Formula One: Champion Vettel slams double points plan

Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel has slammed approved Formula One rule changes for next season, which includes doubling the points awarded for the last race of the season. -- FILE PHOTO: AFP
Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel has slammed approved Formula One rule changes for next season, which includes doubling the points awarded for the last race of the season. -- FILE PHOTO: AFP

BERLIN (AFP) - Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel has slammed approved Formula One rule changes for next season, which includes doubling the points awarded for the last race of the season.

"This is absurd and punishes those who have worked hard for a whole season," the 26-year-old German Red Bull driver told German magazine Sports Bild.

"Imagine that on the last weekend of the Bundesliga season, they suddenly double the points."

"I value the old traditions in Formula One and I don't understand this new rule." Motorsports' world governing-body FIA brought in a series of new reforms during a meeting of the F1 Strategy Group and Formula One Commission in Paris on Monday.

They included doubling the number of points in the world drivers' championships for the season's final race, meaning the winner would get 50 points.

Vettel was crowned world champion for the fourth successive year this season, winning 13 of the 19 races including nine in succession.

He took the world drivers' championships with a 145-point lead with 25 points being awarded for a victory.

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