Whats the points?

Source: en.f1-live.com

Bernie Ecclestone is confident his plan to replace the current points system with Olympic Games-style 'medals' will be introduced in time for the 2009 season opener.

The F1 Chief Executive revealed recently he wants the drivers on the podium to be presented gold, silver and bronze medals, rather than awarded ten, eight and six points respectively.

The change, he argues, will rid the sport of the situation of the 2008 series finale in Brazil, where Lewis Hamilton was able to finish just fifth and still be crowned world champion.

If Ecclestone's new system had been in place, the McLaren driver and Felipe Massa would have been tied on five gold medals apiece, setting up a dash to be first to the chequered flag and the title.

It is believed that points will still be awarded to the teams for the constructors' championship on the basis of the current system.

Drivers finishing races 'out of the medals', meanwhile, will not score points, but their finishing positions over the season will determine their championship ranking.



Ecclestone, 78, told The Times: "The FIA and all the teams are behind it and it will be done."

He insists that the system will ensure that the emphasis of the front-running drivers' approach to races will be on winning, rather than scoring good points.

"The whole point will be, when they get to Melbourne for the first race, the guys will want to leave there with a gold medal. They (will not) want to leave with ten, eight or six points," Ecclestone said.

The matter has been discussed by FIA President Max Mosley, but the details are yet to be worked out.

Ecclestone's system will require ratification by the World Motor Sport Council at its December meeting.

Sounds like a bad, bad idea to me.

Just personal opinion though

I totally agree.

Has to be the worst idea ever.

Yeah I agree, teams like Force India and Honda thrive on getting the odd point because it attracts sponsors, and most sponsors have a clause that they will pay a certain amount bonus per point.

Abolish that, then Mosely will have no choice but to allow customer cars, which will in the long-run inevitably lead to four car teams, which means there will be alot more people fighting for world championships, which brings us right back to the same dilemma again.


However, I completely agree with putting more emphasis on wins, and I think the points system should be:

12pts - 1st
8pts - 2nd
6pts - 3rd
5pts - 4th
4pts - 5th
3pts - 6th
2pts - 7th
1pt - 8th

Lets go Nascar style>

Win = 250
2nd= 230
3rd = 200

Yeah, and while we're at it we could bring back Indianapolis and ditch the corners.

And drivers could be 20Stone and have no hair and be like 'MY NAMES RICKY BOBBY'.


On a serious note, I don't see what's wrong with the current system. Medals is a crap idea. Also I don't like the prospect of drivers being ranked in History with the number of points scored being made pointless (excuse the pun).

Yeah good point, however, as I said, there should be alot more emphasis on wins.

Really, I don't think so. Its been said they want to change it so a finish like this and last season doesn't happen again. Well really they have been the best two ends to a championship there could have been.

It's an insentive for drivers not to play the 'conservative' game, which, let's face it, is not what racing is about.

Still, best driver must also be consistent. One race may take things out of there hands and therefore no top 3 but finish 5th. No points. Rubbish. Not only will it stop sponsors to small teams it will create a bigger divide between top drivers and teams.

I've added a poll because I think it'd be interesting to see what the results would be.

Keep the points as they are, add the new quali format of 20 cars on track following slowest lap gets knocked out and pits in, it would be hell at the singapore pitlane though. Add a point for fastest lap and another point for pole position.
Sorted.

Why make quali interesting? You let the cars go out for an hour and that sets them for the race. The race needs to be made interesting you do that by awarding points for fastest laps. I dont mean 1 single point i mean several.

because Qualiis CAN be boring as shit and lets face it no matter how efficient the system nobody wants to watch something boring.

I think that Qualifying could work as drivers are under more pressure.

Qualifying was never designed to be entertaining. It was invented for Monaco as sometimes the fast guys were placed at the back meaning more risk of accidents and also Monaco could only accommodate a certain amount of drivers on track.

I think more importance should be placed on the race itself.