Remarkable rule changes for 2009 Formula 1 Season

Formula 1 rules evolve every year, that’s one of the core factors which keeps the F1 fans guessing what would happen with the new rules. For the 2009 Formula 1 season FIA has changed the rules remarkably. Slick Tyres were not used in F1 races for around 10 years due to safety reasons but now it’s back in action for the 2009 Formula 1 season. This alone would not affect the end result of the series much however this would indeed increase the excitement of every race, but if the track is wet and with the possible crashes and safety cars coming in to the track it would even slow down the races more than we think like what happened in the 90’s.

Slick Tyre (Bridgestone)

As of technical changes FIA has announced that they would be allowing Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) for the F1 cars in the 2009 season. Now this is something huge, again there are both ups and downs. Acceleration wise it would definitely be an advantage but additional weight of the KERS equipment would be a problem for higher speeds. So in general for the tracks which have fewer straight lines than the bends this would be ideal. But I wonder how many teams would be actually using this new technology. As of the movement of this being written, Renault has confirmed that they would be using KERS for the Australian Grand Prix.

And the last but not the least, the biggest change as I see is the deciding criteria of who would be the Drivers champion. Earlier it was the driver who scores most of the points in the season who will be the champion, but in 2009 FIA has changed the rules. It’s the driver who wins the most number of races in the 2009 season will be the world champion. However the rest of the places would be decided on the old points system. This is wired indeed, if this rule was there in the 2008 season then Massa would have been the champion in 2008 though he has got 1 point less than Hamilton.

I have serious doubts with the FIA’s rule about deciding who would be the Drives champion, and we could even expect some twisted results at the end of the series. I believe the beauty of the championship should decide on the last game, like in the 2007 & 2008. But if the new rules are to be applied then the decision would come long before the last race and the final race would have no much excitement :(