A few days ago the F1 Strategy Group and the Formula One
Commission agreed a number of changes to the regulations to be implemented for
the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
From next season drivers will be able to choose their own
numbers from #2 to #99 which will remain with them for the rest or the entirety
of their careers. The champion driver will have the option of carrying #1. Nothing wrong with that, I think it’s a good idea. Much as
Valentino Rossi has made the #46 his own in Moto GP or Wayne Gretzky made #99
his own in the world of Ice Hockey, it’ll be nice to have drivers associated
with a permanent number.
 |
| Nigel Mansell was often associated with Red #5 |
Not least for those ardent fans who like to be up to date
with merchandise of their favourite driver, they won’t have to worry too much
about a driver changing teams or being higher in the Constructors championship
as they’ll always now be associated with that number. So yes, good idea, well
done Strategy Group.
To be implemented in 2015 is a budget cap, that budget has
yet to be decided, but it is thought that it’ll be relatively high to start off
with and reduce over a number of years. Whether the teams will agree with it or
if it is able to be policed properly is very much open for debate but it is
essential that Formula 1 brings the costs down.
You can see by the fact a top team like Lotus needs to take
a driver with a budget (Pastor Maldonado) while missing out on Nico Hulkenberg
who is once again stuck in the midfield because he doesn’t have any money
behind him. This situation is unacceptable so a budget cap is the way forward.
However, with over a year before it is due to be introduced
I’ll be interested to see if it goes any further beyond a nice idea. Teams with
the spending power of Ferrari and Red Bull probably aren’t so keen to give up
their advantage but for once I’d like to see the teams work together for the
good of Formula 1 rather than their own self-interest to make it a more
competitive and profitable environment for all the competitors and have a
guarantee that each driver has been picked because of talent not how much
sponsorship they can bring with them.
Finally, and I’ll try not to get carried away with how
stupid an idea this is but to start from next season, the final race will be
worth double points. Yes, that’s right in a reaction to Sebastian Vettel
wrapping up the title with three races to go, it has been decided to jerk that
knee to try and make sure the title fight goes down to the wire.
A budget cap with teams all competing on a level playing
field is likely to create more competitive results over a season rather than
saying ‘I know, let’s keep the title alive by wasting a driver’s entire seasons
work so he can be beaten in the finale by a freak result by a driver who may
well have been 49 points behind. That’s nearly two wins worth of points, but in
the super finale all the 18 races beforehand doesn’t matter.
As Vettel has said, it’s ‘absurd’, and deserves to be
written out of the rules before the season starts. As idea’s go it’ll just make
a mockery of the results from the rest of the year, why should one race be
worth more points? It’s artificial and quite frankly a bit condescending
towards the fans of the sport.
Formula 1 and sports fans in general of course want a
competitive year, but most don’t want it to be fake. I think they can
just about cope with the DRS gimmick, it’s a bit Playstation, but passing was a
problem, so they solved it, it doesn’t take away from overall tradition of the
sport which this ruling does.
Formula 1 is about scoring the most points over the year
with each event worth the same amount of points. If it goes down to the last
race and someone wins it because of the double points, then they quite
literally have won it because of the last race being worth more points, not because they fought to be within a wins worth of points that every other event gives out.
A driver with a 49 point lead going into the finale will
quite rightly feel robbed if he then loses because of an incident or mechanical
failure, and what with the new technical regulations a mechanical problem will
be far more likely than in recent years.
This isn’t Formula 1, this is ridiculous and I truly hope
they have a complete rethink before 2014 gets underway. Other than that, I am
quite looking forward to seeing what numbers the top drivers choose.
all photo's taken from autosport.com
No comments:
Post a Comment