As exclusively revealed by Motorsport.com ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, F1's teams are due to discuss with the FIA and FOM the idea of revising the points system for 2025 to offer rewards down to 12th place.
Amid concerns that the effective current lock-out of the top 10 positions by the leading five teams is unduly impacting the midfield battle, as there are so few opportunities to score, a proposal will be put to a meeting of the F1 Commission this week to change the points system.
The current allocation of points for the top seven positions will remain unchanged if the change is made, but things will shuffle around from eighth and below.
The points shake-up has been framed in a way that it should not impact the leading teams from a competitive viewpoint, plus will not mean they score more, which could increase the points-based entry fee they must pay to the FIA each year.
For the proposal to go ahead and get implemented for the 2025 season, it will need to earn a simple majority support from the teams – so requires five outfits to approve it as well as being supported by the FIA and FOM.
And while it is not impossible for teams to say one thing in public and act another way when it comes to a vote, the indications are that even top outfits are not minded to move to block the change.
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur said: "I'm not against. And coming from Alfa Romeo, I perfectly understand sometimes the frustration that you are doing a mega weekend, but if there is no DNF in front of you then you finish P11 and the reward is zero.
"[At the moment] you can finish P11 or P 20 and it is the same, so I can understand the frustration for this."
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner added: "It feels like there are two groups in Formula 1 at the moment, and the teams from six to 10 are in as hard a fight as one to five.
"I think it's one of those things where you've just got to run the numbers and look at the analytics and say: what would it actually change? So I'm impartial to it."
Those teams that are locked in that midfield battle for the minor points positions are especially eager to see the change.
RB team principal Laurent Mekies told Motorsport.com that he saw no negatives to the new system, which he felt would deliver an improvement for F1 as a whole.
"Of course, I will support that," he said. "There are no backmarkers any more. There are six OEMs in F1, plus Red Bull Racing, so it's like seven top teams.
"Even the bottom five teams are large organisations now and it's very difficult to explain to the outside world, to our partners, and to our fans, that we battle for a P11 that actually grants zero points.
"If you look at the level of competitiveness of the top five teams and the reliability level of the cars, it means that most of the race you're battling theoretically for zero points, and we don't think this is right.
"We also think it's more meritocratic because, if you score points up until P12, you will avoid the effect where if something completely stunning happens and somebody scores a P5 or P4 in the rain, it means the other guys can stay home for 10 races.
"We think it's ticking all the boxes with virtually no downside, so hopefully it will go through."
Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu added: "What's the downside? Currently, we have three teams with zero points and I don't think that's good for sport.
"If somebody was awarded points for P11, P12, there will be less people with zero points. So, I think it's clearer for the fans and for the motivation of everybody working in a team as well. It's much better to come out with P12 with one point, P11 with two points - it's a reward."
The new F1 points structure proposal
|
Finishing position |
Current points |
Proposed points |
|
1 |
25 |
25 |
|
2 |
18 |
18 |
|
3 |
15 |
15 |
|
4 |
12 |
12 |
|
5 |
10 |
10 |
|
6 |
8 |
8 |
|
7 |
6 |
6 |
|
8 |
4 |
5 |
|
9 |
2 |
4 |
|
10 |
1 |
3 |
|
11 |
0 |
2 |
|
12 |
0 |
1 |
|
Fastest lap |
1 (top 10 finishers only) |
1 (top 12 finishers only) |
Additional reporting from Oleg Karpov and Erwin Jaeggi
