Another rule change? F1 will affect the scoring of drivers in the shortened race. How did the FIA President comment on this?

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) is about to intervene in the rules regarding scoring in shortened races. This is especially after the confusion at the Japanese Grand Prix, where Max Verstappen won his second world title. So what are the specific changes?

Formula 1, or rather the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), changed the rules in terms of scoring in the case of shortened races back for the 2022 season. We already reported on the changes to the sport’s rules before last season.

Now, however, the FIA has decided to reach into the sporting regulations, or rather the scoring, once again. The reason is Verstappen’s second title, or rather the way he won it in the first place.

The Dutch racer defended his 2021 Japanese Grand Prix championship, but due to the shortened race, Formula One itself had a mess with how to actually score drivers at the finish line.

In Japan, despite a long wait and only 40 minutes of racing, full points were handed out. According to the FIA, whose words were quoted by Motorsport, the rules regarding the reduced points allocation (Article 6.5) only apply in the event of an interruption of a race that cannot be restarted.

Therefore, full points were awarded in the 2022 Japanese Grand Prix and Verstappen became World Champion.

Statement by the President of the FIA

At last year’s FIA awards ceremony in Italy, President Mohammed Ben Sulayem got into an unpleasant exchange with Red Bull boss Christian Horner, who commented specifically on the embarrassment and chaos in Japan.

“Japan, as you said, was controversial. The FIA was blamed, but it wasn’t the FIA that made the rules. It was the teams themselves, we just applied them,” said Ben Sulayem on Horner’s criticism, whose words were quoted by Motorsport.

So although the FIA and F1 did everything right based on the president’s statement, the scoring will be interfered with after all. However, it is not yet known exactly how. The person responsible for this change will be the new FIA sporting director Steve Nielsen.

“Yes, it (scoring) will change. Steve, who is now the new sporting director, is going to improve it. Anyway, getting back to Japan, who chose the rules? Teams. And who approved them? The teams. We just had to implement them. And who’s to blame? We did. Honestly. Where’s the justice? Tell me. This frustrates me,” concluded Ben Sulayem.

F1, FIA, Motorsport