Current rule confusion risks alienating F1 fans
Oct.11 - Formula 1 needs to be "careful" not to alienate its fans with overly complex rules.
The entire paddock and F1 world, including Red Bull, was caught by surprise when Max Verstappen was declared world champion some 20 minutes after he won Sunday's Japanese GP.
"We were sure there would only be full points if 75 percent of the race was completed. That's why we assumed we were missing a point," team boss Christian Horner told Sky Deutschland.
Red Bull Racing and Scuderia AlphaTauri fans show their support during qualifying ahead of the 2022 F1 Grand Prix of Japan
It turns out that a rule allowed full points to be granted if a red-flagged race is then restarted.
"I have to say, along with a few others, I was one of the people who initiated the rewriting of this rule," admitted Alpine sporting boss Alan Permane.
"What happened is absolutely in line with what is in the rules," he added. "I'm just not sure if it is what was intended."
McLaren boss Andreas Seidl agreed: "We hadn't thought about the way the points were handed out in this case.
"It was not the intention of the FIA or the teams - it looks like we may have all overlooked this loophole, so we are all responsible for it."
Horner is now expecting the rule to be tweaked for 2023.
"I'm sure that will happen," said the Red Bull boss.
Indeed, many fans are accusing the FIA of deliberately favouring Red Bull and Verstappen, with former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher at least agreeing that the governing body did not handle the situation well.
"If you look at the rule, you can almost talk about arbitrariness. But that's not the problem," he told Sky Deutschland.
"The FIA should at least have displayed the rule beforehand so that people around the world weren't doing the maths. They could have said right away that they saw it as a full race.
"The way it went on Sunday was really not good. Even Christian Horner and Dr Helmut Marko were surprised."
Even one of the longest-serving journalists in the paddock, Blick newspaper's Roger Benoit, surmised that it appeared as though the FIA had "pulled a new rule out of a hat".
Bild newspaper concluded: "Formula 1 must be careful not to scare the fans away with their confusing rules."
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"Pulled a new rule out of the hat" now when have done that before.
Hahaha, let me guess... somewhere around the penultimate lap of last season?
I doubt.
Re the headline, and pardon the language. No shit.
The problem is not with the rules, it's with the fans who can't accept that their preferred driver can't win, or didn't win, or lost because of driving mistakes, or lost because of poor team decisions, or lost because of better team coordination by others, and so on, and so on...
In the last race, everything was over by the first corner, in the wet, with Max showing better control than what Charles could come up with. Don't get me wrong, Charles did really well, it just happens that Max did even better, which is, on average, what is usually the case.
It takes a lot of imagination to believe that Charles should be the 2022 WC.
In the history of F1, the best drivers generally came to be champions over time, while the average ones rarely got anywhere. We have a very few that have that potential, a few that clearly don't and are just using up space with money, and a few that are sticking around on past glory.
And than, every WC's day of reckoning comes around sooner or later...
Mansell great champion 1 x WDC Nicoooooooo 1 x WDC both said feck off to f1 after winning , ok Damon,Jack Villet and James stated around after winning there only WDC
It takes a lot of imagination to believe that Charles should be the 2022 WC. Thats a typo surely, you mean 2023 WDC yes
Probably 8 maybe 10 drivers out there capable of winning wdc in a Red Bull, maybe 4 if they were all in RB’s. If Fer, Alp and Mer can’t get their act together it will be another walkover for RB next year and every year until that changes. Looks like more time out in the cars for me next year.
Yes Blo
Miss Lulubelle proved that in general it is the car and team leaders that win titles
2022 proves it
One year at a time Shropp...
Agreed, but , Engine frozen , Rules frozen,Budgets frozen Max will come out of the blocks in 23 like it was last Sunday, Binottos boys wil try, I might bet a few $$ on his 3rd title