The biggest threat to the 2014 F1 season

It wasn't the complaints about noise. It wasn't the claims that new rules had created a form of taxi-cab racing. And it wasn't that campaign by Bernie Ecclestone to talk down everything Formula 1 2014 had to offer.

No, the tornado of negativity that blew through F1 in the early stages of this season was first stirred by the furore over the introduction of double points for the season finale (and then refusal to back down) that left everyone bar those who voted for it up in arms.

Worse than that, it showed how little the sport's chiefs and team bosses really cared about what those who follow the sport think.

And while F1 has come on brilliantly to show that the noise has a different quality that most of us have come to like, that the racing is still sensational, and that some unreliability is not necessarily a bad thing, the dark spectre of double points is looming ever larger - and has the chance of wrecking what instead should be a classic season.

For with the cars barely cooled down after Lewis Hamilton's second retirement of the season in Canada, which left him 22 points adrift of team-mate Nico Rosberg, Mercedes chiefs were already talking about why the title fight was far from over: because of what was on offer in Abu Dhabi later this year.

Indeed, double points may be good news for one of the Mercedes drivers if he is well behind his rival heading to the final round of the year.

But what criticism could F1 be left open to if a shock result at the end means the man who has done the best job over the year is ultimately defeated at the last hurdle through something that should never have been there in the first place?

With the way the season is panning out - with Mercedes looking likely to keep grabbing one-two finishes as long as their cars hold up - it's quite a scary prospect to work out what Hamilton needs to do to ensure that he is not at risk of heading to Abu Dhabi with less than a 50-point margin that would guarantee him the title.

Rosberg currently has that 22-point edge in the standings - thanks in part to the retirements that Hamilton suffered in Melbourne and Montreal.

Rosberg has led the championship for most of the season © LAT

Should Hamilton recover in the way he says he will and pull off a series of wins to claw his way back to the top of the standings - just as he did from Malaysia to Spain - then it'll take him until the Hungarian Grand Prix next month to get back ahead.

But to build up enough of a gap to ensure that a reliability drama in Abu Dhabi does not rob him of the title at the last hurdle, he will, if Rosberg finishes second each time, have to win every race from now until the Brazilian GP to seal the crown with one race to go. That's 10 consecutive victories...

And should Rosberg turn the tables just once - as he did in Monaco and as he looked set to do so in Canada - then it will mean that the gap between the pair will never get above the magic 50-point buffer that would ensure Hamilton could not be robbed at the end.

Can you imagine the headlines and arguments if Hamilton were to arrive in Abu Dhabi, having won 14 races in a campaign in which he has had to dig pretty deep, and he is then left without the title?

This of course is a doomsday scenario for the sport. But it's one that's perfectly feasible judging by what we have seen so far this year - and one that F1's chiefs should have considered when they refused to back down over the rule.

It's too late to change double points for this year now, so let's hope for the sake of F1 that the Rosberg and Hamilton title battle is decided in a fair way on the track - not as the result of something fluky happening on the final afternoon of the season when there are twice as many points at stake.

Perhaps best of all for everyone - Rosberg and Hamilton included - is that their brilliant duel is effectively settled before Abu Dhabi so double points never influences the outcome at all.

After that, F1's most hated rule change should be ditched forever.