Which new rules will improve F1? (Poll)

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A host of new F1 rules have been announced today. They include having the championship being decided by wins, changes to F1 publicity (including revealing qualifying fuel strategies) and a budget-capping provision.

Which of these new rules do you think will improve F1? You can vote for more than one in this poll:

Which of the new rules will improve F1?

  • None of them (42%)
  • Budget capping (15%)
  • Changes to F1 publicity (28%)
  • Championship decided by wins (15%)

Total Voters: 1,709

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Championship decided by wins – the driver with the most race wins will become champion, and points will be used to decide other positions. See here for more: F1 to use ‘medals’ system in 2009

Changes to F1 publicity – qualifying fuel weights will be made public, and drivers and team members will have to be available for more interviews and autograph sessions. See here for more: F1 publicity gets much-needed boost

Budget capping – teams will have the opportunity to run to less restrictive technical regulations if they agree to limit their budgets. See here for more: Budget caps for F1 in 2009

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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38 comments on “Which new rules will improve F1? (Poll)”

  1. Well, I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who voted ‘none of them’.

    Championship wins I already made myself clear in the post, alongside hundreds of other people.

    Changes to F1 publicity – to be perfectly honest, none of this gets me anymore excited, but it’s nice for people that think otherwise. Not sure how it’ll actually improve F1 though.

    Budget capping – I’m still livid from the championship wins ordeal to really care, or make an informed decision on this, but from the outset it just looks unnecessarily complicated and unfair-only-to-be-exploited-in-some-fashion-that-will-make-it-a-moot-point. Improve F1?…I have reservations. Maybe I’ll change my mind later.

  2. I voted none of them, how does anything they’ve done help F1 i mean its absolutely ridiculous!
    Keith can you make a poll of how many people think the medals system is a good idea(or not)for F1.
    i will bet 98% will say its not a good idea.

  3. The interesting question will be how do we actually measure the improvement of these rules. So many rules have been made over the last 6 months that pin pointing what has actively improved racing. Is it the Slick Tyres, is it the Front Wings, is it the rear defusers, is it the drivers, is it the new points system, is it that we have 3 or 4 teams posible to win races now or is it KERS??

    All way to much in one go in my opinion.

    Bernie’s got to have his fingers crossed that it’s an exciting year otherwise he will need to call upon his friends the Stewards office to help influence races to create an exciting climate to the season ;)

  4. I am with Loki on the F1 Publicity – It just means that those priveledged to have the right passes can get an autograph or a photo with the drivers.

    Ok perhaps TV will have the odd interviews with a driver who has just dumped it in the barrier, in stead of having him legged it out of the circuit – but that does not dramatially improve the spectical.

  5. I’m another for “none of them”!!

    Revealing fuel strategy really disappoints me. I used to love the bar room talk on a Saturday afternoon after qualifying as to who we thought was running light. This continued until the first round of pit stops on a Sunday afternoon.

    This decision not only takes away some of the mystery that is F1, it will reduce many fans enjoyment, not increase it!!

  6. i voted for f1 publicity because it would be interesting to know the feul strategies

  7. i hate the “championship decided by wins” rule. what if your favourite driver came 2nd all the time!

    1. Then he wouldn’t win the championship.

  8. I agree with you Dan on that one…..

    I priciple the WDC season could be wrapped up by Silverstone how pants would that be?

  9. Just as I was starting to get excited about the 2009 season… 11th hour right royal C’ up from Max and the boys..

    I have no chance of a win today, I’ll go save my engine for the next race / lets bang on that new aero package and do some testing.

    Must Win at all costs – time for a Schumi Punt

    funny how this was decided AFTER Big Mac is looking pants for a win – hey, started a conspiracy :D

  10. Most wins: No, no and no again. Will likely have a completely different effect to the one desired.

    Publicity: No.

    Budget caps: I like the freedom aspect, but the capping aspect just won’t work. Within too long, there’d be a scandal, and you’d either have a case like 1994, where many people still doubt the legality of Schumachers car, or 2007, and the McLaren affair. Either way would be disastrous, and naturally exceeding the caps will be fairly easy to do privately. (And you can’t help but get the feeling some teams might be more closely monitored than others)

  11. I voted for Championship points system. Racing is all about winning, not to come second all the time.

  12. What would really improve F1 is an almost total ban on the rules. Let them race whatever they want to put on the track which is less than let’s say 5 meters long, 1 meter high and 2 meters wide and has no more than naturally aspirated 12 cylinders of no more than 3 litres total capacity. Well maybe not even improve but change. Do you imagine the amount of ideas from different teams? I mean this sounds crazy but in fact it would boost innovation far more than the KERS and everything else put together. Total is a key word for F1. Some kind of a Wipeout on tarmac. Yeah, I might have gone too far with this one, but the restrictions these days are just crazy. I’d like to see F1 as a playground for inventors from all sides of motorsport world not as a strictly guidelined circus… Max and Bernie would have to die first along with the “economical downturn” but there’s a hope for that to happen someday.

  13. Seems Scot misunderstood the publicity that Keith was referring to, which is making public the qualifying configurations of the cars, such as fuel weight. Signing autographs doesn’t improve the racing.

  14. You forgot to put as an option the best rule that will improve F1:

    Shut down FIA and FOM. (in any particular order)

  15. I am no fan of Mosley’s (who is?) but the budget cap idea is genius. Having got a commitment (?) from the manufacturers to stay until 2012, he is trying ensure that there will be enough private teams for us to watch after that. Perhaps we should accept that we are witnessing the end of the manufacturer era, maybe even celebrate that, and look forward to a return to proper racing teams? Maybe with a budget of “only” £30 million to find, teams could be run purely from the rights revenue, without sponsorship? Would we then see an end to the paddock club elite hospitality for half interested sponsors employees/hangers on? This is happening already. Does it mean there will be more Williams type teams on the grid? Lets hope so. I think that we should be cautiously pleased that Mosley is trying to stop the manufacturers from wielding too much control, from running F1 purely for marketing reasons. It hasn’t worked, let’s re-invent it.

    1. Although the budget cap is not really going to ‘improve’ the racing, I do agree that it ought to (in theory) allow the sport to survive for longer and possibly bring in new teams and suppliers.
      However, if Max plays this game too much, no new teams will be interested because the rules keep changing each year…..

  16. Keith, can you please explain how the medals system is better? I win 6 races, crash out in the rest 12, still win the championship even if Lewis won only 4 and has 60 points more than mine!! Whoa….
    also, the new aero rules and KERS are gonna help F1, great racing, great driver inputs, less processions,

  17. The way I see it, it’s like rugby. The team with the most tries doesn’t win the game. It’s the one with the most points. Moving the goalposts like this is poorly thought out and will not add anything to F1. Its fortunate that mickey mosley is bringing this in in what has got to be the most open F1 season in history.

  18. What i can’t understand is why FIA waited for FOTA to say what they thought it would be better for the sport and then decided to do whatever they wanted?

    I mean, FOTA suggested the change in the points system (12-9-7…) and they showed their disagreement with the medals system

    FIA says: “okey”. And then they introduce the medals system. How fair is that?

    1. Bernie and Max probably trying to break FOTA before it amasses momentum. I think I read somewhere that Moseley pushed the rules through now, especially those concerning the budgets, because there was ‘no time’ for talks.

  19. I personally think there are better ways to improve the appeal of F1 further a field: http://www.f1badger.com/2009/03/doughnuts/

  20. Its getting to the point where you might as well put all the drivers in Karts that are all the same.

  21. Well I voted for none as again its interference with no comeback – to late for fota to tell them to get stuck.
    These two megalomaniac’s could cause a storm in a tea cup – they are not interested in the fans – that is just a smoke screen – both dont want the gravy train to stop and to have their own importance to be greatly exaggerated – I know that short of calling out rentokill – they are never going to do the decent thing and go – sorry but I am not looking forward now to the start of this season – thanks bernie and max

  22. All you need to do is compare the reliability of cars now to 10 -15 years ago to see how the points system has affected cars. Instead of building the quickest car, teams build the most reliable car to make sure they get points. 8 out of 20 get points instead of 6 out of 24 before, so the odds are if a top car makes the finish, it’ll get points.

    This means that the top teams are all so reliable now, there’s no chance they’re all going to brakedown and give a minnow like Panis in a Liger at Monaco ’96 to win a races and grab the glory.

    I’d rather a driver with 6 wins and 11 DNF’s win the championship than somebody who played the percentages and picked up 2nd’s 3rd’s 4th’s. At least it’ll be the driver who pushed to win that comes out on top.

    And isn’t thet what F1 is all about – Winning?

  23. schumi the greatest
    18th March 2009, 14:12

    i voted for f1 publicity but i regret it now having read a few comments ive realised a few things ive missed.

    Revealing the fuel strategies would be good for the casual fan who falls across f1 when there’s nothing else on tv but for the fans who know what f1 is all about it will take away some of the good (and there’s not alot of it) about race fuel qualifying.

    The points system..well as iv said before i think there needs to be a mix of consistency and winning in f1. What the fia have done now is crap…As keith pointed out increasing the points difference between 1st and 2nd was the best way forward. Because the currrent system meant that 1 driver could win the 1st 5 races of the year and another could finnish 2nd in them all, driver 1 would only have a 10 point advantage.

    I like the fact that 8 drivers can score points it means that more of the smaller teams have a chance to do something. when there was 6 there was half a dozen teams trundling round for no real reason they never got near the points.

    i am dissapointed with the fia’s choice….again.

  24. I vote that we publically euthanize Bernie and Max. If the teams can all band together (and agree even) under FOTA in the face of adversity, then these two curmudgeons are clearly redundant.

    1. Perhaps we could form the Formula One Supporters Alliance (FOSA) and in unison with FOTA put our views across to the FiA and FOM…

      Still wouldn’t work though, would it.

      I wonder, how many fans would put in £100 to try and find the $1.4bn needed to buy the commercial rights debt from the creditors now and then gift it to the teams…

  25. OHHH come on guys….. Max is very special.. he must be to be caught with his trousers down and retain his position lol

  26. that didn’t quite work as intended!

  27. It’s too late for a change.

  28. Hey Keith, coul dyou clear something up. Over on realbrawngp someone is talking about the technical regs being ammended today and that they may have clarified the rules regarding diffusers. This person was saying that the Brawn GP car may now be illegal as a result but I couldn’t even begin to follow the detail of the regulations.

  29. I guess the budget cap is ridiculos, they should just cap everyone the same, like they do in football and baseball in the states, but of course larger budgets.

    The wins situation is pretty dull and I am against it, but there is this possibility of no more boring ferrari or mclaren 1-2´s, just trailing one another, as bahrain last year among others.

  30. ‘Because less than half the scheduled race distance had been completed, only half the normal World Championship points were awarded’

    I was just reading about the 1991 Australian GP. Was this rule still in place last year? And if so, how does it work this year? Is a win only counted as half a win?

  31. Scenario 4632

    Going into the last race Hamilton has 6 wins, Massa has 5 wins.

    Massa must win, but to stay ahead in the points Hamilton only needs 5th place or better.

    Where is this different from last years ending??

    Both drivers were going for wins for the majority of the season up to the last race last year.

  32. None of these changes are going to improve F1. The switch to most wins is appalling. My suggestion for a possible way round this would be for FOTA to simply ignore it apply the points system that they suggested to each race and, at the end of the season, say “OK he is the your pseudo FIA champion, the real champion is driverx” During the after race interviews a FOTA representative could announce the “real championship” positions and then waive the appropriate two fingers at Max & Co. I for one will be scoring the points for each driver in the old way and also that suggested by FOTA. I do not doubt that many others will be doing the same.

  33. I like budget capping. Let the teams do whatever they want to their cars but limit the amount they can spend. Let the real talent rise to the top, not money.

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