FIA Decides On Double Points In Final Race

[bigbadbrother]

The introduction of a cost cap and double points for the last race are among the changes to the F1 rules agreed today in Paris.

In addition as previously mooted drivers will now be able to choose a race number for the duration of their careers – and the World Champion does not have to use number one.

A Pirelli tire test, involving six teams, has also been confirmed for December.

A statement from the FIA reads as follows:

Following a meeting of the F1 Strategy Group and the Formula One Commission in Paris today, the following items have been unanimously approved:

Cost cap

The principle of a global cost cap has been adopted. The limit will be applied from January 2015.
A working group will be established within the coming days comprising the FIA, representatives of the Commercial Rights Holder and Team representatives.

The objective of the working group will be to have regulations approved by the end of June 2014.

Pirelli Tyre test – Bahrain, 17-19 December

The F1 Commission agreed to a change to the 2013 Sporting Regulations, on safety grounds, allowing the Formula One tyre supplier to carry out a three-day test in Bahrain from 17-19 December, 2013. All Formula One teams have been invited to take part in the test and six have accepted: Red Bull Racing, Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, Force India and Toro Rosso.

Driver numbers

Drivers will be asked to choose their race number, between 2 and 99, for the duration of their career in the FIA Formula One World Championship. Number 1 will be reserved for the current World Champion, should he choose to use it.

If more than one driver chooses [sic] the same number, priority will be given to the driver who finished highest in the previous year’s championship.

New penalties

The principle of a five-second penalty for minor infringements was agreed. In what form such a penalty will be applied will be discussed with Formula One’s teams in order that a new regulation be introduced for 2014 season.

Points for the last race

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.

These changes are immediately applicable, given the mandate assigned to the FIA President at the last World Motor Sport Council meeting, held on 4 December in Paris

[bigbadbrother]

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?” Inoue 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 maximize 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.