Formula One will this week discuss a plan to extend grand prix championship points from the top 10 to the top 12 finishers of a race.
Under the current structure, the top ten drivers score points, which are handed out as 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1.
On Thursday, the suggestion of changing that format will be a topic for the F1 Commission, and if agreed the new structure would come into force from 2025.
The plan as it stands currently would not change the points on offer for the top seven, but would alter the points from eighth downwards, going from 4-2-1-0-0 to 5-4-3-2-1.
Sources have told ESPN the mooted change has come due to pressure from smaller teams, who feel there would be more value if additional points were on offer given how the top five teams (representing 10 of the grid’s drivers) are a step ahead of the bottom five teams in terms of pure pace.
Three of F1’s 10 teams — Williams, Sauber and Alpine — are yet to score a point this year.
Making sure the top seven remain unchanged is a bid to secure support from bigger outfits — six of the 10 teams need to agree for the proposal to pass. The Commission is not bound by a decision however, as teams could instead vote to defer the vote in order to further analyse the pros and cons of the change.
F1 had slowly increased the amount of points on offer for its drivers over the last few decades.
The old 10-6-4-3-2-1 system became 10-8-5-4-3-2-1 in 2003 in a bid to shake up the championship fight, before the current format was introduced for 2010.
F1’s most recent change around points was in 2021 and the bonus point on offer for a driver who finishes in the top 10 and records the fastest lap of the race. Under the proposed system, this would remain the same, albeit with the bonus point extending to anyone who finished in the top 12.