Four time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel has criticised FIA plans to award double points for the final race of the season from 2014.

Under the new double points rule, the winning driver of the final race in Abu Dhabi next season, will score 50 points instead of 25 under the proposed rule change.

The FIA has set out a number of rule changes for next season and beyond, including a global cost cap in 2015, changes to penalties for minor infringements and permanent driver numbers. The new double points rule however, is the one that will raise the most eyebrows.

The decision to award double points, towards the drivers’ and constructors’ championships, at the final race of the season was made “to maximise focus on the championship until the end of the campaign”, according to a statement released by the FIA.

Vettel would still have won this year’s title in India but would have lost the 2012 title to Fernando Alonso if the double points rule had been in place at the time and the German driver is far from happy.

“This is absurd and punishes those who have worked hard for a whole season,” said the Vettel, who won the final nine races of the 2013 season.

“Drivers, fans and experts are horrified,” he told German newspaper, Sports Bild.

“I value the old traditions in Formula 1 and do not understand this new rule,” he continued. “Imagine, in the last Bundesliga match of the season there was suddenly double points.”

His new Red Bull team-mate, Daniel Ricciardo, also appeared to be against the proposed double points rule change.

“Seems to be pretty bizarre. Not sure who came up with that one..,” Ricciardo posted on Twitter.

Interestingly, Red Bull is one of the teams who sit on F1′s strategy group, which contributed to the new regulations being passed. The FIA and Formula One Management also vote on the changes.

But Red Bull’s Helmut Marko said that the team was opposed to the changes and revealed that the original plan was for the final four races of the year to carry double points.

“We were against it,” he said. “But our team boss Christian Horner was overruled.”

“At first it was planned to be awarded double points for the last four races,” he continued. “Then the world championship up to that point would have been almost useless.”