#HitTheBeeps

'Down to the wire.' Four simple words, but enough to send a burst of adrenaline down the spines of motor racing fans.

I first heard that phrase uttered from the voice of Formula One, Murray Walker, as a bleary-eyed 6 year old, waking up in a part of the morning you didn't realise existed, to watch the 1996 Championship showdown in Suzuka between Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve.

Damon Hill celebrating his 1996 World Championship after the Japanese Grand Prix

 The Canadian, who was on Pole, needed to win the race and Damon not to score any points for him to win the title.
To his dismay however (but to me and my mother's jubilation), it was he who retired and Damon Hill won the race and the Championship in a thrilling and emotional finale.

Those are the moments we remember and become forever etched into the history of the sport; unscripted, yet elegantly orchestrated to deliver drama audiences are gripped by.

And it is this that Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone wants to synthetically recreate with the introduction of the new double points system for the last grand prix of the season in Abu Dhabi by allowing the fight for the Championship to be contested for as long as possible and keep spectators, and audience figures, captivated.

Although all the teams agreed to its implementation for the 2014 season (with Ferrari Chairman Luca Di Montezemalo agreeing to it as long as it was only on a trail basis), many high profile figures, including Bernie Ecclestone himself, have raised concerns and anxieties over how it will impact the events to come and whether in fact, it may have the opposite effect and leave audiences perplexed by a skewed system that could turn 'down to the wire' sour.

Ecclestone, who in January wanted to increase the number of double points races from 1 to 3 (which would have included the USA and Brazil GP), admitted in April, ''(It is) probably not fair that somebodies done all that work early on and get so many points and somebody could just pop in and do a couple of races.''

As it stands now, the ones the double points system may haunt (and in actual fact be their biggest rival), is Mercedes whose drivers stand first and second, with Nico Rosberg currently 84 points ahead of 3rd place Daniel Ricciardo.

In previous years, we could be confident in predicting that the Number 6 or Number 44 silver arrow would be crowned World Champion, but, even though the likelihood of it happening is slim, it isn't out of the question that if Ricciardo, Alonso or even Bottas bridge the gap to the Mercedes by November and if they have the racing gods on their side, then with 50 points on offer for the winner in Abu Dhabi, the Championship is still open.

Executive Director of Mercedes AMG Petronas, Toto Wolff, who on Tuesday of this week sustained a fractured shoulder, collar bone, elbow and wrist in a cycling crash along the Danube River, stated it was a mistake by Formula One to award double points for the finale.

Toto Wolff

  ''I don't think it is fair and I don't think we should have done it.''

''But the commercial rights holders, who takes the sponsorship and cares about the TV audiences, said we need to keep the excitement until the last race, and it looks like he was right.''

It would be unimaginable for a driver to be denied the Championship because of the double points system; a cruel hand of fate robbing the title that all but had his named carved into it, being handed to another who clinched it in the dying embers of the season. Wolff pointed out that scenario would devastate the psyche and mind frame of the individual,

''I think the driver who loses the title because of double points will need some psychological treatment, but we are not there yet.''

How would double points in the past rewritten F1 history?

'If only...' Felipe Massa on the podium at the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix

 In 2003, Kimi Raikkonen would have won his first World Championship beating the legendary Michael Schumacher by 5 points.
Felipe Massa was celebrating in Brazil as he thought he was the new 2008 Champion, only for Hamilton to cross the line in 5th and beat him by a single point. If double points would have been available, Massa would have been crowned champion.
And finally the image of Fernando Alonso standing statuesque and empty as he watched Sebastian Vettel bask in the celebrations of winning the 2012 World Championship would have been reversed as the Spaniard would have earnt his 3rd World Title with his 36 points for 2nd place and Vettel only finishing 6th, enough to win the Championship by 7 points.

Crowds love an underdog story; a tale of one rising from adversity and winning against all odds. But when that comes at a cost- not only for the drivers, but to fans and audiences across the world who invest their time following the sport religiously seeing events unfold only for the ending to be that of a champion unveiled who may not be, in essence, truly deserving of it, may leave a bitter taste in the mouths in those who believe the likes of Rosberg and Hamilton have already done enough to be deserving of called champion.

Would it be a bad thing to see Daniel Ricciardo or Valterri Bottas take advantage of the double points system? Of course not; the desired effect would have been attained- audiences glued to their seats and talk of what had taken place in a wider spectrum for many weeks to come, keeping the interest in F1 burning bright.
Beneficially, it would not just count commercially but prove the talents of this golden age of new up-and-coming drivers like Ricciardo, Bottas and Magnussen who rightfully sit equal alongside the current masters of the sport like Alonso, Vettel and Button.

That is the reason why we'll all be watching on Sunday 23rd November- there is still a long way to go in this Championship and in the back of our minds an inquisitive voice may sound over the V6 engines and red lights and say, ''...What if...?''