Formula 1 has not devalued one of its most famous and historic races by awarding less points for it than other rounds of the championship, according to home driver Charles Leclerc.
The Monaco Grand Prix was part of the original world championship calendar and is holding its 67th points-paying race in F1’s 72nd season this year.As with most races on this year’s schedule, it will award a maximum of 26 points. However the introduction of Sprint Qualifying at three other events in Britain, Italy and one other venue – widely tipped to be Brazil – means those rounds will award 29 points instead.
But Leclerc is satisfied the prestige of the race has not been dented by this change, and does not feel the format would be appropriate for this round of the world championship.
“I don’t think it will devalue the race of Monaco,” he said, “and I think it’s been the right choice to try it on the three other races mentioned, which are Silverstone, Monza and Brazil.”
“I don’t think Monaco is the place to try that format to see how good it is,” he added.
Leclerc’s Ferrari team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr concurred.
“I think the Monaco Grand Prix is always going to be respected and everyone’s going to want to win it,” he said. “I don’t think the value of the Monaco Grand Prix will be devalued by making a sprint race in Silverstone, Monza or wherever it’s happening.
“I think for the benefit of the sport, we need to make sure that we keep evolving as a sport, keep trying different things to make the sport more attractive to the younger generation and to the fans. And then if we make a mistake and the former doesn’t work, we can always come back to the original format, which we know works.
“I don’t think the other races are going to be devaluing Monaco because of having 28 points to win or 29 in case of fastest lap versus the 25 of Monaco. I don’t agree and I don’t think it should affect it.”
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ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
19th May 2021, 21:47
A pointless point has been made about points.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
19th May 2021, 22:02
Cryptocoin does.
Simon
20th May 2021, 9:14
If we are going down the road of giving points outside of the race result, Monaco qualifying should award a point for the pole position.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
20th May 2021, 10:31
Long ago F1 races were on Free-to-air TV where I live. As far as I could tell F1 had a huge following, so it was hugely popular even though the races were only live at midnight. Then F1 decided it wanted to make things better … but really their aim was to be obscure. So instead of increasing their popularity they made a significant reduction in popularity. They did this by fining people for being so interested in F1 that they were willing to wait until midnight to watch the start of a race. Fining people for watching your races is a great way to encourage people to watch other sports, it isn’t a good way to encourage people to follow the sport you are trying to promote. In fact my government uses this technique to discourage drivers from speeding.
There is a theory that what you sow is what you reap, so if you sow maize then you will grow maize, and if you sow wheat then you’ll harvest wheat. If you expect the sale price for wheat to be low and the sale price for maize to be high, then you why would you sow wheat? Wouldn’t it be wiser to sow maize? Then you’d get a bigger return for your farm. F1 has been sowing the seeds of obscurity for nearly 2 decades and has just now realised that isn’t the crop for them. Maybe what F1 needs to do is decide what sort of crop they want. If they want to be noticed, to be popular, to have fans, to have a social media presence, to have advertisers think it is worth putting a brand name onto an F1 car, then what sort of seeds will yield that sort of crop? Does “Fining people for watching our races” sound like a way to encourage people to watch F1 races?
Carbonized
20th May 2021, 12:07
Nailed it!!!
RocketTankski
20th May 2021, 22:44
Just give everyone a medal and then let them race for fun