What Bernie Wants Bernie…
What Bernie wants Bernie…
Oh screw what Bernie Ecclestone wants! And in most cases what he gets!
FACT: The Formula One title has gone to the driver with the most race wins in the championship in every year since 1989. That year, Frenchman Alain Prost won with four victories to six for McLaren teammate the late great Ayrton Senna.
That’s not good enough for Bernie “The Enforcer” Ecclestone. Ecclestone wants to have the title decided on race wins to force drivers to take more risks, rather than a system that awards 10 points for a win and eight for second place.
“The key word in motor racing is ‘racing,” Ecclestone told Britain’s Mail newspaper, who has stayed in London while the season starts in Australia. (Thanks for you non-support Bernie - ed) “What I want to see is the winner of the most number of races as world champion, and second places only to be used if the top two finish the season with the same number of wins.”
Ever hear the adage, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” Bernie?
Meanwhile, despite Bernie’s best efforts to take the shine away by jumping into the headlines, there was a race in Australia Sunday.
In a frantic race in which just seven of the 22 cars survived to the checkered flag Lewis Hamilton came away with the season opener as the Briton blasted away from pole position and won by 5.4 seconds from the BMW of Nick Heidfeld and the Williams of Nico Rosberg, who claimed his first podium.
Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso was fourth in his Renault homecoming.
The seasons first corner created initial carnage and the first safety car that led to the retirement of five drivers, including home town hero Mark Webber.
Honda’s Jenson Button, one of the immediate casualties after a coming together with fellow Briton Antony Davidson and Germany’s Sebastian Vettel, said it had been “mayhem everywhere” and if it wasn’t it was a close facsimile.
Vettel and Giancarlo Fisichella couldn’t wait for the first corner and clashed as the lights dimmed, ending the run of both drivers.
How chaotic was it? If defending champ Kimi Raikkonen can fail to finish yet still score points (1), albeit after a Barrichello disqualification from sixth place, it defines the word.
If Red Bull’s Coulthard and Felipe Massa can have a shunt leading Coulthard to demand the Ferrari driver take responsibility (“If he doesn’t, then I’m gonna kick three colours of shit out of the little bastard.”) “harmonious” isn’t the most apt description either.
So, what have we learned after the first event? We learned SeaBass and Raikkonen can finish down the order at the flag but still score points. That the top 4 are probably still the top four but the BMW’s are getting closer with each passing event and are more than likely to pull off a win this year.
And we learned the Safety Car drivers haven’t seen their skill level diminish after the winter break.
F1, Formula One, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle, Lewis Hamilton
Actually Marc, Bernie may indeed be on to something with his suggestion.The old 10,6,4 system did have its merits, although I never liked points being given to the top 6 cars only, the top eight to ten chasing points encourages racing in the mid pack.
The only reason they went over to this 10,8,6, etc system was the utter domination of Ferrari between 2000- 05, those 5 seasons of total Schumacher had every body complaining for change.
Great race yesterday, I felt sorry for poor old Heikki K he really drew the short straw with the safety car & a certain sencond place was snatched away……that’s racing.
I buy it to a point Peter, but the stats are not with Bernie on this one.
The couple of variations in compiling points in the last twenty years have produced a champ as the one with the most wins.
Not that I would be against a change, just looking at the stats. To say nothing of Bernie not being at the race AND shooting his mouth off seeking headlines.
I don’t agree with the Oz GP being revelatory about any of the teams except for McLaren. The three safety car periods artificially tightened the field and accounted for Rosberg’s podium. Kovaleinen should have finished second, otherwise.
For sure Ferrari need to get their house in order (and they will) but you won’t see a Williams or a Beemer on the podium next week in Sepang.
I don’t expect a Williams to be near a sniff of a podium either George, but I’ll stick with BMW, they’ll squeak out a win somewhere along the line.
Firstly, I to expect a better performance from Ferrari, the speed is there they just have to sort themselves out.
Was anything funnier than DC telling a live audience of millions that he was going to kick several colours of shit out of Massa. DC has lost the plot, he referred to his mindless attempted decapitation of Wurz last year at the Melbourne track & said that he was man enough to admit he was at fault & apologise for it. Further, he expected Massa to do the same or he would follow through with his multi coloured faeces threat. I fail to see where DC draws the comparison, his assault on Wurz’s William’s in 07 was totally out of order, his coming together with Massa was a racing incident “at best”, if anything, DC was as fault as Massa was well & truly alongside up the inside of the corner. Brundle, DC’s own manager, commented live that Massa could feel aggrieved & speculated that DC had not seen him.