Ecclestone wants medal system for 2009
Formula One supremo unveils radical new medal system to spice up the action
Bernie Ecclestone is confident that his controversial medal system to decide the Formula One world drivers’ championship – in which points are replaced by medals for the top three finishers – will be given the green light by the FIA at the next World Motorsport Council meeting in December.
“It’s going to happen,” said Ecclestone, speaking at the launch of a technology partnership between Formula One and electronics giant LG.
“All the teams are happy. The whole reason for this was that I was fed up with people talking about no overtaking.”
“The reason there’s no overtaking is nothing to do with the circuit or the people involved, it’s to do with the drivers not needing to overtake.”
“If you are in the lead and I’m second, I’m not going to take a chance and risk falling off the road or doing something silly to get two more points.”
“If I need to do it to win a gold medal, because the most medals win the world championship, I’m going to do that. I will overtake you.”
Ecclestone pointed to this year’s title battle between Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa as an example where a reluctance to overtake hindered the racing spectacle.
“This year, we saw on a number of occasions Lewis not overtaking Massa for that reason,” he said. “If he’d driven for me, tried it and made a mistake, I would have complained. It’s just not on that someone can win the world championship without winning a race.”
Controversy
Former team boss and recently confirmed BBC pundit Eddie Jordan dismissed the new system as “nonsense”, saying that it would damage teams who lack the resources to challenge the front-runners.
“I think it’s a nonsense,” he told BBC Radio Five Live. “The focus of everyone in Formula One at the moment must be on the current situation with costs and cost cutting, and nothing else. The rest is just dressing it up.
“The points are necessary. I was one of the team principals in the team principals’ meetings who advocated that the points should go down to eighth place, because one point to a team down there is as important as a win is to the likes of McLaren and Ferrari, and we must never forget that.
“I can promise you, having been in that position, two points against no points is a huge difference.”
“Drivers like (Felipe) Massa, who started at the very bottom and worked his way up, know how important those points are at the back of the field.
“Everybody that’s involved in the financial side knows how important it is, and the extraordinary excitement that there is for getting a point at the back.
“McLaren and Ferrari are working on a budget of perhaps 250 million, and then you have other teams like Force India and Toro Rosso, who to everyone’s surprise won a race this year, who would have maybe ten or eight times less budget to play with, and inferior drivers because they’re learning their trade and they will come and be world champions in years to come.
“But they have to find their feet somewhere, and that place has to be in the smaller teams because they’re the people who take the risks.”
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Bring back classic F1! | Nov 27, 2008 | Reply
I believe that a return to the 6-place points system is in order, with a gap of 4 championship points between the race winner and 2nd position.
Now that Schumacher has retired, there is simply no need to keep the 8-place “gap closing” system put in place to make winning harder for him to do.
The last couple of seasons have been very close, with the eventual Champion being just the 1 point ahead of the man finishing the year in second. All because of the system that is currently in place.
Therfore it would be much better to return to the system where race winners are better rewarded, thus increasing the need to overtake, and second to take first place. That way you get incidents like the 2000 Beligian GP with Hakkinen overtaking Schumacher for the win with a handful of laps to go because finishing 2nd would have been bad for his championship. These days this doesn’t happen, and drivers don’t mind losing 2 points in 1 race if they are in the title race.
F1 Fan | Nov 30, 2008 | Reply
I have to agree with the previous comment.
The points are important for the small teams. It is sad that the way you calculate who is the champion, had to be changed just because one man dominated the sport.
But I, as many other fans I’m sure, do not want to watch another race where the title contenders are happy with finishing second or even lower and don’t want to even try and overtake the car in front.
Bigger gap between points awarded for 1st and 2nd place will be enough to bring a bit of excitement.
Renaultfan | Dec 2, 2008 | Reply
Why not have a point system of 10-6-5-4-3-2-1?
Pros
1. Many drivers still get points
2. Winner is rewarded better
3. Second and lower place are close to each other which means more competition of higher places
4. Seven drivers get points so there can’t be any four team dynasty. There will be more rivalry bethween teammates.
5. Old records are just as challenging to reach
Why only 3 best get prizes, but points always have to be a pair number.
Medal system sounds stupid. Add the short races from GP2 and we have a dead F1.