Points doubled at the last Grand Prix: Boullier is “neutral”
Among the new rules that will come into effect in 2014, the doubled points during the last race of the season is one of the most controversial. However, it is a situation that should not change the outcome.
Announced at the beginning of December /f1/news/16713-the-fia-announces-changes-for-2014.html, the implementation of the rule of doubling points during the last Grand Prix of the season starting in 2014 has been one of the most commented measures whether within the F1 world or by fans and observers.
If Formula 1 has seen, particularly over the last twenty years, changes to the points system awarded at the end of a race, it had never experienced a system that differentiated the points scales between events in the same season. An initiative aimed at maximizing attention on the Championship until the end of the season, which Sebastian Vettel, four-time world champion, had described as absurd and for which Luca di Montezemolo, president of Ferrari, had expressed doubts.
On the fans’ side, reactions were overwhelmingly negative to the announcement of this novelty. In a survey conducted from December 10 on our site and which gathered 318 voters, more than 85% of those who voted said they were not in favor of doubling the points during the last race, against 41 for and 6 who did not express an opinion. Social media also heated up in December at the time of the presentation of the new measures.
The measure, to be adopted, had to be voted on by representatives of all the main players in the premier discipline, including teams that have the same number of votes as the FIA or the commercial interests’ representatives within the F1 Strategy Group. Eric Boullier, the director of the Lotus team, appeared relatively indifferent to this rule: “To be honest, I am very neutral on this. In our case, it could change everything in the championship during the last race. It is true that it is a bit of a change in philosophy, it gives a lot of importance to the last race and does not reward the hard work of an entire year. But it has been decided. It has passed,” he said to our colleagues from Autosport. “Maybe there will be further discussions about it, but I have no idea. To be honest, I’m pretty calm about it.”
Recently, Bernie Ecclestone, interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, expressed his delight with the decision to double the points for the last race, citing the public’s interest in F1: « [/f1/actualite/16713-la-fia-annonce-des-changements-pour-2014.html] was a non-championship. It lost interest from the television viewers, it lost a lot. » The FOM director would even like to go further: « If the points for the last three races were doubled, the teams would say: ‘Let’s see that.’ If Alonso won two of the three [Grand Prix], and even if Sebastian is second, the championship is still contested until the end. »
The upcoming deadlines, starting with the meeting between the teams and the FIA next week, the Strategy Group, and even the FIA World Council in March, could change things even though Autosport reports that the issue of double points and its future is not seen as a priority.
