Red Bull family at odds over potential new points system

RB team principal Laurent Mekies believes it is "fundamentally correct" that a change to the points system is voted through at a meeting of the F1 Commission on Thursday.

The topic, which could result in the top-12 drivers scoring points rather than the top 10, is under discussion in Geneva, with the 'smaller' teams eager for it to be implemented given the current state of F1.

At present, the leading five teams - Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and Aston Martin - have primarily monopolised the top-10 positions this season, dependent on reliability and incidents.

That has left the remaining five teams in Alpine, Williams, Haas, RB, and Stake, feeding off the scraps thrown to them when rare chances to score points materialise.

For the sake of the competition, Mekies feels it crucial such a small change is made, which would not affect the current points in place for the top-seven positions. Eighth would then score five points, down to a point for 12th.

With the hope the proposal can be pushed through for next season, speaking to RacingNews365, Mekies said: "We think it's fundamentally correct to do that.

"There are no back markers anymore. You have 10 very strong teams, with the five at the front flying, and you have six OEMs plus Red Bull Racing, so that's seven top teams, if you want to call them that.

"Then you have a mega-fight every race weekend in the bottom half of the grid between these other five teams, including OEMs.

"So for us, pole position is P11. A race win is P11 because the reliability of the cars is fantastic. The top five teams are finishing pretty much every race."

Mekies insists the teams lying sixth to 10th in the constructors' championship should not have to rely on outside influences to collect points.

"We have this intense fight between seriously big teams, and we are all becoming big teams now, so why would you not give any recognition to that group having to rely on outside circumstances to pick up a point?" he added.

"It is right for the fans for them to read that battle, and it's also more meritocratic. Today, if you have one strange race with a lot of rain, then we might score a P4, P5. The other guys might as well stay home for half a season because we are only battling for that P10 on a good day where we can beat one of these other cars.

"It doesn't affect any of the fight at the front because the top-seven positions are unchanged, and it doesn't affect any of the historical results.

"We think it's a good reflection of how intense the fight is now, how tight the pack is, and the fact you have 10 very strong teams and with very important brands that are there. It's a good way to get everyone to embrace that fight."

Historically, Red Bull and its sister team - be it Toro Rosso or AlphaTauri in its former guises - have joined forces and voted together on past topics. On this occasion, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner does not see the need for the system to change.

"I'm sort of ambivalent to it," said Horner. "You can see it's very competitive, and it feels like there are two groups in Formula 1 at the moment, with the teams from six to 10 in as hard a fight as one to five.

"It's one of those things where you just have to run the numbers and look at the analytics and ask 'What would it change?', so I'm impartial to it. Unless, of course, you're paying points money."