Event Features
The Point Of F1
By by: Anooj Shah
May 5, 2006, 14:07

Gilles Villenevue once said he only raced to win, not to come second even if it meant winning the World Drivers Championship. He didn't settle for second nor did he race to collect points to advance his World Driving Championship campaign. No, Gilles raced to win. The WDC chase was simply an afterthought. Winning the race meant more to him than the title.

This brings me to last weekend's race at Imola, where Alonso mentioned that he was "happy to come 2nd" so he could collect valuable points for his WDC campaign. This seems to be a common trend among today's drivers in Formula 1. They are more concerned about winning the WDC than winning the individual races, which is a shame. The current points payout is to blame. There is only a two point difference between the winner (who gets 10 points) and the 2nd place (who gets 8 points). Back in 2002 point system method, the 2nd place driver only received 6 points, the larger difference giving the driver an incentive to win. Of course this was changed for the 2003 season after Michael Schumacher's dominating championship in 2002.

The points payout system needs to be changed to the way it was in 2002. Winning the WDC should occur by winning races not by coming 2nd or 3rd consistently. While it is a commendable effort to be consistently on the podium, the incentive should be to win. We'd see more daring passes for position and the fans will definitely enjoy the increased action. Look back to the 1979 Dijon GP where Gilles Villleneuve fought an intense battle for 2nd place with Rene Arnoux. We wouldn't see a battle of that caliber as the Alonso's and Button's would not want to sacrifice losing valuable points should their battles leave them in the kitty litter. Well maybe Montoya would, but even he seems to have softened up as he alluded to easing up to collect points instead of risking them in a bold move at the start.

Speaking of Montoya, he had a great race in Imola bringing his McLaren to the podium and out-pacing his team-mate all weekend; something that he has to do more often if he has any chance of retaining his seat. If you noticed the McLaren post-race press-release, you will notice that they down-played his podium finish, saying "he had a relatively uneventful race". I don't find that a fair assessment as JPM started 7th and finished 3rd on a track that is notoriously hard for overtaking.
Another driver who did well was Mark Webber in his Williams. He drove a quiet, yet solid race to 6th having started 10th. Williams will no doubt be happy that their package has been fairly competitive and on the sharp-end of the mid-pack horde. As they get more familiar with the Bridgestone tires, I'd expect them to grab some podiums.

Of course you can't discuss the San Marino GP without mentioning Ferrari's win. Renault where clearly the faster team, but Ferrari out-foxed them in strategy. During the second stint, Schumi exaggerated his rear tyre wear by driving slower than normal, causing Alonso to pit in 8 laps earlier in hopes of banging out some fast laps in clear air in hopes of getting ahead of Michael during his pitstop. That wasn't to be however, once Alonso went in, Schumi started going 2sec a lap faster and ended up coming ahead of Alonso after the pit stop shuffle. That cunning strategy pretty much won the race as Alonso didn't try hard to get ahead on the track. After going wide near the end, he decided to play it safe and come in second.

Which brings me back to the point I made earlier. If it had been another driver, such as Montoya, you would expect some attempts to overtake, as they race to win. The points payout needs to change, as does refueling (it should be banned); but that is for another rant.

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