Vassago wrote: ↑2 weeks ago
As old school as I am expanding points to 10th place made sense with the vastly improved reliability of the last decade plus. Five DNFs used to be extremely low number until the mid 2000s and now it would be called a race of attrition. So there is no bonus for slower cars being reliable anymore.
I would support expanding points to 12th place if we have 22 or 24 cars on the grid which may still happen despite the bruised egos...
I must confess I read an article earlier advocating the points being expanded to 12th, along with how the points would be awarded. I am pleased to read that the increase in positions paid points would not mean increasing the winners points. Indeed the win would still take 25 points, but now 12 would earn the one point currently earnt for 10th.
Here is a table showing current and proposed.
The current allocation of points for the top seven positions will remain unchanged if the change is made (see table at bottom of story), but things will shuffle around from eighth and below.
The article highlighted that currently we have two divisions within F1, with 5 or 6 teams being quicker by a margin..... the lower end of the upper league is quite a lot faster than the best of the lower teams. Thus the lower teams have no opportunity for points unless one of the division 1 teams DNF. Of course that is exactly how it was back in the days of 1-6 getting points in a grid of say 26 cars, but in these days of total commercialism I do see some need to change.
In fact here is the article from Autosport which justifies the proposed change. As hinted it leaves me finding it hard to disagree with the motive to change. At the moment im a bit in the area of I understand their point but am a bit hot and cold on the need to change. Scoring points was never meant to be easy. Until of late.
Amid concerns that the effective current lock-out of the top ten positions by the leading five teams is unduly impacting the midfield battle, as there are so few opportunities to score, a proposal will be put to a meeting of the F1 Commission this week to change the points system.
The points shake-up has been framed in a way that it should not impact the leading teams from a competitive viewpoint, plus will not mean they score more, which could increase the points-based entry fee they must pay to the FIA each year.
For the proposal to go ahead and get implemented for the 2025 season, it will need to earn a simple majority support from the teams – so requires five outfits to approve it as well as being supported by the FIA and FOM.
And while it is not impossible for teams to say one thing in public and act another way when it comes to a vote, the indications are that even top outfits are not minded to move to block the change.
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur said: “I'm not against. And coming from Alfa Romeo, I perfectly understand sometimes the frustration that you are doing a mega weekend, but if there is no DNF in front of you then you finish P11 and the reward is zero.
“[At the moment] you can finish P11 or P 20 and it is the same, so I can understand the frustration for this.”
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner added: “It feels like there are two groups in Formula 1 at the moment, and the teams from six to 10 are in as hard a fight as one to five.
“I think it's one of those things where you've just got to run the numbers and look at the analytics and say: what would it actually change? So I'm impartial to it.”
Those teams that are locked in that midfield battle for the minor points positions are especially eager to see the change.
RB team principal Laurent Mekies told Autosport that he saw no negatives to the new system – which he felt would deliver an improvement for F1 as a whole.
“Of course, I will support that,” he said. “There are no backmarkers any more. There are six OEMs in F1, plus Red Bull Racing, so it's like seven top teams.
“Even the bottom five teams are large organisations now and it's very difficult to explain to the outside world, to our partners, and to our fans, that we battle for a P11 that actually grants zero points.
“If you look at the level of competitiveness of the top five teams and the reliability level of the cars, it means that most of the race you're battling theoretically for zero points, and we don't think this is right.
“We also think it's more meritocratic because, if you score points up until P12, you will avoid the effect where if something completely stunning happens and somebody scores a P5 or P4 in the rain, it means the other guys can stay home for 10 races.
“We think it's ticking all the boxes with virtually no downside, so hopefully it will go through.”
Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu added: “What’s the downside? Currently, we have three teams with zero points and I don't think that's good for sport.
“If somebody was awarded points for P11, P12, there will be less people with zero points. So, I think it's clearer for the fans and for the motivation of everybody working in a team as well. It's much better to come out with P12 with one point, P11 with two points - it's a reward.”
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1s-n ... /10602004/