Bernie Ecclestone has declared that his controversial medal systemto decide the Formula One world drivers’ champion will be introduced
next year.
Speaking at the announcement of a technology partnership between F1
and Korean electronics giant LG in London today, Ecclestone said he
expects his plan to be ratified at the next FIA World Motorsport
Council meeting.
"It’s going to happen," said Ecclestone. "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 added that his system would promote a more exciting world championship fight.
"This year, we saw on a number of occasions Lewis not overtaking
Massa for that reason," said Ecclestone. "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."
When asked of the timescale for implementing his plan, Ecclestone
replied: "Next year. I’m hoping it will be approved at the next FIA
meeting."
When then asked if it was fair that someone who wins six races but
doesn’t finish any others, beats someone who had finished every race in
second place, Ecclestone replied: "He’ll have to try harder next year."
Under the proposed medal scheme, Felipe Massa rather than Lewis
Hamilton would have won this year’s world championship with six race
victories to Hamilton’s five.
Oh come on Bernie. You seriously have got to go, no wonder Slavica has filed for divorce. Okay, so a gold medal might motivate a second place driver to go for the pass. But what about the 18 other drivers on the grid? They have no reason whatsoever to overtake or race anyone, because they won’t be receiving any points now or any medals (though as later gathered in the comments section below, the championship will be based on the most 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th places and etc). I
agree that the driver with the most wins should be the champion, but
consistency is also key. They can’t be so consistant as to win every race
of the season, so this gold/silver/bronze medal idea doesn’t make any difference.
For example, if Kimi was second, he’ll try and win the race anyway as would any other driver. But if they cannot reach the leader, then that’s just the way it is, the car isn’t quick enough or they simply can’t manage it. But if a driver in third place is racing against second place, would a silver medal be of any significance to him? Take Kimi and Kubica at Fuji – Kubica was in second and Kimi was closing in behind, they had a great tussle and it went off track even, but Kimi didn’t take it so seriously because it wasn’t for the win. The win itself is the motivation, well it should be for a true racer (we Raikkos agree on that). A gold medal will just cause accidents and yeah we really want Hamilton or Massa to be more wreckless than they already are when racing their main rivals, aye?
I think the drivers should be asked about this, not the teams. Oh and by the way, F1 is a motorsport, not an Olympic sport no matter how much you want it to be Bernie.
The picture above is taken from F1Racing’s latest magazine issue, and it’s a Lewis Hamilton World Champion issue. Every page is about him. I haven’t read it yet as you could understand, but I have already read the article on Bernie’s crazy idea. And the picture caption says: "Who’s at the top of the medals table now, Lewis?" – "No idea. Don’t ask Kimi, he gets confused easily".
P.S For those of you wondering where on earth the 2009 Kimi calendar is, it’s still in the process of being turned into a physical good which may consume further time. In other words, there was a delay but it should be online by the end of this week! It looks fantastic, and you’re going to love it!
FUCK ISRAEL 
Crapity, crap, crap! I really don´t understand where the old bat is trying to go with this, I mean it´s pointless! As you said Saima, the drivers in the top places might fight to get ahead, but those in the back, what´s the point for them? And saying that the reason for not overtaking is because the drivers don´t need to overtake, and that the circuits have nothing to do with it, it´s complete and utter bs! The circuits are the problem, with all these new venues that we have on the calendar, boring venues, that offer no entertainment at all…..wouldn´t it be wiser to reinstate the older venues, stop axing current ones (*cough, cough*, France & Canada, *cough*), instead of this stupid medals system?…..and no, F1 will never be an Olympic sport.Can someone please sack the old bat!!!! ;pKeep flying Kimi!!!
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Lol,
well the old bat recently said he’ll never retire from F1 😦 well, he
will die eventually lol…unless he uses his millions of pounds to
undergo surgery and turn himself into a robot!I just read
somewhere that the system will go all the way down the grid too. I’m
not sure what that means, are there bronze medals all the way down to
8th? that doesn’t make sense either!Oh yes, and keep flying Kimi! lol no matter the stupid rewarding system…On another forum this is what a guy clarified:[ "the medals thing is just a gimmick. It’s sorted by the most 1sts, then 2nds, then 3rds, then 4ths, then 5ths, then 6ths…all the way down to last" ]i.e If there are 10 drivers without a medal, then the one with most 4th
place finishes (no medal) will end up the highest in the championship.still sounds rubbish!
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I think that the lack of overtaking in F1 atm is a two headed problem. There is at times aslight lack of commitment from the drivers. This is because the reward in points for a win, when compered to that of second place is so small. ALthough I beleve that a change to the points structure would be the way to go.
1st = 25
2nd = 18
3rd = 12
4th = 9
5th = 6
6th = 5
7th = 4
8th = 3
9th =2
10th = 1
Also 1 point for fastest lap.
2 points for lead lap
This way, all of the drivers will be fighting. If everybody on the grid has the potential to earn a point, everyone will be more motivated.
The other problem is the Aero. The cars were too dependent on the airflow over wings and aerofoils, this is why they were so unstable when the drivers were battling. Although the new Aero regs should have sorted this. The return to slicks will also help, as the cars will develop more mechanical grip. This will allow the drivers more feel as to how their car is behaving, allowing the drivers to get into one and others slipstreams and have more control under braking and cornering.
That’s my theory anyway.
No-Merci
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I don´t understand the medal system at all! It´s confusing…the bronze medals all the way down the grid??? Anyway, I think it´s like No-Merci pointed out, the aerodynamics were/are a big factor in the overtaking issue, and next year with all the changes it´s supposed to get better…..so why not wait to see how the aero works, to see if it really allows more overtaking and then decide on this stupid medal system? If anything has to be changed I don´t think that switching the points system for medals is the solution, perhaps changing the points system itself and allowing the top ten to get points (as No-Merci points below) would be by far a better option and an also an incentive for the drivers.;p
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Hmmm, I don’t agree No-Merci. I think the cars are what the main concern should be about, regarding the spectacle of the sport. Afterall, the reason of this idea from Bernie is to ‘improve overtaking’? That’s ridiculous, it won’t, in my opinion. There’s nothing wrong with the drivers, they are in F1 because they are the best in the world, their comittment is already proven in their career history.I know what you mean about every position granting a point, as places from 9th-20th don’t matter. But that’s a good thing, the field between 1st and 8th place is the ‘goal’ for the lesser, struggling teams. The win is the ultimate dream. If a team like Force India kept scoring points for finishing where they qualified, where’s the sense in that? and where’s the incentive to improve faster than their rivals? F1 isn’t just about fast cars, it’s about fast development throughout the season.anyway, I’m blabbing on a bit now lol phew..
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I agree about your thoughts on the aerodynamics, though. Which is why I seriously hope these ugly regulations for 2009, actually work! 😛
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really really stupid idea i think!
above all, i agree with Saima, with all the new things next year, we should just wait and see, we can’t know if things will improve so before change anything about points system, we need to see what happens!
this old bat is definately full of stupid ideas! i wonder what will be the next! :-)!!
hey, that just puts some things to speak about before next testing!! and at least, he makes us laugh a little! 😉
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Hi all!This is not related to current topic, but recently I promised to give some comments of book called "Jäämies" (Iceman in english)At
the moment F1 is having a winter break. I have had a good time to read
an interesting book called "Jäämies". Jäämies is a finnish word an
means "Iceman" in english. You might guess that this book is a
biography of Kimi Räikkönen. I think it is a first one, that has been
made of Räikkönen. However, Kimi Räikkönen or his family has not been
involved in this book. I think Räikkönen want’s to be as private person
as possible.Actually book was not so good. I pretty much knew
all things all ready, that are in this book. However, here are couple
of quite interesting things what I noticed.- I all ready knew
that Räikkönen is a very good mechanic, but I didn’t know how good he
actually is. Räikkönen actually loves to work with cars. His parents
are not so rich, so beeing a good mechanic was propably also a must for
him. Last winter Räikkönen was spending some time in Finland. He spent
couple of days with his friends and during that time world champion
Kimi Räikkönen changed a cardan shaft to his friends car.-
During his carting career Räikkönen once lost a race to a girl. He was
angry and said to his father, that he will stop driving now. After this
his father went to congratulate that girl and said to her, that now
family Räikkönen will save a lot of money. Luckily Kimi Räikkönen
didn’t stop driving.- Kimi Räikkönen’s family was not really a
poor family. They were average finnish family, but put all they money
to Räikkönen’s driving. So that’s why they couldn’t buy a proper house,
but lived in Kimi Räikkönen’s grandfather’s and grandmother’s old
house. That house did only have "outside toilet". During finnish winter
it is not so comfortable to use outside toilet when it -25 celsius. May
be this is one of the reason’s why Räikkönen became so fast :)-
Räikkönen did his military service proper way. There was only one
incident. Once Räikkönen was coming late back from holiday. He and his
friends climbed over the garrison’s fence and managed to get there, but
were of course caught later. I have also done my military service and
know exactly, that it is not a good idea to come late from holiday 🙂
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What on Earth is Ecclestone thinking about!!!!!!!!! F*****g idiot – make any more changes in one season and F1 will be unrecognisable – What will his next idea be ? Let the test drivers race and keep Kimi and Co around just in case !!!!
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Thanks Pekka!! I like the one about the outside toilet was the reason why Kimi become so fast HaHaHa… Do you know where is that old house located? In Espoo somewhere? I think I saw the picture of that small green wooden house somewhere…
About the metal system… Eddie Jordan said it’s "Nonsense"….and I couldn’t agree more:
"He’s tinkering with something that in my opinion he has lost the understanding of," said Jordan.
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Pekka, that’s really kind of you! thanks a lot for sharing, I still think the bit about the girl in karting against Kimi is amazing lol. I think I’ll post your contribution in the Biography section of Kimi on this website; it would be a shame for it to be just here as others might miss it. I’ll also share it in the KRS forum! or maybe you’ve already registered on there?!
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thanks too Pekka! i love those little stories!
did he go to toilet in car or other? lolol!
coz in the snow, it shouldn’t be easy to run!! lol ;)!
(i try to imagine the scene in my mind!! so fun!)
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This man gives me serious headaches!
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nossa meu amor vc tava lindo no nosso casamento kimi to com saudades de ti nao te vejo desde novenber haim no nosso casamentos bjs bruna
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