Gurney's quote:
I'd like it better if P1 was 101 points. This way two second places is not as good as a win but consistency is not completely overlooked.
Safety has to be considered also. We don't need drivers being desperate out there either...
I agree to a point but consistency will still be rewarded even with the points for the winner at a 1000. If a person finished 16 of 18 races in second place and then had two third place finishes they would have 860 points. If a driver were to win one race and finish third in 16 of 18 races and have second in another he would have 1,530 points. The pesron with the race win (or most race wins) always wins the championship. Now if the guy with all the second place finishes would have gotten a win, a third place finish, and 16 second place finishes he would win the title at 1,830 pts.
Say driver A: scores 1 win and 17 second places he would have 1,850 points
And driver B: scores 2 wins and 16 4th place finishes, he would have 2,400 points
Driver B wins the title because he wins more races. It puts the sole emphasis on winning so drivers are not "taking it easy" to settle for a position. It has a sizeable reward for every poision gained, enough worth fighting for.
If a driver wins a race but then DNFs the rest of the season he will not win the championship unless all the other race winners were to do the exact same thing. It rewards winning and consistency. It allows drivers to get back into the title fight late in the season if the title leader starts feeling lazy.
Take 2005 and 2006 as an example. Alonso built an early season lead and then just relied on taking 2nd or 3rd to coast to a title knowing the winner could never take more than 2-4 points out of his lead. In the Gurney system he would be forced to fight for a win or have his lead come down quickly.
In 2005 it would have been Alonso with 8,379 pts to Kimi with 7,282 pts. Had Kimi won the races he dnf'ed he would have easily won the title. Alonso was awarded with his consistency.
In 2006 it would have been Schumacher with 7,314 to Alonso with 7,394. Again alonso is awarded with consistency as they were tied in race wins. If Schumacher wins in Japan instead of a DNF he wins.
This season is where it would really be important though
Currently it would be:
Kimi: 5,283
Hamilton: 4,403
Alonso: 4,373
Kimi would need the win to hold onto first place. If one of the others were to win he would lose out as he has not been quite as consistent as the other two over the course of the season. It rewards both race wins and consistency putting wins above consistency.