Grosjean makes case for F1 points expansion

Romain Grosjean feels increasing Formula 1 points finishes down to 15^th place would inject more excitement into the midfield battle without risking the front-runners and feels currently ‘the championship is dead’.

The Haas driver feels expanding F1’s points structure from the top ten to the top 15 means midfield teams wouldn’t solely focus on the few points places currently available behind the top three teams of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.

Grosjean feels F1 midfield teams’ strategies can be forced into conservative measures to protect P6 to P10 with no realistic chance of out-performing on of the top six drivers which is harming the wider championship battles.

“I am not in a position of winning so I don’t calculate the points the same as the top guys are doing,” Grosjean said. “What we are looking at is that we have 1-2-4-6 or eight sometimes. That’s what counts for the midfield.

“More than that is very rare so we don’t count it. A win is a win and it should be important. Bringing points to 15? Why not. Probably the championship for the midfield will be tighter.

“I am not against, I am not for it. At least P16, P15 you fight for a point while P11 is very painful not to have a point.

"It makes the championship exciting. Right now the championship is dead.”

While Grosjean accepts a potential drawback could be teams consistently finishing in the lower places accumulating more points over the season, but he feels with more chances to fight for points it could open up more possibilities for teams.

“It’s positive and negative because if you only finish 14th many, many times or 13th many, many times and other guys have got issues or don’t finish you could end up with the same number of points and they’re not really deserving in that aspect,” he said. “On the positive side, well you get to fight for points more often.”

Grosjean’s Haas squad are currently locked into a tight battle for Renault for fourth place in the F1 world constructors’ championship with 11 points splitting the US team from its French rivals with five races to go.

The ‘best of the rest’ F1 midfield honour could also be settled in court depending on the decision from next month’s FIA court hearing, which will review Haas’ appeal to overturn Grosjean’s disqualification from his sixth place result at the Italian Grand Prix for a technical infringement on his car’s floor design.

The decision would be worth a 10-point swing in the F1 world constructors' standings for Haas over Renault with Grosjean regaining sixth place which would demote Carlos Sainz Jr down a spot to ninth place in the final Italian race results.