Double points makes F1 ‘like WWF’ – Newey

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In the round-up: Adrian Newey likens F1’s new double points rule to artificial wrestling.

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Newey: double points cheapen F1 (Autosport)

“[It] just seems to me to be cheapening the sport. It makes it just a little bit WWF [World Wrestling Federation, now World Wrestling Entertainment] to me.”

F1 resumes pre-season testing with Bernie Ecclestone verdict pending (The Guardian)

“The verdict is expected on Thursday. But even if Ecclestone – who denies any wrongdoing – is cleared he will have to clear an even bigger hurdle in Germany during April.”

Cold rubber (a history) (ESPN)

“Duvets and blankets were requisitioned from the beds, kept warm, and wrapped around the still-toasty tyres on the grid.”

Tweets and pictures

And here's a sneak preview of something you'll see much more of tomorrow….

A photo posted by Caterham F1 Team (@caterhamf1) on

Caterham: “And here’s a sneak preview of something you’ll see much more of tomorrow…”

Comment of the day

@Bounzze is pleased Robin Frijns will have another run for Caterham in testing today:

It’s nice to see that Frijns gets to do some actual miles and not only simwork (for which actual miles are very important of course)

Looks like Caterham really was a good option for him, and he can get some more exposure, not only from Caterham but also the other teams.

From the forum

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Phildick and Looseasagoose!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

Happy birthday to Stephen South who turns 62 today.

Considered a bright prospect as an upcoming driver, South’s sole F1 race entry came at the 1980 United States Grand Prix West at Long Beach, in place of the injured Alain Prost at McLaren. However he was unable to get the uncompetitive M29 onto the grid – team mate John Watson only managed to qualify 21st.

Later that year South suffered a terrible crash in a Can Am race at Trois Rivieres. His Spyker NF11 struck a concrete wall and his injuries were so severe one of his legs had to be partially amputated.

Image © Red Bull/Getty

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57 comments on “Double points makes F1 ‘like WWF’ – Newey”

  1. That’s Caterham’s engine cover lying on Bahrain’s pit lane.

    1. Todd (@braketurnaccelerate)
      19th February 2014, 1:18

      Yes. It looks like they’ve put their new paint scheme on it…

    2. No, this is an extreme close up of the y250 area of the first flap on the front wing (which was black in testing) and the flap above which is now black and white (was green in testing).

      1. It was a joke since caterham is running Renault but Im being unfair I shouldn’t have a go at the guys who won 11 drivers champs in 24 years of naturally aspirated engines even though they had been the reason behind the original move to turbos, and some of the ones favouring turbos now. I’m definitely getting ahead of myself… I need Bahrain.

        1. Not to mention that Caterham were the ones to actually get some mileage out of their Renaults last test @peartree!

      2. Thats the engine cover and left sidepod. I’m really not sure what picture you’re looking at if you think it’s the front of the car.

  2. Completely agree with Newey and very glad to see him speaking up about it.

    1. Me too, particularly refreshing as RBR are the most likely beneficiaries IMO.

      1. Exactly, it proves once again Red Bull are not “pushing for change like they did with the tyres last year to advantage them” as some conceited people here are saying.

    2. Over 95% of fans hate it. Drivers (bar Massa) hate it. Teams hate it, so why is this ridiculous rule still alive?

      FIA is acting just like a dictator.

      1. Nah, they put it up for vote and the teams did not vote for dropping it unanimously @jcost.

        Nice how voting can be installed to always work as planned by authorities (FOM and FIA in this case)

    3. I somewhat agree with Newey. Double points and other gimmicks definitely cheapen the sport a bit, but it’s not like pro wrestling.

      Pro wrestling is not a sport. Everyone knows it’s just a spectacle, a show, but it’s actually quite entertaining. Going back to F1: the aim of double points isn’t even to improve “the show”. The spectacle isn’t any better. It’s just an artificial way to keep your attention, to keep people watching even if they are not really interested in racing and to improve the viewing figures. It is not a step towards something fun and energetic. It’s a cheat. Pro wrestling is kinda fun. Double points in F1 are not.

      1. Well after double points one can argue that F1 is not a sport anymore.

  3. If all these people are speaking out against the double points gimmick, then who besides Bernie is pushing it? Or is Bernie just that powerful? Also, are their memories so short that they can’t even remember 2012? 7 winners in the first 7 races, (drivers) championship down to the last race? Sure every sport has off years whee one person/team sweeps the field and smashes all opposition, Mclaren, Ferrari, Williams, Lotus, and Red Bull have all done it, but that doesn’t mean they should resort to gimmicks. DRS works well enough to improve overtaking but double points will always be remembered like aggregate qualifying, something that was tried and is now thankfully forgotten.

    1. I guess they just don’t have the b**s to tell Bernie in his face that is a dumb idea, but they probably know that it doesn’t matter because he will do it anyway.

      1. I guess they just don’t have the b**s to tell Bernie in his face that is a dumb idea,

        That also has a lot to do with what the teams have become in the last 20-30 years.

        Most teams are now ran by employees, who can’t go head to head with Bernie, knowing that whatever the consequences, it’s their team and they don’t have to answer to anyone or check wit their board or employers what position to take.
        They had all the power when it comes to their teams and that gave them a leverage in negotiations.
        Now only Luca is still involved, although he isn’t running the team, while Frank Williams has clearly phased himself out quite a bit.
        Ron Dennis isn’t running his team anymore either. I know his CEO again, but he’s obviously not running it as a team principal on a day-to-day basis.
        Mercedes has 50 directors leading the team, and then 50 more board members in Stuttgart to make the decision.
        Horner is Bernies man on the inside, and he doesn’t even own a team either.
        Enstone had a strong leading figure with hands untied back when the team was run by Flavio. A bit like Todt had full control in his Ferrari days.

        Teams are to complex in their top management these days to be able to play Bernie’s game of poker and bluffs.

        Enzo, Ron, Frank, Flavio, all had balls to go directly against Bernie and Max and make their feelings known in public. Todt was always keeping Bernie close, a bit like Bernie and Horner now.

        You only hear Luca these days calling Bernie senile and stuff in public. Back in the day Ron and Frank had no problem talking in public how Bernie stole F1 from the teams.
        Imagine Bullier or Toto saying something like that to Bernie… They’d have to get an approval from the board first, by which time, I’d imagine, Bernie’s gonna forget what were they talking about in the first place.

        1. Most teams are now ran by employees, who can’t go head to head with Bernie, knowing that whatever the consequences, it’s their team and they don’t have to answer to anyone or check wit their board or employers what position to take.

          Missing bunch of text lol.
          Most teams are now ran by employees, who can’t go head to head with Bernie. Original team owners knew that whatever the consequences, it’s their team and they don’t have to answer to anyone or check wit their board or employers what position to take.

      2. I don’t think Bernie can do it if they all object, but they’re worried that if they’re seen as troublemakers Bernie will cut their allowances…

        1. Bernie will have done the deal and told the teams afterwards.

    2. Well, Bernie (FOM) does have 6! votes in the 18 chair committee voting on changes, as well as the FIA. The teams have the remaining 6 votes between them, so for a majority its enough if Bernie sways 2 teams or the FIA and its done

    3. @dedischado

      If all these people are speaking out against the double points gimmick, then who besides Bernie is pushing it? Or is Bernie just that powerful?

      Yes, Bernie is very powerful but, basically all the leaches that agree with Bernie are the ones that agree with this rule and push it. In my opinion, Brundle is just that kind of leach! He is an ex-driver for crying out loud and he agrees with the rule? “Give something back” he said about the comments Villeneuve said… If he that is not behaving like a leach, I don´t know what is.
      The fact of the matter is, Newey and everybody else being vocal about this being a ridiculous rule, are correct!!! It makes f1 look cheap.

  4. Yup, completely agree with Newey. Have the ‘powers at be’ considered the following scenario:
    Just say a driver comes to the last race of the season leading by 45 points for example. Under last years rules he would be the ‘champion’ even if he didn’t score any points in the last race. Under this year’s rules however he would lose the championship if the driver who was trailing him by 45 points happen to win the race and in the process gain 50 points. That sux!!

  5. What’s Adrian got against the World Wildlife Fund?
    WWE maybe?

    1. Actually it’s World Wide Fund for Nature. World Wildlife Fund is their former name.

    2. Yeah, that annoys me too! It hasn’t been ‘WWF’ for over ten years! :P

      1. +1 ! I was starting to wonder how double points was making F1 love snow leopards ;D

    3. Yeah, but its been all down hill since then hasn’t it??? I dunno, I stopped watching when they carted out aunt may and she lost her dignity in the middle of the ring, not that I really even watched it before, but that was the stops for me.

      as for the other WWF, that is an interesting subject all in to it’s own, especially if you look at who founded it and start asking questions … all of which are very relevant to the fanaticism in the media about the weather.

  6. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    19th February 2014, 4:00

    Adrian gets my respect. It’s a shame Red Bull didn’t threaten to quit the sport or just quit straight away, to enhance their own weight into the sport. Would Ferari or Mercedes boast off a 2014 title with the current champions not there to defend it?
    That sounds extreme, and I know Red Bull has to finish business contracts, but in an ideal world they should have quit this year.

    1. @omarr-pepper

      That sounds extreme, and I know Red Bull has to finish business contracts, but in an ideal world they should have quit this year.

      In an ideal world, the FIA would just listen when the fans go completely bananas! : )

  7. Although I agree double points is ridiculous, I hate even more the Red Bull atittude of complaining about everything because some advantage has been taken away from them. We already saw this last year and they will not stop the attacks until they get some “sort of compensation”.

    Last year the tactic brought good results, the tyres were changed and they dominate everything.

    1. Yes they changed the tyres mid season purely for Red Bull’s benefit, not because they were delaminating and or exploding…………. In other news: Conspiracy theory goes wild!

    2. Yea sure, it would have been really awful for RBR if we had double points last year, and with them being so strong at the start this year all their good work could be undone just because some team that comes on strong later could get double points in the last race, bunch of dirty rotten scoundrells they are, always trying to get a dodgy rules advantage.

    3. @edmarques

      Yeah indeed, it’s universally known Red Bull is very weak in the second part of the season, especially last year where they won the last 9 races. I compeltely understand they don’t want double pints: it’s a strategic decision!

      What’s funny though: when Horner said he preferred double points at the last three races, some said he said that because it would be beneficial to Red Bull. Now Adrian says he prefers no double points at all, some people say this is to give an advantage to Red Bull too. Come on guys, use your brain from time to time … or at least try to be consistent in what you are saying …

      1. Who needs to use your brain is you mate. The double points is irrelevant in what I said, but if you want to understand that way there is nothing i can do.

    4. Yes here goes Newey again, complaining about rules which disadvantage Red Bull… Only Red bull seem to be struggling at the moment, so weighting the championship towards the end of the season would actually seem to benefit them…

      Could it be?…no, surely not…. could it be that Adrian is actually expressing an honest opinion?

  8. This whole ‘double points at Abu Dhabi’ fiasco has the rancid reek of money all over it and unfortunately this often seems to be the case in Formula One.
    I watched the Abu Dhabi event for the first time in 2013 and felt quite nauseous at the gross displays of wealth on show and the actual racetrack did nothing to compensate.

    On a more positive note; testing starts tonight (Australian time). Yay! I wonder if there will be any Martini livery on the Williams yet?

    1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
      19th February 2014, 5:04

      I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the Abu Dhabi organizers played a major role in this. Not only moving their race the season final, but then chucking enough money at Bernie to convince him to award double points at their race. And to have Bernie dress it up as “keeping the championship alive for longer”. Riiiiight.

      My only hope is that the championship will be over by Brazil so that those Middle Easterners don’t get the return they were hoping for.

      They live on a desert sand dune and so every piece of vegetation there is on life support essentially with water constantly being pumped in from desalination plants and other countries. So it’s only fitting that they host the most artificial Formula One event in history.

      1. I would be surprised if they did not pay for the privilege too @tophercheese21

  9. About the double points. This idea is still something that I am not a big fan of.
    But still, why not giving double (or just simply more) points for all the classics? More points for classics like (in my opinion) Monaco, Great Britain, Belgium, Italy, Japan, Brazil.

    1. And that’s the problem isn’t it? What makes a classic? Your opinion or mine?
      What happens when a new race venue achieves ‘classic’ status like COTA; does it become a classic and have double points status? Conversely, let’s pretend that the changes at Interlagos go ahead and they completely emasculate the circuit. Does it lose it’s double points status?
      Can’t work.

    2. @jaanusl
      But why do that?
      The point of the double points is not to award double points for winning Abu Dhabi, not formally anyway, it is to keep the championship alive for longer.
      Double points at Monaco, Silverstone etc. will not serve that purpose.

  10. Small sentence, big sense. Clever Newey.

  11. I would love the irony if the double points ends up with Vettel snatching the WDC at the last race. It would serve those morons in the FIA right.

    1. Irrelevant. First this was mostly pushed by Bernie that cares about the Tv channels paying him and not the FIA and second the purpose is to keep the mathematical champion wait longer so TV rating don’t fall. That has nothing to do on whether Vettel or anyone else gets it in the last race. They couldn’t care less about that.

  12. This has got to be one of the first times I agree whole heartedly with something AN says! It was about time somebody else of “weight” said anything about it!!

  13. Nah Newey mate, it makes it more like WCW or TNA. The WWF was actually really good back in the day. ;) :P

  14. I was completely unaware that tyre warmers were being banned. What is the reason, and what are the implications, anyone? It also mentions other series doing away with them… this has all slipped well underneath my radar!

    1. I think it’s partly to “improve the show”, partly to reduce costs (at least for the teams); though I have no idea how much the tyre blankets actually cost per season.

    2. @splittimes So you can catch up, original story from last month here:

      More customer parts and tyre warmer ban in 2015

      And this was on the site just yesterday:

      Pirelli to test for tyre warmer ban in Bahrain

      1. Oops. Glad there isn’t an exam or anything. Thanks @keithcollantine!

  15. I think that they are doing it to reduce costs.

  16. So glad Neweys came out and said this after Brundle had a public lash-out at Villuenerve for saying the exact same thing.

    1. The difference is Villeuneve had bad points. He came off saying “This era sucks, mine was much better”.

  17. Ask not why double points haven’t been dropped but what the obviously daft idea is distracting everyone from. Classic Bernie is put up a silly idea watch, while everyone fights over it like a pack of hounds while he gets on with what he wanted to do anyway.

  18. ‘With Technology we will progress even if it’s backwards, we will progress!’
    F1 was better without the gimmicks and my desire to stay up until some ungodly hour to watch a race is wearing thin even though the TV stations rarely replay a race ever. and Im in Canada. And I am a diehard fan of real racing, not this plastic pre processed crap!

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