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The 2014 Formula One world champion will be decided at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Sunday
Lewis Hamilton leads his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg by 17 points
Double points are on offer in Abu Dhabi with the race win worth 50 instead of 25 points
The new ruling has proved controversial with Rosberg describing it as "artificial"
Formula One’s main protagonists are saving their best until last thanks to a controversial new rule change at Sunday’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The 2014 drivers’ championship will be decided at the desert denouement when Mercedes title rivals Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg roll out for a double or nothing gamble.
Hamilton leads Rosberg in the standings by a healthy 17-point margin, but a new rule awarding double points at the season finale has raised the stakes.
The top-10 finishers at the twilight race will get two points for the price of one with the race winner earning 50 points.
The rule change means it is mathematically much easier for Rosberg – son of 1982 world champion Keke Rosberg – to snatch the title from championship leader Hamilton.
Should Rosberg win the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Hamilton, who won the world championship with McLaren in 2008, must finish second to stop his German teammate winning his first world title.
If the race win was worth 25 points – as it has been at the preceding 18 races this season – Hamilton could finish as low as sixth and still claim a second world championship.
The double points rule was the brainchild of the F1’s commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone and was introduced by the sport’s governing body the FIA.
The new ruling dangled the carrot of keeping the championship alive until the very last race, and so it has proved.
But the novelty of double points has had a lukewarm reception, even from the man who has the most to gain from the rule change.
“I find it artificial and I don’t like it in general,” Rosberg told the media after his victory at the last race in Brazil.
“Of course, now with the way it is, it’s great for me. We’ll see how it goes this year. We need to keep on reviewing it.”
Describing the double points as “artificial” puts Rosberg in tune with the general feeling among F1’s inner circle of drivers, teams and the traveling media pack.
The concept of a single race being arbitrarily twice as valuable as the other 18 on the calendar has been hard to digest among the sport’s diehard racers.
But hard-racing Hamilton – who describes his attacking style behind the wheel as “driving like I stole it” – is adopting a cool and calm approach to the high stakes race in Abu Dhabi.
“It’s something you can’t be thinking about,” said Hamilton, who has won 10 races in 2014 compared to Rosberg’s five victories so far.
“It’s not something I’m willing to accept. I’m just going to keep pushing as hard as I can and to win as many points as I can.
“I can’t be thinking, ‘what happens, if this happens in the future?’ If we lived our life like that maybe you won’t achieve what you set out to achieve.”
The Mercedes hybrid turbo car has been the dominant force this season and the team sealed its first-ever team title with three races still to go.
An 11th one-two finish in Brazil saw the Silver Arrows also break the previous record for the most one-two finishes in a single season set by fierce McLaren rivals Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in 1988.
Read: Mercedes rivalry hots up
But the drivers’ championship, which has swung between Hamilton and Rosberg throughout the season, is still poised precariously ahead of the Abu Dhabi finale.
“Both are worthy champions,” Mercedes motorsport director Toto Wolff said of his dueling drivers on the team’s official website.
“Of course, there will be bitter disappointment for one of them and great joy for the other. It is now down to us to ensure that this fascinating year concludes in the right way by giving Lewis and Nico a platform to settle the title purely on the track. May the best man win!”
There are whispers the Mercedes bosses are privately worried a reliability problem could decide which of their men wins the title.
Wolff told the BBC if Hamilton broke down during the race it would be “a nightmare.”
Hamilton retired with an engine problem in Australia, a brake failure in Canada and because of damage to his car after Rosberg collided with his teammate in Belgium.
In turn, Rosberg failed to finish the British Grand Prix with a gearbox failure and electronics problems stopped him early in Singapore.
A reliability issue for Hamilton could also be a major public relations headache for Mercedes, especially in the competitive arena of F1 where the finger of suspicion is always ready to point.
It could also have ramifications on the driver market. Hamilton’s Mercedes contract runs out at the end of 2015 and he is due to discuss new terms after the season while Rosberg signed an improved multi-year contract in the summer.
Ferrari and McLaren are yet to confirm their 2015 driver lineups while on Wednesday Romain Grosjean became the latest driver to secure his seat for next season with Lotus.
For now, the Mercedes duelists go into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend knowing the title is in their hands.
Hamilton won the twilight race for McLaren in 2011 and has taken pole at the glittering Yas Marina circuit twice but was beaten in qualifying and the race by his Mercedes teammate Rosberg last season.
“I go into this race with no fear and with every belief that this can be my title,” said Rosberg. “Win or lose, double points or no double points, I feel proud of what I have achieved this year.”
On the opposite side of the Mercedes garage, Hamilton is also counting on fortune’s favor in Abu Dhabi.
“I’m hoping that bad luck won’t play a part this time around and I know the team has been working flat out to make sure it doesn’t,” he said.
“I’m feeling relaxed, I’m feeling confident and I’m ready to win.”
F1’s twilight finale in Abu Dhabi is poised to be a sensational showstopper but when the sun goes down on the 2014 season only one man be will riding into the sunset as the new world champion.