Expert: Adam - 7/13/2005

Question
hey im a big f1 fan as u can see by my screen name.  i was just wondering why is the f1 points system the way it is?

Answer
Hi Andrew and thanks for the question.

The current points system is only 2 seasons old and was primarily devised to stop Schumacher running away with the championship! With him winning so many races the Championship was effectively over two thirds the way through the season as the points system awarded winners strongly (9 for a win, 6 for 2nd place etc). The current system gives much less of an award for finishing 1st rather than 2nd and was meant to help keep the championship closer for longer. The new system is controverisal, allowing Raikkonen a shot at the championship despite only 1 win for example.

Also, by paying points for 7th and 8th it was considered an extra incentive for the smaller teams with no chance of finishing in the top 6 on merit.

Today's system is actually the 4th to be adopted in the F1 world championship. From 1950 to 1959 it was 8,6,4,3,2 for the first 5 home +1 for the driver with the fastest lap. In 1960 the 6th driver was given 1 point and the fastest lap point was withdrawn. From 1961 right up to 2 years ago the system was 9,6,4,3,2,1.

A further factor effecting the championship is that until recently not all a driver's points counted towards his total. Between 1950 and the 1980s only a proportion of the driver's scores counted (best 4 results to best 15 results depending on how many rounds there were in that year's championship. I recall that in 1 year's championship (1986-7 or thereabouts) the winner scored less points in total than the runner up, but the runner up had to drop points due to this rule.

Hope this fills you in , Adam