Oversteer vs. Understeer: The points system
December 5, 2009 by Negative Camber
Filed under F1B Op-Ed, Oversteer / Understeer, Parc Fermé, Top Story
Well in our continuing mission to bring you fresh new exciting content the F1B Staff all sat down and thought hard about what to bring you next. After 20 sugar frosted Donuts Frantic threw up had another 5 donuts upsetting the rest of the team in which a fight broke out that was only resolved when someone found another hidden stash of donuts. Then suddenly among the F1B crew it clicked! Why not have us F1B Op/Eds face off on a random statement concerning our beloved sport? Thus this you see before you is the first one in a long (hopefully) line of Oversteer vs. Understeer
The rules are simple each article will have a statement and on that statement one of us will argue for it and another against it. In some cases there may also maybe a 3rd side of the debate from time to time. You, YES YOU, the reader will get to choose who has put the best (but maybe not right) case forward. You do this by voting on the front page who you thought did the best job arguing the point. The winner stays on for the next article in a few weeks time the losers go home and cry in to their cereal or something.
So who is right? you decide! Whilst the mixture of the crew will sure ruffle feathers, Todd brings decorum and Tact, Grace’s brilliant snark and level headedness, Mark and Sj bring media savvy and charm, Paul is the racing guy who knows what he is talking about and is not a guy to back down and our newest members of the team Laura and Victoria bring Energy, grace and great ideas from their respective work. Frantic brings… well, we will let you know on that one. The Coffee isn’t too bad? Lets see what happens as they try to get your vote
Statement 1 “The Points system in F1 should revert back to 10,6,4,3,2,1”
Arguing this Statement is correct is Frantic.
Ladies and Gentlemen. I firmly believe that the points system should go back to the 10,6,4 system of the 90’s not only because for one it worked but two the new system never really did what it was intended to do.
Lets look at it this way the current system we have was suppose to A) Make title fights more exciting and B) Give smaller teams a chance of points and C)Give the Manufactures something to show for there effort by having more points. Now lets look at A. Has it made more title fights exciting? No, all its meant that once a driver has won say the first 6 out of 7 races all he has to do is stay in the points as the most a driver can do is take a few points of him. All this has done is drag out the inevitable. If a car is quick and the driver is on it he will win. What the old points system did do was make the drivers work for the points harder.
If F1 is the pinnacle then why do they allow the points to go to 8th? Its false glory. Compare this to a kids sports day. Now you even get awards for trying. So the fat kid who is out of breath 10 meters into the 100 meter sprint doesn’t feel like a failure and gets an award as she rams another burger down her throat thinking she has achieved something. And that’s ok. But F1 isn’t a kids sports day, its dog eat dog no forgiveness out there. This is not NASCAR where you get points for helping grandma across the road or something. The point is however that if you look at reason B for having the current system it is pointless. They are pretty much all small teams and how did it help them? If you look at Jordan for instance it actually disadvantaged them in 2003, the sole win they took would have been worth a lot more for them under the old points system and moved them higher up the table. Now lets look a C. Does it give the Manufactures something to show to the board? Well ask Honda BMW, Jaguar and Toyota. It didn’t work for the “smaller” teams ether where are Minardi and Jordan? Prost and Arrows couldn’t even stick around to try it out. Whats more these teams are loaded there bosses all have huge boats at Monaco whilst in hot tubs with the bubbles going whilst bikini wearing super models pour champagne spraying it over the team bosses grey hairy ageing mankini wearing bodies as they all laugh at how stupidly rich they are at the same time throwing another child on the open fire to keeps the Barbeque warm that is roasting a rare animal only the rich can afford . The truth is that if your not in the top 3 no one cares. These points should be earned in the hardest way possible. 10 points for a win and 6 for second is the perfect gap as it’s a big enough point gap to make a driver worry. Jenson Button wasn’t comfortable with a 16 point lead this season imagine if he could of really lost some ground as he finished 7th whilst his rivals threatened the points I bet that car would of suddenly been a lot more drivable then eh? See brazil for proof of what he could have been like all season. These drivers who get credited for “x amount of finishes in the points take away the 7th and 8th place finishes away and then you get an idea, lets make points mean something more again.”
The team Bosses will always remain rich the 7th and 8th’s don’t matter to them, they will still drop 250 staff if they want to so its not even helping the hard workers back at the base. The current system is the system that gives awards for trying at sports day and whilst you may think its sweet the fat kid tried in F1 terms that fat kid afterwards just gets into its chauffer driven limo tosses the crappy trying award to the kerb and sticks to fingers up to you people. Lets bring F1 back to the winners not the triers.
And for those thinking the medal system is a good idea, remember, this idea comes from a guy who hates women and admires Hitler. And do you want to agree with someone like that?
Now Mark is going to argue for the current system
I could indicate the one-point margin of victory in 2007 and 2008, or the fact that Jenson still didn’t have it all his own way this year, despite the most dominant start to an F1 season in living memory, but that’s almost too easy. My argument is simple: Losers need love too, perhaps most of all. And I have three reasons why:
Most importantly, finishing in the top eight is a serious achievement nowadays. I would argue it’s a more impressive achievement than finishing in the top six was in the past. The reason? Attrition. In the 1995 season (one where pre-qualifying didn’t distort my calculations), 51% of entrants made it to the finish line. This year, 80% of all entrants saw the chequered flag. In this regard, the sport truly has changed. Retirements and attrition are practically things of the past – with rain the only real leveler in this regard. This makes it far harder for smaller teams to get a decent result, and it makes finishing in the upper midfield far more impressive than once it was.
While racing is about winning, it’s also about competition in general, and awarding points to more drivers allows us to better chart the competition throughout the field. Having more points paying positions makes it easier to classify the performance of teams lower down the grid. Did Force India or Toro Rosso bring up the rear this year? I, for one, want to know, and the more places receive points, the easier this is to chart.
And finally, I think awarding points to more cars should improve the on-track action, and – most importantly for us fans – the TV coverage in races. Most of the interesting battles and overtaking maneuvers take place in the midfield, yet we see precious little footage. Instead, we follow a leader round and round and round while the poop hits the fan far behind him. This age old problem would get exponentially worse as mid-field positions become less “important” in the context of the World Championship. If the cars aren’t fighting for more than bragging rights, what producer would dare to focus on them and risk missing something at the front? For this reason, I think that we should at least continue to award points to the top eight finishers.
Heck, if we really have 26 cars next year, and they as reliable as this year’s stock, I think the FIA should consider expanding the points system to include even more finishers.
Paul will now put his thought that actually Medals are the way forward.
What the hell are we doing here people. It is so obvious that the Medal system is the only way to go, you may whine and bitch about the messenger being a sexist, a racist, a hoarder of money, and a man willing to bleed the last remaining coins out of any un suspecting 3rd world country eager to gain world respect. But this man knows success and there can only be real success if you’re a winner and why the hell should we care who’s 2nd or 3rd or 6th or 8th. To put my Frantic friends point to the forefront , sure the fat kid shouldn’t get a prize, and in the f1 world ,if your not the winner , your all the fat kid.
Whats the biggest sports event in the world?
No not curling, but you’re close. The Olympics dammit!
And what do the Olympics give out?
Medals!!!
No won cares if you finished fourth in hurdling or 6th in synchronized swimming, but you bet your booty that the gold medal winner of the skeet shooting , gets first dance at the Fancy skeet shooting ball!!
Do they give losers a prize in politics? Well yes, but Hillary would have done something mean to a Rabbit if she didn’tSo what we have here is a perfect system. It rewards those that win the most, how could there be any other. And why do we have to keep the championship close? There is more than enough excitement and intrigue off the track (thanks again Bernie) to keep us interested. And we can always put Trulli and Piquet Jr out there if you want something to watch.
So give the losers a ribbon if you want, but I only look to the front, and to Bernie for my inspiration.No animals were hurt in the writing of this piece.
Who do you think won the discussion?
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I voted for Mark because of one thing he said about the field being so close and retirements are less frequent. That point trumped every single stat or argument that Paul and Frantic brought forward. Yes, the modern points distribution came about for different reasons but it has worked best because of what Mark mentions, although failing at the main goal.
And for Paul, as a driver he should think there are no points, just medals. Actually, I propose that we should tell all drivers that the system for any type of racing is medals and let them live in that reality, all while we actually calculate the points in the real reality. That way they go for wins and we enjoy the racing.