Official F1/Motorsport thread

[Duddyroar]

I'm in the minority and think it's fine

I'm sick of drivers happy to take a 3rd or a 4th purely for tactical point hoarding - That's not in the spirit of what is supposed to be a race.

So you'd support a system where the world champion could potentially be someone who wins one race and fails to finish any of the other races?

If you've been the most reliable and consistant driver over the course of a full season but have won less races than someone who has been decent in one race and **** in all the others, why shouldn't you win the championship? It's a called a season for a reason; you have to be the best over all the races to win.

Like I said, Bernie is making the incorrect assumption that all drivers are in the position to win. If every car was exactly the same then I might agree with this system as everyone would have a fair chance of bagging the gold, but the fact is that F1 is dominated by a handful of teams and you can bet your bottom dollar than they will be the ones capturing the top three positons in each race. The smaller teams will literally give up because they will have nothing to compete for, and that will be fatal for the sport.

[Duddyroar]

In that case let's reverse the grid then. F1 is bigger than Bernie and he shouldn't forget it. The sport has been in existence since 1950 and has never needed such rubbish so why now? If you want close races, just turn it into a one make series. Knee jerk reactions just result in a good kick in the bollocks for the sport. This requires more thought and his pushing it for '09 is absurd.

Agreed.

I could understand these changes if 2007 and 2008 had been dull seasons, but they both went down to the last race - isn't that what Bernie wants? With his new system we could be deciding the champ halfway through the season, which would surely lead to people losing interest.

[abigsmurf]

So you'd support a system where the world champion could potentially be someone who wins one race and fails to finish any of the other races?

If you've been the most reliable and consistant driver over the course of a full season but have won less races than someone who has been decent in one race and **** in all the others, why shouldn't you win the championship? It's a called a season for a reason; you have to be the best over all the races to win.

Likewise is a system where someone can be world champion having never won a single race much better?

[Bort]

Presumably there would still be points for the constructors championship so this idea isn't Completely bat****, just mostly.

All teams would still compete for the money they would receive for finishing higher in the constructors.
Most of the grid are employed solely to support their team so a change to the drivers championship is not overly important. You never hear any of them boast about finishing 4th, 5th or 6th last year.

Personally I think they should revert back to the 10-6-4-3-2-1 or go to 14-10-blah-blah-blah.

[VR46]

Agree the points difference from winning to second should be at least four points, the two point difference bought in a few years back was always a bad idea in my mind. How about Moto GP type scoring ?

25/20/16/13/11/10/9/ etc so even down to 15th get a point.

EDIT: Just reading that Berger has left TR and sold his stake back

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/7749003.stm

[Bort]

A Moto GP scoring system is a bit too american for me. 100 points should be a good season not a good month.

[Duddyroar]

Likewise is a system where someone can be world champion having never won a single race much better?

Yes, I'd rather have it that way. If points decide the champion at the end of the season then it leaves no room for doubt. Ok, so someone might win the championship without winning a race, but over the course of the season they will have obviously performed the best. Points don't lie.

[abigsmurf]

They do though. Would you say an athlete with 3 gold medals performed worse than one with 4 silver? The F1 points system says he did.

As Ecclestone said,there's no incentive for someone in second to really go hard for first. If they spin out overtaking they lose so many points it's just not worth it. Meanwhile the person in first has to push his car harder to maintain his position than anyone else on the track and their reliability suffers more because of it. The system rewards dull racing

[Duddyroar]

I can see what you're saying but a medal system would only reward drivers for pushing their cars in one race. Over the course of a season you need a scoring system which gives a fair reflection of a driver's performance, and with this new system is potentially likely to reward 'lucky' winners and punish consistant drivers. Surely there's more skill in keeping a car on the track for every race of the season than winning one race by a fluke and then crashing out in every other event?

It's ironic given all the safety concerns F1's organisers have had over the past few decades that they're seriously considering this move - encouraging drivers to risk everything to get in the top three would surely result in even more recklessness and accidents.

The points system has been in place for ages and I don't think it's at fault for racing being 'boring' at times. I'd lay the blame at poorly designed circuits that don't give enough overtaking opportunties and the massive gulf between the performance of each car. Like Richard said, if they really want close racing they'll adopt a 'one car' format instead, or go even further with the aero/design changes and make the cars thinner so they take up less space on the track.

This medal system is simply barking up the wrong tree entirely.

[Roddie]

Really not keen on the medal idea personally and, despite Bernie's power, I'd be amazed if it is ever actually implemented. The justification of Massa winning more races is poppycock anyway, that's only the case because of the FiA handing over Hamilton's win at Belgium.

As a long-time fan of Berger, I'm saddened (and surprised) by his departure from Toro Rosso, especially since it's Red Bull buying his stake out; I thought the word on the street was that they wanted to sell it off and concentrate on the main team with the imminent customer car ban?

[Shez]

I can see what you're saying but a medal system would only reward drivers for pushing their cars in one race. Over the course of a season you need a scoring system which gives a fair reflection of a driver's performance, and with this new system is potentially likely to reward 'lucky' winners and punish consistant drivers. Surely there's more skill in keeping a car on the track for every race of the season than winning one race by a fluke and then crashing out in every other event?

Why do you think a driver is going to win the title by wining only one gold medal? - That is 99.9% unlikely to occur with a medal format.

Unlike the current system which allows a driver to win an F1 title with only one race win, in fact it's feasible that a driver could go an entire season never winning a race, and still collect the title. Again very unlikely, but a lot more likely than what you're complaining about with the medal idea.

It takes skill to win a race, far more so than keeping it on the track - Reward winners, not consistency is my view

[Richard.John]

It seems that Sato could get the spare Toro Rosso seat. Great news if it comes to pass. Also Santander have confirmed the switch to Ferrari in 2010. That really adds weight to the possible Alonso move.

[Roddie]

Berger has denied that the confirmation of Sato and Buemi played any part in his decision to sell his stake in Toro Rosso, but has their line-up actually been confirmed? I don't remember it being announced! Especially when there's also now word of Barrichello going to Toro Rosso if he gets squeezed out of Honda (which seems pretty likely).

Great to read about that Santander/Ferrari news, I always thought that rumour was a long shot but looks like it might have legs now

[Richard.John]

I don't think Sato has been confirmed but it would be great. I wonder if Gerhard made some money by selling back his share.

[Roddie]

Good question. Should certainly hope he did considering he got them ahead of the Red Bull team in the constructor's championship!