London: Formula One teams and decision makers have agreed changes to the points system and tyre rules for this season as well as a ban on controversial ‘double diffusers’ from 2011.

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) said in a statement on Tuesday that the new points system will see the top 10 rewarded in a 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 sequence to encourage what it called “the race to win”.

The FIA had said in December that the points would be allocated 25-20-15-10-8-6-5-3-2-1 to reward race winners and encourage overtaking.

Jenson Button would still have captured the 2009 championship, but by a greater margin over Sebastian Vettel with the new system.

The Formula One Commission, which groups the teams and major stakeholders, agreed the amendments to the sporting and technical regulations at a meeting on Monday.

The measures will be submitted to the World Motor Sport Council for final approval within 48 hours, although that can usually be taken for granted.

The tyre rules will be modified so that those drivers reaching the third and final phase of qualifying will have to start the race on the same set of tyres with which their grid time was set.

That will introduce another strategic element to races.

“The number of dry weather tyres sets allocated per team has been reduced from 14 to 11,” the FIA added.

“In addition, to encourage teams to run during the Friday practice sessions, one set has to be returned before the start of the second practice session, and two sets before the start of the third practice session.”

For 2011, the ‘double diffusers’ that pitched last season into controversy from the opening race when some teams such as eventual champions Brawn turned up with a radical interpretation, will be banned.

The permitted height of the main diffuser was also reduced from 175mm to 125mm.

The so-called ‘split level’ or ‘double-decker’ diffuser used by Brawn, Toyota and Williams was a radical re-working of a device that improves downforce by channelling the flow of air smoothly under the car.

The other teams then had to rush to copy it after losing appeals against it.

Teams unveiling their 2010 cars have been coy about their rear diffusers, sparking fears that a fresh row could erupt when the season starts on March 14 in Bahrain.

“This is the first car in which we have had a clean sheet of paper to really exploit the interpretation that was developed last year for a design of floors,” McLaren engineering director Paddy Lowe said at his team’s car launch last week.

“You will see we have produced a fairly extreme incarnation of that but we won’t be alone in that. We believe you will see some pretty extreme solutions on our competitors’ cars as well.”

Meanwhile, in Valencia, Felipe Massa continued to show no effects from the life-threatening injuries sustained last year as the Ferrari driver led Formula One testing on Tuesday.

Massa clocked a best lap of 1 minute, 11.722 seconds around the Cheste circuit to lead Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi by just over three-tenths of a second after the morning session. Lewis Hamilton’s first spin in his new McLaren left him third best with a lap of 1:12.508.

Nico Rosberg of Mercedes GP and Williams driver Rubens Barrichello were next, with Renault’s Robert Kubica and Sebastien Buemi of Toro Rosso completing the field.

Massa was fastest in the season’s first session on Monday, which marked the Brazilian’s first drive since a freak crash at Hungary in July.

Hamilton said his new McLaren is a “huge improvement” on the car which last year cost him any real chance of retaining his Formula One world title.

The British driver eventually won two races last season but McLaren’s terrible start left him too far behind to defend his 2008 crown.

Speaking after testing Tuesday from the Cheste circuit, Hamilton said it was “night and day in difference and feel compared to the first lap on the first test day in 2009.

“Obviously I’ve kept a close eye on the development of this car (so) I was very excited to get into this car today to see what parts we improved and hopefully that we had got rid of most of the bugs we had in the previous car,” Hamilton said. “And we got in today and it felt good.”

Hamilton believes this season’s rule changes have not been drastic, which means cars have evolved rather than been overhauled.

Hamilton warned it was still too early to say whether McLaren had a car capable of winning the championship.

The Vijay Mallya-owned Force India Tuesday named 23-year-old Scot Paul di Resta as their test and reserve driver for the 2010 Formula One World Championship.

Di Resta, who outshone his American rival JR Hildebrand in the young driver test at Jerez in December, was unveiled Tuesday at the Glasgow headquarters of Force India’s principal sponsors Whyte & Mackay.

“We are very proud to have someone of Paul’s calibre joining the team as his potential was clear in the test and he has the right attitude for making it in F1,” Force India chairman Vijay Mallya said in a statement. (Agencies)