I like your reply, nh-f1. Nice one. I agree it can appear harsh that tail-end teams have to fight for the merest glimmer of hope for reward. However, this needs to be balanced against taking steps down the road of trivialisation: when there are more points on offer to more finishers, their value is correspondingly diluted. Given the nature of F1; and taking into account the number of competitors, the physical demands and restraints, and the way in which teams are funded at the highest level (of any motorsport, including MotoGP), I think F1's present points scoring is just about perfect. Then again – and I suppose this is what you're ultimately getting at – the structuring of the sport and the way it shares out its profits amongst those who bring in whatever is to be shared, is still very much in the iron grip of 'the few' as opposed to 'the many'. But this is a problem left unsolved by altering the points system unless the whole package is looked at anew. And this is the crux of the matter: until there is a paradigm shift amongst powermongers, shareholders, promoters, and competitors as a cohesive group to wrest power from the current imbalance, it ain't gonna change… To put it bluntly, there is no point in altering the points system again until F1 alters itself. Under the present circumstance, the points system we have is as close to perfect as can be, in my opinion.
The "new" teams haven't been helped by the fact the cars in front of them are so reliable. In the past, new teams scored points in races with a lot of attrition, and they were simply the last cars standing. They would be 5 seconds a lap slower or so, but they'd still get points. It has an effect on the drivers too. These sorts of "endurance drives" are how drivers like Karl Wendlinger, JJ Lehto, Mika Hakkinen, Jean Alesi and Martin Brundle started moving up the pecking order. They started out in quite frankly terrible cars, and then all it took was a couple of solid drives to the lower points for them to be noticed. These days, it's too easy for drivers to have their work go unnoticed. I'm thinking drivers like Karthikeyan, Senna and co, basically anyone in the "new" teams.
Spot on. The days when the likes of AGS, Rial, Minardi and their Ford DFV's etc could hang around and wait for cars to drop out to score points are long gone. If the current teams want to score points they need to have the speed to do it. All I would say, is to take Jean Alesi out of the equation. His 89 & 90 seasons at Tyrrell is still the most impressive debut seasons I had seen for a long time. Shame his heart ruled his head and he turned down a 91 Williams drive for Ferrari, but he was no endurance racer, that boy raced for his points!
I had itchy typing fingers I should add. Most of these drivers in the new teams don't have the ultimate pace to stand out either. Bianchi is the only driver who seems to be putting that car places it shoulldn't be...much like a certain F. Alonso...
When those two teams score their first point it will be an amazing moment for them, it wouldn't be as special if they got it because the points suddenly went down to 15th.
Eddie Jordan was on Radio 2 this morning saying F1 should give out double points for major races of the year (UK, Monaco, Germany, Italy)
