Such is the way the points system has been messed around with over the years, that drivers who have yet to stand up on the podium - far less win a Grand Prix - have leapfrogged world champions in the all-time standings.

On 439 points, after 145 Grands Prix and never once making it to the podium, is Nico Hulkenberg, who in terms of points has out-stripped Niki Lauda and Mika Hakkinen, while Romain Grosjean, who last week scored his first points of the season, could this week surpass Jackie Stewart.

Hard to believe, but Max Verstappen who has only been in F1 a few short, but very impressive seasons, is currently 16th in terms of all-time point scorers, with Daniel Ricciardo tenth and Valtteri Bottas eleventh.

Following the current meme that 'everyone should get a prize', Formula One is now considering revamping the points system once again in order that every driver leaves a race weekend with something.

"They're considering whether the points system should go all the way down to 20th, 20th being every car scores a point if they finish the race," Force India co-owner Vijay Mallya has revealed in the wake of this week's meeting of the Strategy Group.

"The bottom starts with one point and then goes up," he added. "Or whether 10th should be extended down to 15th. All these discussions took place."

However, he admitted that there was disagreement at the meeting - a shock if ever there was one - with some claiming that points for the leading ten only offered a greater sense of achievement.

"The point that was made is that there's a certain panache at being referred to as finishing in the top 10," he told reporters at Silverstone. "That will get diluted if you start giving points down the line.

"When we do well all my friends send me messages saying, 'Congratulations, another top 10 finish', he admitted, "Top 10 has a certain sense of achievement to it.

"The counter point that was made was that if every driver gets a point, all the way down to the bottom, then every car is going to be racing for a point. So at the end of the day nobody is going to stop pushing the limits just because they're outside the top 10 and there is no reward at the end.

"There was a suggestion to make it up to 15. There is obviously going to be more debate. This was based on research that was done."

He revealed that consideration is also being given to awarding points for pole position.

"These ideas are up in the air," he admitted.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by phantom, 08/07/2018 8:10

"Yes, give EVERYBODY points. Devise little 5 lap sprint races within the big race. Points for fastest pit stop, points deducted for slowest. Give them points for passing other cars on-track!Why not set up the starting grid separating the cars based on the difference in Qualifying times -- like, if second place is .400 seconds behind, put them the relative distance back! If we're lucky we might have the pole-sitter inches behind the last place qualifier!

Wouldn't that make for really interesting passing and racing?

Eliminate Blue Flags to make things 'fair.'

Yes, I could go on and on, but I'm shaking out of the nightmare. :-)

Like 'Schnauzers' said: "If it broke, don't fix it." (it's not American, it's universal. People just don't listen!)"

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2. Posted by Schnauzers, 07/07/2018 16:16

"Whenever there has been a change in the World Championship points allocation, I do not recall any motor sport reporting media working out what changes there would have been to the results.

The changes I recall [at my age, memory is failing rapidly] was a) withdrawal of a point for fastest lap, b) the elimination of the irrelevant Indy 500 race, c) the change from 6 places to 8, followed by d) points being allocated down to the current 10 places.

I tried to set up a spreadsheet two years ago to see what differences would have occurred to Championship results but they were so few & far between I gave up the time consuming exercise.

There's an ancient American saying, "If it ain't busted, don't fix it""

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3. Posted by jcr, 07/07/2018 13:02

"Why not just give points for entering the championship ??"

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Points to be extended to 20th?

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