Double points ‘opposed by most teams’

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: As F1 misses a chance to get rid of the double points rule, most competitors are apparently opposed to it.

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F1 will award double points in 2014 (BBC)

“Prior to Wednesday’s meeting in Geneva, one leading team boss, who wanted to remain anonymous, told BBC Sport that ‘most participants would agree to ditch’ the points proposal if they were given the chance.”

Renault: Lotus test absence will hurt (Autosport)

“Clearly anybody that isn’t able to run at Jerez will be a little bit behind and that includes the power unit side of the equation.”

Analysis – head-on comparison: 2013/14 (F1)

“The sidepods and sidepod openings… will grow in size in 2014 thanks to the increased cooling demands of the new power unit coupled with larger mandatory deformable crash structures.”

Santander sponsorship renewal boosts McLaren (Reuters)

“Banking group Santander has renewed its sponsorship deal with McLaren, a boost for the Formula One team which is still seeking a title partner for the coming season.”

Let’s do launch: F1 2014 is go! (McLaren)

“Possibly the very strangest Formula 1 car launch of them all occurred in 1974, when the bizarrely named Maki team took the wraps off its Cosworth-engined contender in a manner than can only be described as bizarre.”

A Great Nine Years: Season 10 Starts Here… (Red Bull via YouTube)

A memo to all Formula 1 journalists (The F1 Broadcasting Blog)

“To Formula One journalists attending the three tests and races: please exercise your power and put pressure on all in power to drop double points.”

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Comment of the day

Despairing if unsurprised is how I would characterise the reaction to yesterday’s confirmation that the widely hated double points rule isn’t going anywhere for now.

This is yet another example of the FIA being completely out of touch with the core fanbase of this sport. They’re chasing larger audiences in the completely wrong way, instead of fostering closer competition and making a concerted effort to reduce costs they’re chasing gimmicks that debase the sporting credentials of F1 for the sake of ‘entertainment’.

This can only lead to long term damage of the sport in the pursuit of short-term gains. Those that are passionate about what F1 is will be turned off as the traits of the sport that have drawn audiences for decades are eroded and replaced by hollow gimmicks and regulatory manipulations designed solely to create artificial excitement. F1???s credibility as a fair competition will be replaced with a view that it is little more than professional-wrestling in expensive cars. The FIA are determined to make Formula 1 a ‘show’ by destroying what makes it a sport.
@Colossal-Squid

From the forum

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Ling!

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On this day in F1

Happy birthday to Luca Badoer who turns 43 today.

Unfortunately Badoer holds the record for the longest F1 career without scoring a point, with 50 starts. If only his Minardi M01 had kept going those final 13 laps at the Nurburgring in 1999 while he was holding a glorious fourth place.

Badoer also had the second-longest gap between consecutive race appearances, spending nine years, nine months and 24 days on the sidelines between his final race for Minardi that year and his unlikely comeback with Ferrari after Felipe Massa was injured in 2009.

Image © Red Bull/Getty

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53 comments on “Double points ‘opposed by most teams’”

  1. Wooo! Macca launch day!!! :D

    1. Perez had knee surgery ? I thought he would “knee’d” back surgery after getting knifed by Macca?

      1. 2014, knife in the back is now arrow to the knee

  2. I’m hoping for a close championship in 2014. But I also hope SV wins Melbourne – just to mess with people from FOM.

    1. Hehehe it will be pretty funny after FIA made the double point rule that SV and RBR could win the championship in the last race because the rule that they made :D… man that will be fun

      1. But that’s exactly what they want… the championship decided at the final race. I’d prefer if Vettel (or an other driver) ties up the championship earlier than ever, just to show the FIA how pointless their ridiculous rule is.

        1. I don’t know, if it’s decided with three races to go guess what, yep more double points on more races, any way you look at it you can’t win against them.

    2. I hope he keeps his winning run going – not for too long, but it’ll be even more impressive if he wins first time in a different car. And I want him 51 points ahead going into the last race…

      In other news, Jean-Eric Vergne unveils the nose of the Toro Rosso STR9:
      http://twitter.com/JeanEricVergne/status/396046994072166400

    3. If Seb wins after lapping everybody but Ricciardo it will be serious :)

  3. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    24th January 2014, 0:15

    Finally Nico has a different helmet so people can easily differ who is who at the Mercedes… unless Hamilton appears with almost the same.

    1. Or you could just look at the camera color like I do, which makes it loads easier…

      1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
        24th January 2014, 1:55

        @beejis60 in cars going at 300kph, to spot a little camera on top always gets me crosseyed (and who is red anyway, Nico or Lewis?)

        1. Were you at every race this year? If so, then I understand, but if you’re watching on TV or online as I do, it’s quite obvious to see a bright yellow piece (or not) whizzing around on the TV on top/side/front of the cars. But it was yellow and black this past year. The driver with the lower number had the black camera and the other driver had the yellow camera. IDK what the rule is this year.

          1. easier to look for the yellow marigolds IMO @omarr-pepper @beejis60

    2. Why do the newbies always get to keep their helmet?
      Schumacher at Ferrari for 3 years, Rubens comes in with similar helmet, Schumacher changes.
      Rosberg at Mercedes for 3 years, Hamilton comes in with similar helmet, Rosberg changes.

      1. actually I agree… + I thought the neon yellow was cool, especially next to the neon red of schumi. It was a fun idea, red helmet/gloves/camera vs yellow helmet/gloves/camera

        hamiltons wannabe senna but bling version helmet bores the living hell out of me

      2. Schumacher made the decision to change his helmet.

  4. Aren’t the drivers supposed to have their numbers on their helmets?

    Now I know it’s late and I’m tired but nowhere there can I see a six…

    1. To answer my own question I’ve just realised the big silver bit in the middle that looks like an ‘N’ is actually VI (the roman numerals for 6). Very clever from Nico, although stolen from Seb maybe?

      However, on the note I missed that, really time for me to get to bed me thinks…

      1. Someone should use Chinese symbols or hexadecimal :)

        1. Or binary! although you could argue Vettel will do it anyway hehe

        2. David not Coulthard (@)
          24th January 2014, 8:11

          Vettel and Ricciardo should do it in binary!

          that would be fun.

          1. David not Coulthard (@)
            24th January 2014, 8:14

            Whoops, never mind about the ricciardo part – forgot about which rule brought the numbers to the helmets in the first place!

      2. Very Clever “IVico”

        1. @calumIVico is 4 – it should be VIco I think which is close to an “N” but no cigar

      3. @bradley13 I think they both stole it from the Romans.

      1. Seems you spotted that while I was posting :-)

      2. @raceprouk aaaaaaaaaah ! that’s what it is !

    2. If that VI counts then we might begin to see some incredibly vague ones trying to flout the rule.

      1. Do they get a 5-second penalty at every stop?

        1. or maybe a V-second penalty @bullfrog?

  5. Tough love, teams, you had your chance to get rid of it

  6. Love that Nico is changing his helmet for something different to Hamilton’s. It was tricky to spot them last year.

    But… what is it? that reverted N, or Z…

    1. roman numeric 6 – VI.. which looks like an mirrored N

  7. I like what Rosberg’s (or the designers) done there. A nice looking-helmet, that. It will help with identifying him from Hamilton, although I didn’t struggle identifying either as much as I thought I would last season!

  8. I love Red Bull. Nothing beats a team/organization that combines their excellence and domination with having a great time.

    1. @chaddy
      As much as I enjoy sarcasm, I think Red Bull really believe they are “hip” and a “party” team.

      1. They were…

        …right up until they started winning everything, then it went all serious.

  9. Fans at Jeres next week should make their voices heard as well.

    1. @jcost Absolutely. I’d quite like to see banners and signs at every Grand Prix this season, to be honest.

      1. @bookoi

        If I was there, I’d take a banner saying:

        The Championship Ends in Brazil!

  10. […] one leading team boss, who wanted to remain anonymous, […]

    Deep sigh.

  11. The group which decided double points had six members from teams, six from FOM and six from FIA. I wonder how big advantage they needed to get that through.

    All six from FOM are probably for double points thanks to Bernie. Teams are against. If it does need majority, then four FIA members are needed so that it goes through. I have a feeling that’s how it went.

    1. You are absolutely right re FOM, I suspect only Bernie or an accolyte attends with proxies for the rest, no-one in FOM is going to go against Bernie without getting fired.

  12. “Prior to Wednesday’s meeting in Geneva, one leading team boss, who wanted to remain anonymous, told BBC Sport that ‘most participants would agree to ditch’ the points proposal if they were given the chance.”

    And yet, they have succeeded in doing nothing about it.

    Come on, guys – lets try that again, but this time, with feeling!

    1. 6 against 12, you can do the maths.

  13. I agree with the F1 Broadcasting blog and @colossal-squid.

    The double points rule won’t destroy F1 and one can even find reasons why it is not THAT bad. Yes, every team knows the rule and can pay more attention to preparing their car for the last race (Mark Gillan believes that the new rule might influence the way that the smaller teams in F1 design the cars). Unfortunately no team boss has even tried to explain why this is a good thing.

    The fact that “the teams appear to be in some kind of parallel, distant universe” and “fans feel alienated”, as described by F1 Broadcasting, is what upsets me the most. It seems that they rely on the powerful F1 brand and believe that fans will keep spending their money on race tickets, pay TV packages and sponsors’ products anyway.

    Only time will tell if the teams are right about that but, in my view, all the “funny” tweets, competitions, FOTA fans’ forums and everything else that they do to make their fans feel involved don’t mean much if they cannot explain their actions and ignore the fans’ views when making decisions that really matter.

    1. When I was a 9 year old I loved professional wrestling on TV and thought it was all real, I soon saw the truth, as I had with Santa Claus before, and lost interest . From WWE s continued success I assume a portion of the children that watched wrestling on TV stayed fans for the rest of their lives and that must be the group that F1 is hoping to attract.

    2. in my view, all the “funny” tweets, competitions, FOTA fans’ forums and everything else that they do to make their fans feel involved don’t mean much if they cannot explain their actions and ignore the fans’ views when making decisions that really matter.

      Exactly.

  14. I agree with the comments of @colossal-squid. The double points has the potential to steal a season from someone at the last post with an unfair advantage, and although, a championship is a championship, if it’s won in this way will leave a sour taste in the mouths of the fans. As has been said it is about attracting new interest to the sport, but this gimmick is only enough of a draw for the first year it is unveiled. So what happens next year?

    Why does Bernie still have all the power? He is bringing the sport into disrepute with his antics, and his suggestions are at best desperate and at worst degrading the sport we all love. But what does the opinion of the millions of fans or the teams count for – when Bernie gets to over ride every decision?

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