getting this particular discussion back on track, just imagine if Lewis Hamilton or Jenson Button were leading the championship with 2 races to go, but reach their 12-point penalty limit in the penultimate race and are suspended for the season's curtain closer.

Vettel or Alonso, who looked to be out of the title race, needing 50 points (or just under) to snatch the title, then win the final race...

Moving on to Craig's point about Bernie, I was glad to see the judge at his trial call him dishonest / unreliable / untrustworthy. Great to finally see someone who isn't under Ecclestone's thumb say what many of us have thought for years.

Sadly, I think he has enough friends in the F1 community (maybe even at the FIA) to keep his job as long as he wants...

God this board would be classic if that happened

Sorry if it's perceived I was taking it off track but actually I was trying to show that this is where the sport can only go, and to greater extent in the future. Just because we've been heading this way for decades doesn't mean it doesn't change the impact.

Eventually spectators will tire of the contrivance and there'll be a gap for a much more open sport.

Eccleston is an angel compared to most of the people we place in charge, and to the majority of global corporates. The idea that an alleged bribe of a few million makes the guy somehow unconscionable is absurd.

He'll, there wasn't even anybody harmed, not on the most critical judgement (hence zero damages awarded).

bogbrush wrote:Sorry if it's perceived I was taking it off track but actually I was trying to show that this is where the sport can only go, and to greater extent in the future. Just because we've been heading this way for decades doesn't mean it doesn't change the impact.

Eventually spectators will tire of the contrivance and there'll be a gap for a much more open sport.

It has been heading this way for decades and the one constant in the sport pulling all the strings has been Ecclestone. Maybe your idol should take some blame for that...no? I would say again though that fans want and crave close finishes in a season more than anything else. If this season is a close battle in the title race going into the last race then most will have seen it as a resurgence in the sport.

bogbrush wrote:Eccleston is an angel compared to most of the people we place in charge, and to the majority of global corporates. The idea that an alleged bribe of a few million makes the guy somehow unconscionable is absurd.

He'll, there wasn't even anybody harmed, not on the most critical judgement (hence zero damages awarded).

Is he really? In other sports such corruption is rooted out and punished. Look at snooker handing out life bans to players for taking cash to throw matches and in cricket players have similarly been banned for life for taking bribes. However, in F1 Ecclestone bribes yet stays in charge of the sport....incredible. The group who put in a bid were denied the chance to take control of the sport by the bribe paid by Ecclestone so that he could get a company on board that would only sing from his hymn sheet. However, you want to paint it bogbrush it stinks to high heaven. Whatsmore the BBC were reporting that the double points ruling will be passed through even though the majority of teams are against it as are the fans. The report feels he will influence the teams to vote for double points by offering them sweeteners. What a way to pass through a scatter-brained scheme that even your hero Sebastian Vettel has described as 'absurd'.