F1 will "award double points for the last race of the season in a controversial attempt to keep championships undecided to the very end after four years of Red Bull domination," according to Alan Baldwin of REUTERS. The novelty, "immediately dismissed by some angry fans as a needless gimmick, was the most eye-catching of several rule changes" announced by the FIA on Monday.
The FIA said double points would "maximize focus on the championship until the end of the campaign." The change had been "unanimously approved at a meeting in Paris of teams in the F1 Strategy Group and Formula One Commission." Fans "were quick to express dismay and anger on social media, with a snap poll of 100 members on the f1fanatic.com website showing 92 percent opposed to the idea." The FIA also announced that "the principle of a global cost cap had been unanimously approved, with the aim of introducing it from January 2015." The FIA said that a working group, made up of the FIA, commercial rights holder and team representatives, "would be established so that regulations could be approved by the end of June next year." F1 "has tried before to implement a budget cap, with previous proposals bogged down in argument about what should be exempt and how to police any measures in a sport full of commercial secrecy." However, several teams "are struggling to stay afloat financially" in a sport where budgets range from $60M a year to well in excess of $200M. A change to the system of driver numbers "was agreed, with drivers in future carrying their number through their career in Formula One rather than taking a new one every year depending on where they finished." The No. 1 "will be reserved for the world champion, should he decide to use it." The principle of a five-second penalty for minor infringements "was also accepted for 2014, with teams to discuss how it should be applied" (REUTERS, 12/9).
