Formula One will hand out points to the top 12 finishers in races from next season if a controversial revamp is approved on Thursday.
It would extend the old way of rewarding the top 10 drivers, itself an evolution from a previous scoring system that acknowledged the top six.
It is understood that the leading teams are considering whether to support the move, which is up before the F1 Commission in Geneva, though most of will ‘attend’ remotely.
The proposed move would then need the approval of the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council.
The idea has been mooted before and discarded, and may be again, though there is a greater desire to create interest down the field in a world championship in which the top five teams – Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Aston Martin – have dominated.
World Champion Max Verstappen (above) has won 38 of the last 49 races in Formula One
The top five teams in F1 have dominated the world championship this season
None of the rest of the constructors have scored a point in the opening five races.
‘Even the bottom five teams are large organisations and it’s very difficult to explain to the outside world, to our partners, and to our fans, that we battle for P11 but it actually gains zero points,’ says Laurent Mekies, team principal of the Racing Bulls team, the old AlphaTauri. The Frenchman is a chief proponent of the proposal.
Several traditionalists are opposed to the idea.
Former racer Martin Brundle, now Sky’s top pundit who won 98 points under the old scoring system in the Eighties and Nighties, said: ‘Formula One world championship points must be hard won and treasured. Valued. It’s not some kind of lucky dip, where everyone wins a prize.’
