Bernie has recently said that he thinks the point system encourages drivers to be conservative and content with second place rather than going for the win. I think we’ve known this to be true since they initiated the system. It was developed to reward consistency. As he says, it means there is less overtaking. So it got me wondering: why was it introduced? And who introduced it? I imagine at the time Bernie probably agreed with it. And I think it must have been one of the many anti-Schumacher measures from which the sport is still suffering. Michael was just winning by so much in 2002 that there had to be some way to get the opposition closer. The new points system did do this: remember Raikkonen almost won in 2003, even though he only had one victory. (It would’ve been a catastrophic error if he had won.) Since then we’ve had various other efforts to slow Schumacher down, but what do we do now that he’s gone? Well, we should just go back to the old system. Bernie’s comments are like the first steps in this process (as they always inevitably are).