Felipe Massa knows who the CEO of F1 is and has offered an endorsement , of sorts, to the notion of an Olympic-style medal system for determining the F1 world champion. Score the most Gold medals, you win the title. This also would ahve made Massa the champion in 2008 had the system been in affect but that’s not why he’s endorsing…says he.
“Yes, it is an interesting idea,” the 27-year-old is quoted as saying by the Italian newspaper La Stampa.
“We will see what happens. I know what you want me to say: that with this system, now I would be the champion.
“But that is a false conclusion, because at the beginning of the season we knew what was the (current points) system, and that is the basis upon which we oriented ourselves.”
But let us clear thing sup a bit. Bernie took some time on his own website to explain a little more about his grand scheme of gold medals. Here is what the Sun quoted him as saying via the official F1 website:
“My idea is that instead of points we should award medals to the drivers finishing first to third in a race – gold, silver and bronze.â€
The drivers championship will be decided by whoever wins the most gold medals.
Ecclestone believes that this will make F1 more attractive for the fans and give more incentive to the drivers to push harder for the championship.
He said: “It will make F1 a much more exciting spectacle because it will incentivise drivers to race to win.
“We should see much more overtaking, drivers will take more chances and they will race each other all the way to the chequered flag.
“At the moment, quite often we see drivers settling for second, third or fourth position and the race can be dull in the final stint after the last round of pit stops.
“The drivers aren’t to blame, but the scoring system forces them to be more conservative.
“As things are, if they want to take the title, it is better to settle for a few, safe points rather than chase down the guy in front and risk going home with no points.â€
Fingers have been pointed at the drivers in the past for their anaemic approach to races in securing any points towards their championship.
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Click here to find out more!In 2007, Hamilton was leading the drivers’ championship before he even secured his first F1 win.
This season saw BMW Sauber driver Robert Kubica lead the championship on more points even though Hamilton, Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen had all won races.
With a dramatic overhaul expect for the drivers’ championship, the constructors championship will remain untouched.
Ecclestone said: “I think we should keep that as it is – awarding points for places 1 to 8 as we do now.
“For the teams, constructor points are purely a financial matter as they determine a team’s share of the annual prize fund.
“Fighting for a point or two really matters to the teams further down the grid and I don’t see any reason to change that.â€
This change anyone’s mind? Didn’t think so…except maybe Felipe’s. That little trophy company in slough that Bernie bought must be preparing for a lot of medal orders. ;)
