Horner on desire for new F1 points system: 'Am ambivalent at the moment'
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Red Bull Racing, Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Aston Martin. These five teams occupy the top-ten in Grands Prix if nothing crazy happens. That means there are virtually no points left for the rest of the grid. Voices are calling for a change in the points system because of this. Christian Horner is open-minded about it.
In five Grands Prix (and a sprint race), Visa Cash App RB picked up seven points and Haas F1 four points. Williams, Stake F1 Team and Alpine are still scoreless. It is not that the smaller teams are hopeless in races, but from moment one they know that there are usually only one or two points to score at most. Some would like the positions 11 and 12 to score points in races as well.
An F1 Commission is scheduled for next week, and the proposal is going to be discussed. "I'm sort of ambivalent to it. I think that you can see it's very competitive. It feels like, there's two groups in Formula One at the moment, and the teams from six to ten are in as hard a fight as one to five," Horner said after the Chinese GP.
The Red Bull Racing team boss says he is still impartial at the moment and, therefore, does not know whether he will vote for or against the plan. For that, he wants to get more insight first. "It's one of those things where you just got to run the numbers and look at the analytics," he said.
Vasseur is already in favour, though
Ferrari does already seem certain to agree to a changed points system. "I am in favour, not against," Vasseur said in the paddock at the Shanghai International Circuit. "And coming from Alfa Romeo, I perfectly understand that sometimes the frustration that sometimes you are doing a mega weekend. If there is no DNF in front of you, you finish P11 and the reward is zero."
"You can finish P11 or P20, it's the same. And I can understand the frustration for this. Now, if you do this, and next year you have six teams in front, you will say it's the same for P13, but you have to pay attention. I’m not against it," said the French team boss of the Maranello-based team.
And what does Ocon think?
Esteban Ocon is a bit ambivalent about it. As it stands, it would help Alpine - who have started 2024 dramatically - but: "Well, it's putting a plaster on a big cut. Let's call it like this, you know. It's a way of helping the current situation. I think it would definitely work because we would have been scoring points [in China]. But I would prefer to be able to race for the front and to have every team closer. And I think it is fair to say that, yes, it is a small gain on what we are trying to do is making all the cars closer."