Rule Changes for 2010

Last year saw some of the biggest changes in F1 since it first began. This year, the FIA have refined the rules in order to try and create more overtaking and thus a better spectacle for the fans. Here are some of the changes.

The points system has been totally revamped. Now the winner will receive 25 points, instead of 10, whilst second place gets 18, instead of 8. Here is a table to show the changes.

	Year
Position	2009	2010
1st	10	25
2nd	8	18
3rd	6	15
4th	5	12
5th	4	10
6th	3	8
7th	2	6
8th	1	4
9th		2
10th		1

The reasoning behind this change was the need to reward winning more. Before drivers would just take the 8 points, it was only 2 points less. Alonso won 2 championships with this cruise and collect mentality. Hopefully now it will force drivers to go for positions. Also, with the increase to 26 cars, the FIA wanted points for top 10, not top 8.

FOTA has come to a gentleman's agreement not to use the KERS energy system for 2010. It's only a gentlemen's agreement so a team could breakaway and use it if they felt like it, and if they could handle the stares whilst walking down the pitlane.

Minimum car weight has been increased to 620 kilograms from 605. This is to stop drivers going on crash diets so that they could have more ballast in their cars. Most drivers looked like skeletons this year, hopefully this rule will end that.

The qualifying system will change to accommodate the extra cars: 8 cars will drop out of the first qualifying session, 8 from the second and as in 2009, 10 cars will shoot-out for pole in the third session. The third session will now be run in low-fuel configuration due to the refuelling ban, and the top 10 starters will have to use the tyres they did their fastest lap on for the start of the race. Why? God knows....

As mentioned above, refueling is banned. This, again, is to stop drivers waiting to take positions in the pitlane.

The wheel covers are banned. Thank god, they were ugly. Especially Ferrari's painted ones, that remained stationary even at full speed.

The front tyres will be narrowed from 270mm to 245mm to improve the balance of grip between the front and rear, and each team will get 11 sets instead of 14.

The stewards will now be picked from a pool of professional stewards. This is to make the stewarding process more transparent.