Double points and twice the issues for drivers at Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Rule changes to liven up the show in Formula One have become a regularity in recent years.

Bernie Ecclestone, the chief executive officer of the F1 Group, and the sport’s international governing body, FIA, have rarely stood still in their push to avoid one-sided championships and to keep things exciting.

Changes to qualifying formats, asking tyre manufacturers to make compounds that degrade quicker and introducing the drag reduction system (DRS) to give cars a better chance to overtake have been introduced in recent years, all in the name of adding to the entertainment.

Yet, despite that, Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing dominated last season and won the drivers’ title with three rounds of the season to spare.

Enter double points for the final round of the season, which, this season for the first time since 2010, is the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Rather than the normal 25 points, it is 50 available for the winner in what was designed to guarantee that the drivers’ title would still be at stake to create a thrilling finale to the season. The move has gone down rather badly with sporting purists, who believe that manufacturing a final showdown goes against the grain of sport and makes it more about entertainment.

It is certainly a good thing that the close fight between the Mercedes-GP drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg ensured that the championship would still be at stake in Abu Dhabi under the normal points system.

Hamilton will bring a 17-point lead to Yas Marina and still has work to do to seal his world title, despite having won 10 of the 18 races this season.

Double points remains a factor for the race on November 23 because it has minimised the margin of error that Hamilton has to be champion.

Under the normal points system, a sixth-place finish, worth eight points, would have been enough for Hamilton.

Now he will be forced to push hard in the 55-lap race as, if Rosberg wins, he must be second to prevent the German taking the crown.

Certainly makes things more interesting and the real beneficiaries will be the 60,000 fans at Yas Marina, who will get to see the conclusion to one of the most exciting title fights in years.

Ironically, the real thrust for the double points idea comes from the manner in which Hamilton won his 2008 title.

The Briton had only needed to finish fifth in Brazil to take the crown – which is where he finished – although there were still dramatic circumstances as he had to pass the Toyota of Timo Glock at the last corner of the last lap.

But it had rankled with Ecclestone that Hamilton had been able to run a largely conservative race in the finale and that any chance his bid to win the title would falter was because of a late rain shower. Felipe Massa, Hamilton’s title rival that weekend, had needed to win to have any chance of becoming champion, and he did.

But while Massa stood on the top step of the podium, putting a brave face on a victory overshadowed by crushing disappointment, Hamilton celebrated in parc ferme despite having finished almost 40 seconds adrift of his opponent.

That year Hamilton had a seven-point lead going into the race, at a time when F1 ran under a different points scoring system with only 10 points for a win.

He had earned the right to drive how he wanted to in his bid to claim the title, but it was a little anti-climatic that he did not have to go all out to fight Massa.

Ecclestone then had an idea for the 2009 season that the championship be decided on race wins – namely the driver with the most victories would be crowned champion, regardless of points.

At the time, Ecclestone said in English newspaper The Guardian that, “it’s just not on that someone can win the world championship without trying to win the race”.

The race wins format was never accepted by the F1 fraternity and was never brought in, but the flavour of it is clear in the double-points format. Expectations are it will be dropped after just one season, such has been the negative reaction from international media and on social networks, in which case the sixth staging of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will become a notable race, regardless of the track action.

Double points may be around for only one race, but, like it or not, it has added extra unpredictability to next weekend’s action and achieved Ecclestone’s aim of ensuring both championship protagonists cannot afford to cruise around in their respective bids to take the title.

gcaygill@thenational.ae

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