7 Times F1 Made Itself Look Stupid By Introducing And Then Scrapping Rules

1. Double points

This rule was hugely controversial and was introduced for the 2014 season. It was widely panned by drivers and fans but still stayed in the regs. Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg went head-to-head for the drivers’ title and while double points could have contributed massively to the final result, Rosberg ended up picking up a problem and Hamilton took an easy win. Unsurprisingly this blip in F1’s rule history was quickly canned.

The 2005 season produced a bizarre ban on tyre changes during pitstops. Only refuelling was allowed, the complete opposite of today’s regulations where tyres are changed and refuelling is forbidden.

Tyres had to last the entire race and changes were only able to be changed without a penalty in very specific circumstances like punctures, bad flat-spots and obviously if weather conditions changed. It’s safe to say the rule didn’t go down well or help the on-track action, and we never saw it again after the conclusion of the season. Thankfully.

3. Elimination qualifying

This won’t be the only qualifying format to be included on this list, but it is the most recent to be sent to the scrapheap. The elimination-style qualifying system was introduced for the start of the 2016 F1 season and lasted just two races before the series reverted back to the previous format.

It essentially saw seven drivers knocked out of qualifying every 90 seconds in the first two sessions, with eight then taking part in Q3. They would again be eliminated from pole contention every 90 seconds until the final two drivers were left to battle for P1. It bombed pretty hard and despite being kept for a second race, F1 finally saw sense and went back to the old system. Phew.

4. Radio rules

I’ve lost track of the number of changes to the team radio rules over the last few seasons. It first came under fire due to what amounted to driver coaching, with tweaks being made to try and stop this – basically putting the driver back in control.

Restrictions were brought in and these were altered again ahead of the 2016 season to enable strategy messages to be communicated. But things got a hell of a lot more complicated when later on the FIA clamped down on radio rules even further, after Nico Rosberg was penalised for a message during the British GP.

The whole issue surrounded whether drivers could radio with problems and the team could tell them how to resolve it. The FIA decided to take the rules further by saying drivers had to pit if they wanted to communicate these kind of messages over team radio. It was met with criticism and now the whole radio ban has been scrapped altogether (thankfully).

5. Aggregate qualifying

Told you there would be another qualifying format. Aggregate qualifying saw two sessions take place, with one lap per driver in each segment. The first would be on low fuel, the second would be on race fuel and the laptimes were then added together to work out the grid. Kinda confusing. It didn’t produce a particularly good spectacle too and it was binned just six races into the 2005 season.

6. Helmet design change ban

OK, so this one hasn’t completely changed but before the start of the season the FIA introduced a strict ban on drivers changing their helmet designs. I wasn’t a particular fan of this idea - it’s obviously good to recognise a driver through one helmet livery but it’s also really cool to see creative, special and different designs.

The complete ban was relaxed slightly for 2016, with the design needing to be substantially in the same livery and now each driver has one race per season to use a special, different helmet design. So that’s a good step forward.

7. Standing restarts

This one was scrapped before it was even introduced. For 2015 standing restarts looked set to be brought in, with drivers lining up on the grid after each safety car – just like a normal start. Despite being agreed to earlier in 2014 it was latter put in the ‘failed F1 rules’ bin ahead of the new season, meaning it we never actually saw it in action.

What other short-lived F1 rules can you think of? Let us know in the comments below!