FIA announces F1 teams’ rejection of points system changes

Formula 1’s points system will remain unchanged in 2025 after all teams unanimously voted against it during Tuesday’s FIA F1 Commission meeting.

In April several midfield teams started a push to re-visit the series’ long-standing points system handing out points to top 10 finishers.

At the start of the 2024 season, the grid was clearly split between a top five and bottom five, meaning that the bottom five teams were locked out of the points unless something happened to the fifth-fastest Aston Martin team or any of the frontrunners.

Some teams argued that extending the points-paying positions to the top 12, top 14 or going even further down the grid would give the lower-end teams more to fight for.

The proposal was discussed at the previous F1 Commission meeting in April, but it was felt that more time was needed to nail down the exact points structure and think about any unforeseen consequences, so the topic was deferred to the next meeting, which took place on Tuesday in London.

At the meeting, which was attended by all 10 teams, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali and FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis, it was agreed that the points system would remain unchanged after all for 2025.

“It was unanimously agreed that there would be no changes to the distribution of championship points following a recent proposal to consider expanding the point allocation beyond 10th place in a Grand Prix,” an FIA statement read.

F1 2024’s initial split between the top and bottom five is no longer in place, with teams like RB and Haas regularly outscoring a struggling Aston Martin team.

So far, only Sauber has failed to score points this season, making the reasoning for expanding the points system no longer valid.

The Commission also agreed to increase the minimum weight allocation for the drivers from 80kg to 82kg “in the interests of driver well-being”. That means the minimum car weight will go up by 2kg too, and rise from 798kg to 800kg for 2025.

It was also agreed that any costs relating to maternity/paternity leave, sick leave, and team entertainment will remain excluded from F1’s cost cap.

Amid plans to increase the current cost cap to around $220m, but move many more elements under it, one consideration was to bring the aforementioned costs under the cap.

But moving paternity/maternity…