Fernando Alonso’s Championship Defeat Against Sebastian Vettel Would’ve Been More Hurtful Under Newly Proposed Points System

2010 started the era of Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull’s dominance. The partnership between the two saw them both bag four world championships. In that era, Fernando Alonso and Ferrari emerged as the toughest contenders. In 2010 itself, Alonso finished runner-up with a gap of just four points to Vettel.

While that was a tough heartbreak to recover from, it could have turned out to be even tougher. That is if the recently proposed points system was in place. In an interesting r/formula1 thread started by u/Kolec507, the user calculated what the 2010 onward standings would look like if the new points system was in place.

Fernando Alonso would not only have lost the championship in 2010 but lost by a slender margin of just one point. Under the new regime of points, Sebastian Vettel would have 259 points while the Ferrari driver would have 258. While the eventual champion gained just three more points, the Spaniard earned six more.

As per the new proposed points system, the F1 Commission calls for awarding not the top 10 but the top 12 drivers with points. In the current regime, the top 10 finishers earn 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 points, in that order.

The proposed points regime aims to change this by keeping the points for the top seven the same. Drivers finishing P8 to P12, however, would earn 5-4-3-2-1 points.

The entire debate, however, begs the question – why the need for change? Looking at how bunched up the mid-field is in the ground effect era, many drivers miss out on crucial points despite the gap to the one ahead being nominal. The new proposed system aims to reward them and the lower mid-field teams that are making steady progress but failing to earn points.

The debate over the newly proposed F1 points system

McLaren CEO, Zak Brown has wholeheartedly supported the proposed new points system. While he believes it would require a complete overhaul, the new system would incentivize more exciting racing through overtakes. Williams driver Alex Albon, however, is not sure if it is the right solution. Albon preferred he’d rather work harder to earn points in the current system.

Alpine driver, Pierre Gasly, who hasn’t scored a point yet in the season, is surprisingly against the proposal. The Frenchman, as per RacingNews365, said, “They [bottom five teams] have just got to do a better job, it’s simple as that, it’s always been the same. The last couple of years, if you’re not in the top 10, you just got to work it out and make a faster car.”

The F1 Commission is currently only discussing the viability of the proposal. Another perspective that has the backing of several parties is the system to reward points to every driver who finishes the race. If the proposal gets the involved parties’ approval, F1 might implement it as early as next year.