Points adjustment set to be discussed

In December last year the FIA's World Motor Sport Council approved an F1 Commission proposal that the top ten finishers in each race should score under a 25-20-15-10-8-6-5-3-2-1 distribution to reflect the fact that the grid was growing from 20 to 26 cars in 2010.

But Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali confirmed at the Wrooom ski meeting today that this may yet be adjusted, amid suggestions of a minor tweak to give a greater percentage separation between the first and second place scores.

"There's going to be a meeting in the next couple of weeks to reconsider some items of the regulations, among which is the scoring system," he said.

"In the agenda we do not only have the fact that we have to re-seed the scoring system, but also there may be other issues that may be important, linked to the use of tyres, linked to the number of pitstops. This is going to be defined by the end of January.

"There's going to be a meeting of the Formula 1 Commission, I think it's going to be 1 February. Then we have to give some time to our fans, the media and all those involved, to understand what these changes are going to be. This issue is not stable yet. To date I cannot anticipate anything because we still have to discuss it."

He does not expect any major changes to the Q1/Q2/Q3 qualifying format, but hinted at small adjustments to make the system work with the 2010 race format, under which mid-race refuelling is removed.

"[Qualifying] should remain the same as a system," said Domenicali. "Clearly the cars will do qualifying without a fuel load. The discussion is about the tyres which can be used and if the tyres used in Q3 have to be used at the start of the race."

He believes that all parties involved in F1 also need to finalise a long-term strategy for the championship during the early part of this year.

"2013 is very close. We're going to have new challenges then," Domenicali said. "From a technical point of view we're going to have to review the car concept with a view also of the new environmental needs and the new technologies that have to be implemented not only in the automotive world but in the sports world.

"We're going to have to renegotiate the commercial agreement. We have many issues that we have to tackle, so in the coming weeks we're going to have to put down an agenda in FOTA with our priorities."

Domenicali suggested that a relaxation of the new strict testing restrictions should also be discussed in the near future.

"I think we have gone too much under the limit," he said. "For example with Michael [Schumacher] - that he has to use GP2 shows that clearly we have to make some changes.

"We believe we have to reconsider this again, with a goal of cutting down costs of course. But there is also safety for young drivers and the need of having to work on the race track. If we limit the costs on one hand we increase the costs in other areas. One of the activities the FOTA teams have to tackle is how to increase the number of tests, I think it is necessary to do so."

He also thinks that the issue of teams running third cars could be revisited if some of the new squads joining F1 in 2010 run into trouble.

"We're going to have to understand how these teams are going to be, if they're going to follow up on their programme," Domenicali said. "We've seen many meteorites in the past, and we need stars that stick in the sky.

"As for the third car, we have always been in favour of this possibility, and I think this follows up on the interest of our fans who want to see big teams with big names.

"We think this could be discussed again should things go differently, should there be a situation in which some teams may not be as sturdy as they have presented themselves. From this point of view, we've always said that a third car could be a possibility for allowing Formula 1 to grow."