» Double points to be dropped in 2015?

Bernie Ecclestone has hinted that Formula 1’s controversial double points finale rule could be abandoned after just a single season in a change to next year’s Sporting Regulations.

The FIA – at Ecclestone’s behest and with seemingly no opposition from the Formula 1 teams – elected to introduce the rule which doubles the championship points on offer for the season-ending race in a bid to ensure that the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship battles would go down to the wire.

The announcement was met with almost universal disapproval from fans, the media and even some drivers, who argued that its introduction was addressing a problem that no one had raised. Six of the last ten seasons have had the Drivers’ Championship battle resolved in the final race.

“Probably not,” Ecclestone said in the lead-up to this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, when asked about whether the controversial rule would be retained in 2015.

“We can’t see whether it has worked, so it depends. It just seemed to me the right way to keep the championship open, otherwise for the last three or four races, people are running in non-championship races.

“I wanted it to be for the last three races and then people would believe it was still possible for somebody else to win. But they all say I’m mad, so we won’t do it.”

Any changes to the FIA Sporting Regulations would have to be ratified by the FIA’s World Motorsport Council, which meets in December.

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