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Why F1 fans should count their blessings

Post-Hungary, before heading off on holiday, I suggested in this column that while the BBC/Sky scenario may not be quite what Formula 1 fans have at present (an excellent, live, free service), we should look at the positives because it could have been.

Piquet confirms Renault exit?

Nelson Piquet has confirmed he will not be racing at the European Grand Prix later this month after parting company with the Renault team. Piquet was already in doubt for the previous race in Hungary, but a war of words with team boss Flavio Briatore last week seemed to indicate the end of the relationship between the Brazilian and Renault. On Monday, Piquet released a statement confirming Renault has notified him he will not be racing for the team anymore. "I have received notice from the Renault F1 team of its intention to stop me from driving for them in the current F1 season," said Piquet. "I want to say thanks to the small group who supported me and that I worked together at Renault F1, although it is obviously with great disappointment that I receive such news." The Brazilian said he was relieved to finally put an end to a difficult time with Renault, and he is hopeful he can move on to succeed in F1. "I feel a sense of relief for the end of the worst period of my career, and the possibility that I can now move on and put my career back on the right track and try to recover my reputation of a fast, winning driver," he said. "I am a team player and there are dozens of people I have worked with in my career who would vouch for my character and talent, except unfortunately the person that has had the most influence on my career in Formula 1." Piquet also claimed that he had not received the same treatment as team-mate Fernando Alonso this season. "For the 2009 season Briatore ... promised me everything would be different, that I would get the attention I deserved but had never received, and that I would get 'at least equal treatment' inside the team," he added. "He made me sign a performance-based contract, requiring me to score 40% of Fernando Alonso's points by mid-way through the season. Despite driving with Fernando, two-time world champion and a really excellent driver, I was confident that, if I had the same conditions, I would easily attain the 40% of points required by the contract. "Unfortunately, the promises didn't turn into reality again. With the new car I completed 2002km of testing compared to Fernando's 3839km. Only three days of my testing was in dry weather - only one of Fernando's was wet. "I was only testing with a heavy car, hard tyres, mostly on the first day (when the track is slow and reliability is poor), or when the weather was bad. Fernando was driving a light car with soft tyres in the dry, fine conditions. I never had a chance to be prepared for the qualifying system we use. In Formula 1 today, the difference between 1st and 15th position is sometimes less than a second. It means that 0.2 or 0.3s can make you gain eight positions." The Brazilian slammed Briatore as his "executioner", and said he is confident he has the skill to succeed in F1. "I believe without doubt in my talent and my performance. I didn't get this far by getting bad results. Anyone who knows my history knows that the results I am having in F1 do not match my CV and my ability. "The conditions I have had to deal with during the last two years have been very strange to say the least - there are incidents that I can hardly believe occurred myself. If I now need to give explanations, I am certain it is because of the unfair situation I have been in the past two years. "I always believed that having a manager was being a part of a team and having a partner. A manager is supposed to encourage you, support you, and provide you with opportunities. In my case it was the opposite. Flavio Briatore was my executioner." http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/77538

I agree with Nelsinho entirely. I've become increasingly frustrated with the way Renault have failed to give him the support they should have and I'm glad he now has the chance to rebuild his career somewhere else. He's right about pre-season testing in both 2008 and 2009, and the race strategies he has been given have been uncompetitive at best. Piquet is too good a driver to not be back in F1 next season with a team which will give him the conditions to show his skills. Nelsinho should probably sue Renault if they put Grosjean on a short two-stop strategy in Valencia...he would have been one-stopping, or on such a long two-stop strategy that he had no hope of being competitive. EDIT @Dan Briatore was the man who gave Nelson the Benetton drive at the end of 1989 when all the world said he was crazy, and Nelson repaid him with 3 wins, as well as setting up the team for the Schumacher years. As to Nelson Snr giving other drivers career advice, he has past form for not being very helpful. Imagine how Jean Alesi's career would have been if he had joined Williams instead of Ferrari in 1991...you guessed it, it was Jean's good mate Nelson who told him to take the Ferrari drive...

F1: SPEED's Varsha Talks F1 Stretch Run, Schumacher's Future & Austin

28 The 2011 Formula One season has offered many interesting storylines both on track and off. As the series heads into the final eight races – starting with the Aug. 28 running of the Belgian Grand Prix live on SPEED at 7:30 am ET – it seems as if Red.

Fernando Alonso

A quick look into the career of the current Formula One World Champion, This did happen and he won his first G.P. in August at the Hungary race. Is Formula One Racing the Most Popular Sport in the World?

Formula 1 Takes A Break After Rain Soaked Hungary Grand Prix

Formula 1 will finally take a break for three weeks following on from the action packed Hungarian Grand Prix. One week on from the German Grand Prix it did not appear likely that yet another thriller of a race would follow.

Should the Formula One Grand Prix Scoring System Be Changed?

After the eleventh race, in Hungary, of the 2011 Formula 1 motor racing season we've reached the month-long break before the excitement resumes in Belgium.

Did I say "excitement"? What was I thinking? I was probably still reminiscing about those seasons before 2010, before the change in the points scoring system occurred.

Yes, the F1 points system did need to be revamped, but it doesn't require a mathematical genius to realize the folly of the current scoring system:

1st: 25, 2nd: 18, 3rd: 15, 4th: 12, 5th: 10, 6th: 8, 7th: 6, 8th: 4, 9th: 2, 10th: 1.

Because Sebastian Vettel has won so many races, he is now so far ahead on points that he could sit at home and watch the next three races on TV, and still lead the championship! Where's the excitement in that? This situation harks back to those dismal days in the earlier 2000s when Formula One racing was merely processional, and many fans no longer bothered to watch the sport.

Other motor and motorcycle racing events use what must be the most exciting -- and fairest -- points scoring system. It's also the simplest. They award points for the first 20 places, with 20 points for first place, decreasing by 1 point for each place, so that 20th place gets 1 point. This simple system has two tremendous benefits: It encourages and boosts the morale of less successful teams, because such teams can compete among themselves; It makes the championship results much closer and therefore more exciting for the fans.

Here's a comparison of the 2011 F1 season results for the first 11 races, to illustrate the differences between the current 25-point system and the simple 20-point system:

Driver --------- 25 Points -- Position -- 20 Points -- Position

Vettel ---------------- 216 ------- 1 ---------- 194 ------- 1

Webber --------------- 139 ------- 2 ---------- 176 ------- 2

Hamilton -------------- 134 ------- 3 ---------- 157 ------- 3

Alonso ---------------- 130 ------- 4 ---------- 157 ------- 4

Button ---------------- 109 ------- 5 ---------- 137 ------- 5

Massa ------------------ 62 ------- 6 ---------- 118 ------- 6

Rosberg ---------------- 46 ------- 7 ---------- 118 ------- 7

Heidfeld ---------------- 34 ------- 8 ---------- 100 ------- 8

Petrov ----------------- 32 ------- 9 ------------ 99 ------- 9

Schumacher ------------ 32 ------ 10 ----------- 95 ------- 10

Kobayashi -------------- 27 ------ 11 ----------- 94 ------- 12

Sutil ------------------- 18 ------- 12 ----------- 95 ------- 11

Alguersuari -------------- 9 ------- 13 ----------- 73 ------- 15

Perez ------------------- 8 ------- 14 ----------- 57 ------- 17

Buemi ------------------- 8 ------- 15 ----------- 83 ------- 13

Barrichello --------------- 4 ------- 16 ----------- 59 ------- 16

di Resta ----------------- 2 ------- 17 ----------- 74 ------- 14

de la Rosa --------------- 0 ------- 18 ------------ 9 ------- 24

Trulli -------------------- 0 ------- 19 ----------- 30 ------- 19

Liuzzi -------------------- 0 ------- 20 ---------- 16 -------- 23

Maldonado --------------- 0 ------- 21 ----------- 33 ------- 18

d'Ambrosio --------------- 0 ------- 22 ----------- 30 ------- 20

Kovalainen --------------- 0 ------- 23 ----------- 22 ------- 21

Glock -------------------- 0 ------- 24 ----------- 22 ------- 22

Karthikeyan -------------- 0 ------- 25 ------------ 8 -------- 25

Ricciardo ---------------- 0 ------- 26 ------------ 4 -------- 26

Chandhok ---------------- 0 ------- 27 ------------ 1 -------- 27

With the 20-point system, you can see that, if Vettel were to drop out of only one race and Webber were to finish first or second, Webber would overtake Vettel as the championship leader. Hamilton and Alonso would be only two race wins behind Vettel. Although the first 10 positions are no different, as is fair, the remaining driver championship positions are altered radically, and reward less successful drivers commensurately to their performance.

Surely Bernie Ecclestone will see that the present Formula One points scoring system is seriously flawed before long. It'll be interesting to see whether it'll be changed for 2012, in the light of the 2011 results. It's just a pity that no one in the organization had the intelligence, foresight or courage to mention it to him before the 2010 season started.

Read the latest sports news at the Morny Stannit online newspaper

S Avery.

Source: EzineArticles.com

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