We saw some ludicrous happenings in the 2013 season, such as the race of the empty stadium at South Korea, as Formula 1  seems hell bent on chasing the dirty lucre.  Then there is DRS – the drag reduction system introduced in 2011 to increase overtaking and make F1 “more exciting for spectators” – former Williams, BAR and Renault driver Villeneuve amongst others has hit out at this.

“Once you start going down that route you cannot stop, you have to make more and more of it,” he said.

He then went on, “What’s the next thing that will come? It becomes more and more artificial and, instead of having a positive effect, you end up making it where people don’t respect it any more.”

The current stack of drivers seem to lack personality too, as their tongues are tied by large pay packets that prevent them speaking out against these changes and the decline into farce.

One major change for the 2014 season is the decision to award double points at the final race in an attempt to ensure the fight for the world championship lasts as long as possible. There has even been talk of extending double points to the last three races of the season! Now this is beyond the ludicrousness of racing in remote South Korea. This latest F1 ruling is  frankly ruinous, it is ridiculous, a notion of such game-changing idiocy and crassness  that it suggests a sport in retreat,  running away not just from the principles of fair play, but from reality too.

As said, the 2014  season will see the last race of the  season carry double points. On November 23 the winner of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will receive twice the reward of the winner in Brazil 14 days earlier. Or the winner anywhere, for that matter.

From Singapore to the United States, the winner receives 25 points — until the circus hits Abu Dhabi, however, when the same success is suddenly worth 50 points. Tired of finding ways to prevent the dominance of Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull,and failing  miserably, now we get an arbitrary scoring system that could see the championship awarded to an undeserving pretender in a casual  travesty at the final knockings..  It is like the Premier League being decided on the last day by a cup final! And this is called sport.

Under these regulations the 2008 champion would have been Felipe Massa, not Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso would have landed a third title at Vettel’s expense in 2012.

So was Alonso the best driver in 2012? No, Vettel was. So why should he be champion? How is that a  positive outcome for F1?