Criticism for ‘the most nonsense rule in existence’ within F1’s points system

BBC F1 commentators Jack Nicholls and Jennie Gow have criticised the points rules which saw a confused Max Verstappen claim the title unknowingly in Suzuka.

The 2021 World Champion was crowned as the ’22 champion at the Japanese Grand Prix, having been unaware of the possibility as he took the chequered flag to win the race.

While Verstappen won, with Leclerc second on track before a five-second time penalty demoted him to third, the Dutch driver (together with his Red Bull team) were unaware full points for the race were being awarded despite having only completed just over half of the race distance.

The race had been halted due to heavy rain at the original start, with the drivers only getting green-flag conditions for just 40 minutes as the race’s three-hour window came to a close.

As explained by the FIA, the rule regarding half and three-quarter points being awarded only applies to races which are red-flagged and cannot be resumed – as opposed to the example of the Japanese GP, which ‘ran to duration’ despite only driving for such a short amount of time.

The confusing rule, which even had the World Champion’s team unaware of their title win until an FIA representative confirmed the result to Verstappen, has come in for criticism in the time since the race ended, with the BBC crew voicing their concerns.

Jack Nicholls: Everyone thought the rule applied to the distance

“So there’s a sliding scale of points – if the race is between nought and 25% race distance, there’s a certain amount of points – no points if there are less than two laps,” Nicholls said on the BBC’s Chequered Flag podcast.

“Then there’s another set for 25 to 50%. There’s another set of 50 to 75%. And then it’s full points, 75% race distance onwards.

“The full points at 75% race distance have been the thing for a long, long time. They changed the rules after Spa last year to try and make it so you couldn’t have the scenario where two laps under the Safety Car equals half points because that’s what we got last year.

“But until now, it had only ever been races getting stopped – they would start and then they would get stopped. Then you determined the amount of distance. So we all thought the rules applied the same for races that finished but you’d only done a certain amount of distance.

“Honestly, everybody thought that. Christian Horner didn’t think they were champions at Red Bull because they all thought ‘we’ve done half the race, so we get 50% points’.

“But no, because the race is finished, you get full points. If the chequered flag is taken you get full points, whatever happens. It’s the most nonsense rule in existence because it means we could have sat there for two hours and 55 minutes, gone out behind the Safety Car, brought the Safety Car in and done one lap. And you get full points.”

Jack Nicholls: It’s just more FIA nonsense

The commentator did not hold back in his criticism of the rule, saying it could have had much more importance on the outcome of a title fight in different circumstances.

“What a bizarre…it’s a stupid, stupid rule. There’s no doubt about it,” he said.

“Look, it doesn’t matter because Max was going to be World Champion. In no way am I suggesting it was an unjust World Championship or it shouldn’t have been won or anything like that. But the rules are just so silly, and it’s just more FIA nonsense.

“Imagine, this could have been…if this was the final race of the season, the championship could have been decided by that and it would have kicked off big time – that would have been another Abu Dhabi ’21.”

Jennie Gow and Sam Bird agree with Jack Nicholls’ assessment

Jennie Gow, presenting the podcast together with special guest Sam Bird, the Formula E racer, also weighed in on the topic. Bird said according to the logic of the rules, the points should be scaled to match the distance.

“The rule doesn’t make sense,” he said.

“Max Verstappen being World Champion was going to happen whether it was here or in Austin, and he fully deserves it because that drive [in Japan] was sublime. But it should be based on the amount of distance covered throughout the entirety of the three hours, not just the fact they crossed the chequered flag and saw a flag. Completely logically, they covered just over 50% so they should get 50 to 75% points.”

Gow agreed and said the confusion of the moment detracted from Verstappen’s moment of success.

“It’s the circumstance in which it happened,” she said.

“The fact nobody can celebrate properly, Max Verstappen was unsure of what was going on. It should have been a great moment of glory with everybody on the team radio saying ‘well done, Max, you’re a two-time World Champion’ – I can hear Christian Horner saying it now in my head! It should have been that moment of celebration. I feel like Max has been robbed again, of that moment of clarity.”

Nicholls continued on to say it is the latest in a long list of frustrations being caused by the sport’s governing body.

“I think the rules/points thing is more frustrating considering the very weird FIA world we are currently in,” he said.

“There have been frustrations throughout the season with the FIA – well documented. Chuck in the cost cap stuff that was meant to come on Wednesday and now they are delaying it. Chuck in running the Japanese Grand Prix in wet weather season, chuck in waiting for two hours and 15 minutes with no running, then start the race and everybody has to go onto the intermediate tyres immediately.

“Then you have the moment with Pierre Gasly and the tractor on track and all of that. Then you have the five-second time penalty for Leclerc deciding a World Championship. This is over the last couple of days! All of this just leads to this broad feeling of dissatisfaction and weirdness. All of these things added up, it’s just a bit of a mess from top to bottom, it feels like at the moment.”

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