Sauber Wants Change in F1 Points System

Formula One should change its points system towards the one used by CART in the United States, team boss Peter Sauber said on Wednesday.

Sauber scored six points last season and finished eighth overall out of eleven teams while world champions Ferrari and runners-up McLaren won all seveteen races between them and cleaned up most of the points.

"We are very close to Arrows and based on the car we should be ahead of Arrows," Sauber told a news conference at the launch of his new car for 2001.

"With us only one driver has obtained points and that is Mika Salo in a very regular driving style. Had Pedro (Diniz) also scored points we would have been ahead of Arrows."

Arrows scored seven points in all.

Formula One offers points only for the top six finishers while the CART series rewards the top twelve as well as offering an extra point to the fastest qualifier.

Diniz finished ten of the seventeen races inside the top 12 and would have scored 35 points under the U.S. system. Salo would have taken a U.S. tally of 66.

"When you look at the rules for Indycar, which has a good point system, then we would have been sixth (overall)," said Sauber.