Horner open to double points for last three race

2014 F1 season

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Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says extending the unpopular double points plan to three races instead of one could make it less of a lottery.

Asked whether the sport’s determination to introduce a rule which an overwhelming majority of fans oppose Horner said: “I think of course the fans’ opinions matter and I think that I don’t think it’s any secret that I wasn’t particularly in favour of it.”

“I can understand why the governing body and the promoter are keen to keep the championship alive until the last race but two out of the last four years it’s gone to the last race under the previous points scoring system.”

Bernie Ecclestone originally proposed to offer double points at the last three races of the year, after Sebastian Vettel on last year’s championship with three races to spare. Horner suggested that might be a better solution.

“It would probably be better to, rather than look at just the last race, if you’re going to end up dealing with the points, is look at more than one race. Look at three races, maybe take away an element of lottery over that last race.

“But it is what it is, it’s the same for everybody as we stand here and that’s what we’ve got.”

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Keith Collantine
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52 comments on “Horner open to double points for last three race”

  1. Horner-Ideal Bernie successor..Both apparently have same thinking..

    1. Or at least that is what he wants Bernie to think.

  2. Cynics might say that after the other cars being revealed, RB think they will be behind in the beginning, needing to play catch up later in the season.

    1. RB is usually stronger after the summer break so that makes sense.

  3. Come on! Horner is doing a Bernie after spending too much time with, apparently…

    Can’t he just say no to double points?

  4. No! No double points, ever, there can be no middle way, the only thing that can solve this is the abolition of this stupid rule.

    How much pocket change did Bernie offer you Christian? We know this is the way Bernie works.

    1. Or perhaps this is you lobying for his job!

    2. I agree that they don’t belong at all, but the point that more than one race with double points takes away some of the lottery element makes sense unfortunately. I’d much rather see them gone completely, but maybe Bernie getting his way completely would have been better than the half-measure we got.

      1. @matt90
        On the other hand it will severely punish teams who are good in the beginning of the season and not so good later on.
        With just a single race offering double points, those situations won’t be messed up quite as severely.
        In the end, I don’t think there exists a thing like a ‘decent’ compromise in this case.
        It doesn’t matter how it’s implemented or for how many races, at some point it will screw over a team/driver unfairly and even worse, create an undeserving champion.

        1. That is a very good point. Back to the double-points-for-every-round solution then.

        2. Felipe Massa WDC in final race! lol

  5. Here’s an idea to stop it being a lottery: drop the stupid double points thing entirely!

  6. petebaldwin (@)
    28th January 2014, 13:07

    If you read what he actually said (as opposed to what the headine makes it sound like he said), he’s not backing the double points idea. He even goes as far as to say “I don’t think it’s any secret that I wasn’t particularly in favour of it.”

    He is saying that if we have to have double points, it’d be better to do it for the last 3 races rather than just the final race which is right.

    The final race only means that a driver can be 49 points ahead but can lose the championship because of a DNF. If it’s the final 3 race, it keeps the championship going til the end (as they want) but it removes the lottery of it a bit.

    Of course we all want no double points because it’s a terrible idea and devalues the rest of the season but Bernie is clearly not going to listen to the fans. The sooner he gets booted out of F1 the better.

    1. I agree, some people should read the article before commenting it.

    2. Oh I get it now – if we have a stupid rule that no one wants it then we should treble it to solve the problem it just created. Makes sense to me. That’s good FIA logic right there. O.o

    3. @petebaldwin
      It moves the argument away from “should we have it or not?” to “how should it be?”.
      I don’t think that is what we need. Saying that A is better then B is not going to get us C.
      If he really was against it, he should either not say anything, or make it perfectly clear that he is against it entirely. Anything else will only be helping FIA stuffing it down our throats.

      1. petebaldwin (@)
        28th January 2014, 15:00

        Yeah that’s fair enough but it comes back to the usual issue with these interviews. What was he asked?

        It looks to me like he was asked if it was a good idea to introduce double points and he basically said no. It then looks like he was asked what he thought about double points for the last 3 races and he said it’s probably a better solution than just the final race.

        Having said that, he made it fairly clear for me in the first part of the interview that he was against the idea of double points anyway.

        1. That’s what it sounds like to me too. Basically, “I dont want the double points rule, but if we really have to have it, 3 races would be better than 1.”

          As an aside, if the rule stays I will not be watching the last race. I would boycott the entire season if I hadn’t already booked to go to Spa. If it stays for next season then this year’s Brazillian GP will be the last I watch…

  7. Or it could be extended to all 19 races, so it’s not a lottery at all!

    I try desperately to like Horner, but every time he speaks he reminds me of a cross between one of those shadowy spin-doctors who lurk behind the shoulder of prominent politicians and a vacuum cleaner salesman.

  8. You know what would make it even less of a lottery? The normal points scoring system!

    “… and I think that I don’t think …”

    1. I would like to add that it would be great if some journalist out there could ask a team principal how it’s possible that a rule that is opposed by so many fans and by a majority of the teams still makes it into the sporting regulations.

  9. Oh, you got an opinion. You’re entitled to have an opinion, of course.

    Not this one tho. Shut it.

    F1: answering questions no one asked. Now they are trying to fix what they broke… fix a lottery? drop the double points. THAT’S the same for everyone, THAT’S fair.

  10. He wouldn’t be saying that if he lost championship because of the rule.

    1. @full-throttle-f1 Which I so want so bad to happen, now that I have heard his opinion . I know you’re probably thinking even Mercedes keep mum.That’s true.It’s sad really.Fans don’t have any say in the sport at all.Bernie,what a nonsensical rule !

      1. @hamilfan
        You have to give him credit for actually taking the rule up for debate, and at first he was quite clearly against it.
        Much better then just staying quiet like pretty much everyone else.

  11. At this point why not have double points for half of the season? Or better yet, the entire season; that way it’s obvious that it’s pointless and we can scrap the entire idea.

  12. mattshaw85 (@)
    28th January 2014, 13:22

    As most others have said – I think double points for no races at all is the best solution.

    I see what he’s saying though. The last 3 races would be better than just the last one. Doesn’t change the fact that the whole idea is nonsensical.

  13. OK, let’s assume that Vettel is 40 points behind Alonso with three races to go and then wins the next two races (+100 points), while Alonso doesn’t score a point. Vettel clinches title in the penultimate race, while the title battle would have gone down to the wire under the normal points system.

    You can turn a sport into a parody of its former self but it still won’t guarantee excitement all the time. If that is what you want, computer games & TV series are the way to go.

  14. How about double points for every race?

  15. No double points at all. Please. For the love of all things fair. Unless you’re going to do them how the World Endurance Championship does them.

  16. sure because he believes the will have car perfectly developed to the end of a season… no double points at all OMG

  17. double points for the last 19 races please

  18. Did you guys even read it?

    He said that if we MUST hace double points, having them for the last three is better than only for the las one.

    He even said (again) he didn’t like the idea of double points.

    It’s always constructive to read the whole article before passing judgement.

  19. Actually, the option ‘let’s give double points at every race’ is bad too. The difference in points between finishing first or second would be far too great.

    1. @paeschli
      No it would be exactly the same, as all points are doubled for all positions.
      Say driver A wins the first two races, and driver B finishes 2nd in both races. Lets look at the gaps between them.

      Double points:
      A : 50+50=100
      B : 36+36=72
      100-72=28.

      Normal points:
      A : 25+25=50
      B : 18+18=36
      50-36=14.

      14*2 is 28, so the relative gap is the same.
      Both gaps could be closed (with respectively 2 and 1 points in change) with:
      A: DNF
      B: 3rd place.

  20. Double points for last twenty races!!!

  21. That just makes it worse!

  22. Christian Horner has been doing a lot of thinking

    I think of course the fans’ opinions matter and I think that I don’t think it’s any secret that I wasn’t particularly in favour of it.

    Too bad most it’s backwards.

    Look at three races, maybe take away an element of lottery over that last race

    See, we’ve just created a totally unnecessary problem, so if we spread it out three times as wide it’ll be thinner and seem less stupid, see?

    1. Which is a perfectly valid point. Three races with double points dilute a bit the lottery-effect of having just one.

      Ofc, it would be better to have none at all, but he’s saying this is the lesser of two evils. And it is.

  23. We should have double points for the first race. That’ll help Christian finish his car.

  24. As I’ve said before, you can make double points races if the races themselves are double length. I don’t want a double length Abu Dhabi run, though. The F1 600km of Montreal? Yes! The Monza 600? Definitely (it’s a short race anyway)!

    Otherwise, do away with all of this nonsense. You want to take the “lottery” part out of it, then remove it altogether and then we’ll be back to winning based on skill and strategy.

    1. @steevkay
      I agree. But that is not why they are doing it. They are ONLY doing it to keep the championship battle going for longer, and a Monza 600 won’t help to achieve that.
      Although a double length Monza or Montreal would be quite brilliant.

  25. how about double points for anyone not called Vettel…..

  26. I don’t think the double points is a good idea like many of the other F1Fanatics. But if this rule HAS to exist. then I think it should be implemented only if the Championship hasn’t been decided before the final round.

    I agree with @mads that it will screw up a team/driver depending on how the race goes. Whether a DNF or an incident in the race causing to lose positions. But ideally if it is a normal race then the top teams will still be at the top and the only difference will be that the points they receive are more than normal.
    Last year it would not have mattered if the double points existed or not, Vettel still would’ve won the championship. The only difference is Vettel would have 447 points instead of the 397 he has.

  27. maarten.f1 (@)
    28th January 2014, 15:26

    Interesting. Question is, what would he want in return for supporting this?

  28. Why don’t we award double points at every race, then every round would be more important and the focus on every round would be increased.

  29. Horner really is Bernie’s whore.

    1. @joepa

      And you really need to read carefully what was said. Carefully.

  30. If double-points absolutely have to happen, then it is probably better that it happens in the last three races instead of just one. At the very least, it will prevent a situation from arising where a championship is settled on the back of a single result, and should one driver get a bad result in a double-points races, they will at least have the opportunity to try again in the next.

  31. how about a double points match for an all day endurance run, most laps from sun-up to sun-down. I think if you are going to put in double points you should at least make the event worth the double points, and not just because it has snazzy hotels and deep pockets hosting it.

  32. Horner is saying this because he’s realised that could be the key to RBs title fight if Renault don’t get there act together quickly!!

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