Interestingly, if Bernie Ecclestone’s plan of awarding gold medals to race winners had been in place this season, Jenson Button would have wrapped the Championship up after the Singapore GP the other week.
Bernie wanted to reward first places with gold medals, seconds with silvers, and so on – like at the Olympics – to work out where everyone stood.
Should that have occurred, Button would be champ already. But going into the last two races of the season, the top six would be slightly different.
Here are the amounts of first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth places they’ve all got so far, in current Championship order:
Jenson Button – 6, 1, 1, 0, 2, 1
Rubens Barrichello – 2, 3, 1, 1, 1, 2
Sebastian Vettel – 3, 2, 2, 2, 0, 0
Mark Webber – 1, 3, 2, 0, 1, 1
Kimi Raikkonen – 1, 1, 3, 1, 0, 1
Lewis Hamilton – 2, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1
Which would have changed the order, on medals, to Button, Vettel, Barrichello, Hamilton, Webber and Raikkonen.
Second and third places etc would still be up for grabs, but Jenson would be World Drivers’ Champion, and he’d have little to do at Brazil and Abu Dhabi other than drive around with a smug, satisfied grin on his face.
But amusingly, the thing Bernie really doesn’t like is having a Championship sewn up too early in the season, which is exactly what would have happened if he’d got his way.
I think they call that shooting oneself in the foot.
The FIA put some info out about the medal system when they said it was going to come in for 2009, that was slightly different from Bernie’s proposal. They wanted the WDC to be decided from amount of wins, but then the rest of the places would still be on points, which means nothing would currently be different.
Other than Button being king already.
I’m sure Bernard is as glad as we all are that the teams refused to race to his or the FIA’s proposed rules. I don’t think the idea of a medals system will be brought up again, like it was supposed to be for 2010.
Good riddance, I say.
Good. It was a crap idea anyway… I mean seriously… why on earth would you want to change the way the F1 Championship has been decided from the very beginning?
the thing to do if he wants to put the emphasis back on winning but without the stupid medal system, which erases the crucial F1 value of consistency through a season, is to reintroduce a 4 point gap from 1st to second as was before the top 8 scored points. Ie – 12,8,6,5,4,3,2,1.
I’d prefer if, especially now there’s going to be 26 cars, they went back to having a nice round Top 10. Just because 8 is a bit of an odd choice (or is it an even choice?! Geddit?! *silence*).
Completely pointless idea, no gains for what could turn into a dull season.
Just to show how daft it is, it would’ve placed Hamilton over Webber this season. No chance.
I’m with myothercar’sadaewoo on the extra 2 points for a win thing.
Bless bernie.
a point (or a few) should be given for pole in quali and fastest lap in the race.
I’m cool with current system.
Rewards consistency.
As said in article. Button would have been able to sit out rest of the season in coffe shop in Amsterdam.
As it is another Brit is beeing chased by mad German. And it is more than likely we will be on the edges of our sofa watching last two races praying that Jenson will not do Lewis 2007.
Then again, if Bernie hates early winners, then why did he himself made up that medal system? Its not just shooting yourself on the foot, its shooting yourself on the foot and then forgot who shot your foot… Or something like that…
I also got used to the system now.
I also must admit that I preferred the former rules which rewarded wins way more.
Right now its contributing to the suspense.
So worse they could do is change it again!!!
And of course Button will cruise to the championship – no suspense for me.
How come nobody is talking about Rubens?????
It was rubbish idea and I really hope that it never sees the light of day. Ofcourse the FIA’s idea was even worse.
It ain’t broken, don’t fix it
well i think that they should change the points system next year, considering there are going to be 6 more cars on the grid next year. and yes, that medals thing was crap.
Still think that the difference in points between winning and coming second if to narrow. They changed that bcs Schumi became already champ in July, 2002.
It was 9-6-4-3-2-1 and it should be like that again.
If so, Jenson would’ve been proclaimed champion at Monza. You could’ve stopped the season there and then.
Good for Jens, but boring for us. Bernie, do you see why this is a silly idea? You’d lose viewers and revenue.
I support widening the gap in points between 1st and 2nd. They did it before (going to 10-6-4-3-2-1) but now it’s levelled out over eight places. Why? Why not 20-15-12-8-4-3-2-1? Or anything like it.
My take on it would be,spreading it over 10 drivers.
like: 20,16,14,12,10,8,6,4,2,1. (+1,for the fastest lap,at least that guy is trying the hardest). And maybe, the pole position could give a separate trophy,(medal, cup, bar of chocolate, whatever) without influencing points.
Agree diff between 1st and 2nd is too small.
btw .. noticed Luca Di Montezemolo stated he does not like the current F1? .. also agree .. the cars are damn ugly and especially the Italians must hate this bookcase backwing and snowplow frontwings which makes the cars look like Lego kid toys.
Going forward I think it would make sense if you took the points down to 15th even more so if you have 26 starters….
25, 20, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Obviously all historic comparisons are out the window but it will make the racing down the field relevant it will stop people crusing around in 15th for nothing. It rewards consistent finishing too, a DNF would be a lot more costly!
Now you see how boring the Medal idea is!?
i agree with ‘Captain Johnny ‘ it will be unlikley for some of the smaller teams to get points next year like force india this year they have had 2 very good results but it will be harder to get points next year
Bernie was never serious about the medals idea – it just made for a few column inches at a time when F1 wasn’t getting enough publicity.
How about going back to the system in the 70s when only the best six scores counted? (Actually, that was equally daft as the medals idea, so let’s forget it.)
I’d like to see points down to 10th (with four points difference between first and second, three extra for coming second and two extra for being third + an extra point for the fastest lap and two extra points if the lap record is broken – not available for the first race at a new circuit).
wanna make f1 exciting again
overthrow bernie n replace him with maybe niki lauda and instead of tht rubbish piece of shit mosley get ron dennis or jean todt then u will see how exciting f1 gets
plus plz dont change the point system u dont want f1 to end up like nascar were winner is awarded 200+ points
current system is the best points till 8th place ONLY means teams will compete harder therefore more overtakes more fun in watchin
15,10,7,5,4,3,2,1.
Bonus Point for Pole & Fastest Lap.
But it ain’t broke:
It was changed because Schumi was so dominant. The last 2 seasons have come down to the final race and it might happen this year as well.
That is a good thing isn’t it?
I’m glad they said no to the proposed rules because it would make the rest of the season a little pointless, but on the other hand, Button would have won, after the beginning of the season he has had, i hope he wins at the end and barrichello doesnt sneak it at the end
Next year we could reward the top 10 with more people coming along; 15-12-10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1, just like in the A1GP Feature Race, so that’s also a point for fastest lap.
I hope that the FIA adopt some sort of change anyway
Points for the first 10 places, but a 4 point gap between 1st and 2nd. Some reward for polce would be good, because then you would get teams going light on saturday to steal a couple of points, but then the racr would be more exciting, as the order would be a bit jumbled on the starting grid.
And, have 3 standard wings, front and rear, low, medium, high settings, and make the drivers choose, and then get them to drive around any downforce issues, instead of infinately tweeking the car. I reckon that would improve overtaking. You would get the risk takers on lower downforce, for mare straight line speed, and the cautious on high levels, to ensure the cars stick in the corners. Then the designers would be earning their money, making more mechanical grip.
Medal system is crap! Stay woth the points! Then, everyone would watch all of the races, and Button will still have to fight for the championship until Yas Marina at Abu Dhabi
#26, agree, as long as they make wing dims like 2008 bcs this yrs cars look like crap, even in real.
Bookcase backwing, snowplow frontwing, whowever invented those should be hanged !
point for fastest lap is a bad idea. if you did that people who are coming last would just pit every second lap so they can get the minimum amount of fuel.
they would just get in the way then of the leaders.
it was always a ridiculous idea i mean there is 15 races in the season -might be wrong correct me if i am- so if someone won the first 8 races then the season would have been over that driver would have already won whereas on the points system it would still easily be up for grabs.
I like cheese
Having the points rewarding the top 15 from 25 points to the winner down to 1 point for 15th is the same as Moto GP. It seems to work well enough there and does give some of the smaller teams something to aim at.
Get rid Ecclestone and co, Let the Stig and the Driver’s run the game, they know what they want !! I like cheese on toast, Bert the guinie pig like’s carrot’s with his race. think I need to take my tablet’s!