F1 News: Points, Not Wins Will Determine Champion in 2010

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Under the "wins" system, Jenson Button would very nearly be the winner of the 2009 F1 Driver's Championship following his win at Barcelona yesterday.

Under the “wins” system, Jenson Button would very nearly be the winner of the 2009 F1 Driver’s Championship.

Forget what you’ve heard previously about the future of how the Driver’s Championship will be determined from 2010: it will remain as a “points” system rather than a “wins” system. Under the “wins” system as proposed, following yesterday’s win at Barcelona, Jenson Button would only need to win one more race in order to have clinched the Driver’s Championship. How much fun would that make the rest of the season, both for teams and for spectators? Not much.

Now that you’re sufficiently relieved, follow the jump to learn more F1 news!

The rumour that KERS may be mandatory for F1 teams from 2010 gained slightly more credence this week, as USF1 impresario Peter Windsor mentioned that he understands it to be likely, and is concerning himself with planning for that eventuality.

Whether or not any pronouncements about 2010 will affect Ferrari remains to be seen: further to Max Mosley’s expert politicking and budget cap implementation, Ferrari plans to discuss its future in F1 tomorrow.

In this topsy-turvy world, can we count on Ferrari to always be part of Formula One? There are strong arguments both for and against this notion. There’s no doubt that rabid tifosi account for a large percentage of fans traveling to see grands prix in person. There’s also no doubt that even more casual fans are more likely to be interested in Ferrari than other teams because they’ve got such an internationally-recognized and ubiquitous brand. So it’s quite definite that the loss of Ferrari from the grid would create an impact. Chances are excellent that we’ll learn tomorrow whether or not we’ll be finding out just what that impact will be.