[Zoot]

I agree it's gorgeous - but better than the Lotus from the John Player Special years?

Ah you see, I'd say yes, maybe not the shape of the car, but i loved the livery - i actually wrote a thesis on european advertising laws because of this car, with the whole 'Buzzing Hornets / Benson & Hedges thing. Also, the logo they had for this year is one of my favourite logos of all time, and the use of it on the nose is just pure genius.


Bitten and Hisses was ok too -


But not too fussed on 'Bitten Heroes'

[C-Kay]

Well, F1 is now ruined totally, they are given the Championship to whoever wins the most races in a season, not on points scored, which is utterly pointless and just plain shit.
I bet it lasts for one season, why cant they just let the drivers race and stop coming up with these stupid ideas to make it more 'interesting'. If they just let them race how racing used to be, it would be better for everyone.

[MK Chris]

They're not doing that this year are they? I think it's still on points this year. Hopefully Bernie will realise soon enough that it's a stupid idea, I don't hold out too much hope though.

[C-Kay]

Nope, it's this season.

This year's Formula One title will go to the driver who wins the most races rather than the most points, the sport's governing body has said.

Formula one chequered flag

Winner takes it all; new rules for Formula 1

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) said the championship would go to drivers who won the most races over the duration of the season.

If two or more drivers finish the season with the same number of wins, the title will be awarded to the driver with the most points, the FIA said.

The allocation of points will remain the same as last year's 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 sequence.

The rest of the standings, from second to last place, will also be decided by the current points system with the constructors' championship unaffected.

The FIA ruled out awarding Olympic-style medals, as advocated by Formula One's commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

He had wanted the title to go to the driver with the most golds.

Sky News Sports Presenter Jon Desborough said: "It's just as well Lewis Hamilton MBE won last year because under these new rules he would have lost 6-5."

He added: "Let's hope no one driver dominates the first half of the season, otherwise the championship could be over by Silverstone."

Hamilton won last year despite winning fewer races than Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

[Zoot]

I think I'll have to give this a year before i come to a conclusion if this works or not, but I'm optimistic

[MK Chris]

Really? I'm totally sceptical about the whole thing, but I guess I'll give it a year as well.

[Yudster]

I can't see how it will work at all. Its penalising consistency, which is surely the biggest challenge for any F1 team these days? I'm sure that it can't be as legitimate a way of determining who has been the best driver over the course of a season.

[MK Chris]

That's exactly right; Bernie was moaning that someone who hasn't won a race all season can technically win the world championship - which is technically correct, but I don't think it's ever happened and if it has it's only once or twice - the points system has been used since the inception of the world championship in 1949 (I think) and has worked well right the way from the days of Fangio to Hamilton; there have been changes to the number of points awarded for a given position, but that's it.

The other thing this does is gives the lesser teams and drivers less to fight for; if points are a secondary prize, like a 'goal difference' type of idea, then what the mid-field and backmarkers are fighting for is naturally a lesser prize. I personally would like to see the complete opposite - I would like to see points awarded most of the way down the field.

[Yudster]

The other side of the argument is that it will encourage competitiveness in the race situation - whilst someone in second place might not push and compete for the sake of 2 points, maybe they would for a win. We'll just have to see how it pans out.

[MK Chris]

That was Bernie's argument, but I think the way to fix that is to have larger points gaps between positions - certainly at the front of the field anyway.

[Zoot]

The other side of the argument is that it will encourage competitiveness in the race situation

This is where my optimism lies. I think it can got two ways - it can be dominated early in the season by one driver and be all over too quick, or late in the season the championship could still be open to a large number of drivers which would make the last races fantastic.

As I said, I'm gonna sit this out and see what happens.

[MK Chris]

Lots of sports complain about governing bodies meddling with the rules too much - from the sports I know about, I know lots of people who play badminton who have complained and similarly, people have complained about table tennis rule changes relatively recently - the FIA, however, take the biscuit. I understand that it's a sport that is built on technology and that means it constantly changes, but I think this is just totally unnecessary. But yeah, I'll wait and see too.

[Zoot]

Formula One looks set to ditch controversial plans to award the championship to the driver who wins most races after the governing FIA performed a late U-turn.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/20032009/ ... ystem.html

[thenamesarnold]

Formula One looks set to ditch controversial plans to award the championship to the driver who wins most races after the governing FIA performed a late U-turn.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/20032009/ ... ystem.html

Does anyone know if the point system has been deferred as suggested in the above article to the 2010 season?

[MK Chris]

Bernie is convinced it'll come in in 2010; I'm not. I don't think it'll get passed, if the teams don't like it this year, they aren't going to like it next year either.

I'd like to see FOTA break away and form their own governing body - one representative from each team.

[Munki Bhoy]

Bernie is convinced it'll come in in 2010; I'm not. I don't think it'll get passed, if the teams don't like it this year, they aren't going to like it next year either.

I'd like to see FOTA break away and form their own governing body - one representative from each team.

Dear God no. The Scottish Premier League has that setup and they can't agree on anything decent. It's just a farce.

[MK Chris]

It's got to be better than what is practically a dictatorship that F1 currently have though.

[Munki Bhoy]

Dictatorships are only a problem if the guy leading them is a Dic.

[MK Chris]

Bernie Ecclestone.. are you saying he's not?

[Munki Bhoy]

No, I'm saying the problem isn't the setup, but merely the guy at the head of it. Put a sensible person in charge of it and not some raving loony and maybe we'd have a decent sport.

Having said that, I can generally see where Bernie is coming from. His ideals are ludicrous most of the time, but the sentiment behind them tends to be fairly sensible.

[thenamesarnold]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsp ... lt.stm#top

I love the new features, the fly through and drivers lap which are brilliant as you get to watch a driver and how they react to the corners.
Roll on Melbourne!

[S4B]

This is actually a great race for a change.

As it stands with 4 laps to go

Button - in the lead with tyres shot 4 seconds ahead of his nearest rival - Vettel and Kubitza(sp) collide! yay - Safety car deployed! Button will win
Barricello- 2nd
a one two for Ross Brawn on their first race!

Hamilton - from last to 7th! Amazing!

Bloody fantastic!

[S4B]

Correction

Hamilton gets fourth but he was ahead of Trulli when the safety car was deployed so should be third! Hmmmm cheaty?

[Yudster]

I think they have decided that he wasn't - he overtook trulli by accident just after the safety car went out, and then gave the place back immediately when he realised.

Jensen Button's face was a picture. I hope the enquiry about those bits on the car that people were protesting about doesn't prove significant.

Lovely coverage too, no adverts and lots of nice features!

[C-Kay]

Lewis has been promoted to 3rd, Trulli over took under a yellow flag.