The World Motor Sports Council today decided to adopt a new scoring system from the start of the 2009 F1 season, whereby the World Champion would be the driver with the highest number of wins, rather than points.
The change to the points system was part of a number of new rules and regulations approved by the WMSC today, with just about every single one of them coming across as a ludicrous mess. From 2009, the world champion will be the driver who ends the season on the most Grand Prix wins, with championship points only counting if the drivers end tied on the same number of wins. Which is a backwards version of the current system, both literally and metaphorically.
The system is essentially a watered-down version of Bernie Ecclestone's mental proposal to award medals to the top three drivers, and was favoured by the WMSC over the F1 Teams Association proposal to switch to a 12-9-7-5-4-3-2-1 points system in order to better reward race wins.
Though the new system would have seen Felipe Massa (6 wins) crowned champion last season, rather than Lewis Hamilton (5 wins), it would also have ruined the fourway title scrap by nullifying the challenges of Kimi Raikkonen (2 wins) and Robert Kubica (1 win) long before they were eventually dropped from the title scrap.
The remaining drivers will be ranked in order of points scored, and the Constructors' Championship will remain unaffected, meaning that several different things will be happening at once, adding credence to the FIA's efforts to make F1 more easily accessible to casual fans. Oh, wait.
"The WMSC accepted the proposal from Formula One Management to award the drivers' championship to the driver who has won the most races during the season," read the FIA statement following the meeting, "If two or more drivers finish the season with the same number of wins, the title will be awarded to the driver with the most points, the allocation of points being based on the current 10, 8, 6 etc. system."
The other main decision passed refers to the 2010 season, and sees the FIA introduce an "alternative to running under the existing rules" to all of the teams on the grid.
This alternative involves capping the cost of the team's budget for the season to £30m, to cover all team expenditure. In return, the teams will be allowed further freedoms to develop their cars, namely a more efficient undertray, moveable wings and an unfrozen engine development programme. Yes, the teams will be given more work to do, for less money! Sensational thinking!
To add insult to injury, the FIA maintain "the right to adjust elements of these freedoms to ensure that the cost-capped cars have neither an advantage nor a disadvantage when compared to cars running to the existing rules". So not only will teams be able to make developments of their cars on a smaller budget, but there's the chance that the FIA may suddenly veto something they've spent a fair chunk of their £30m designing! This is fabulous stuff!
The rest of the new regs were largely irrelevant fluff, save for one which claims that from the start of 2009, the FIA will "publish the weights of all cars after qualifying at each Event". Egads, a half-decent idea! How did that get through the loop?
Reactions from F1 teams and fans worldwide is unclear at the moment, but is likely to sound like the screams of millions of tortured souls burning in an eternal hellfire of misery.
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