25/01/2010
NEWS STORY
It has been revealed that the teams are asking the FIA to approve a further change to the points system, just over a month after the World Motor Sport Council agreed a major overhaul to the old system.
Under the system announced by the WMSC in December, the race winner would score 25 points with second place earning 20 points and the third placed driver 15.
The new proposal sees the winner still earn 25, however the runner-up would get 18 points and third place would earn 15.
"I think there is some tuning of the middle range of the points system," Ross Brawn admitted at today's livery launch for the Mercedes team. "There was a bit of a disparity in the gaps. It still has to be ratified by the F1 commission but that's the proposal."
McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh, who was also present at the launch told Reuters that while he wasn't personally convinced by the change he was willing to agree to it. "We've got to go the world motor sport council meeting next Monday to see the outcome," he said. "I personally believe that changing the points won't make a radical difference and therefore I am fairly relaxed if there is strong opinion about tuning these points.
"The original idea was that if you increase the incentive to overtake, then drivers will try harder. Certainly most of the young drivers that I see in Formula One are trying quite hard anyway, so I'm not absolutely convinced. But at the same time we have got to be willing to change."
While fans appeared to be split on the WMSC's original proposal, the revised system is unlikely to be popular because, like the system used in recent years - introduced by Bernie Ecclestone and the FIA in an attempt to thwart the Schumacher/Ferrari steamroller - the lack of a sufficient margin between first and second, in particular, doesn't encourage the second placed driver to take an added risk and go for the win.
The WMSC's suggestion
1st: 25, 2nd: 20, 3rd: 15, 4th: 10, 5th: 8, 6th: 6, 7th: 5, 8th: 3, 9th: 2 and 10th: 1
The teams' suggestion
1st: 25, 2nd: 18, 3rd: 15, 4th: 12, 5th: 10, 6th: 8, 7th: 6, 8th: 4, 9th: 2 and 10th: 1