Wins to decide world champion in 2009

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By Pablo Elizalde    Tuesday, March 17th 2009, 13:35 GMT

Formula 1's world champion in 2009 will be the driver with the most wins during the season, the FIA said on Tuesday.

The governing body also announced that it had rejected a proposal by the Formula One Teams' Association to change the current system. The proposal had been sent by FOTA to the FIA earlier this year.

The FIA announced the current 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 system will stay in place, but confirmed the world champion will be the driver who wins the most races in a season.

The points system will be used for the remaining championship positions and in case two or more drivers win the same amount of races during a year.

The Constructors' Championship remains unaffected by the changes.

"The WMSC accepted the proposal from Formula One Management to award the drivers' championship to the driver who has won the most races during the season," said the FIA in a statement.

"If two or more drivers finish the season with the same number of wins, the title will be awarded to the driver with the most points, the allocation of points being based on the current 10, 8, 6 etc. system.

"The rest of the standings, from second to last place, will be decided by the current points system. There is no provision to award medals for first, second or third place. The Constructors' Championship is unaffected.

"The WMSC rejected the alternative proposal from the Formula One Teams' Association to change the points awarded to drivers finishing in first, second and third place to 12, 9 and 7 points respectively. "

FOTA had called for a points system overhaul after it conducted a survey in which fans asked for a greater gap between the points for first and second places to encourage drivers to go for victory.

"FOTA set out and conducted what has been a unique survey," said McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh earlier this month. "That audience survey told us that they wanted greater differentiation for winning and FOTA then considered a broad range of alternatives.

"Inevitably there is a balance to be struck on everything that you do. If you have a very large differentiation between first, second and third it is easy to envisage and to model that seasons may end sooner because championships will be determined sooner.

"And if we reflect on the last two championships they have been quite exciting climaxes and one would say on the face of it why would we want to change? What we felt within FOTA was having conducted a very thorough survey of audience views and advice we shouldn't ignore it.

"There were people who felt status quo was the best thing but I think what swung it was the opinion of the audience. We, as FOTA, have unanimously agreed that is what we want to see introduced this year. We now have to work with the commercial rights holder and with the FIA and seek their endorsement of that proposal."

When the idea for Ecclestone's medals system was aired earlier this year, the FIA produced a document detailing research it had conducted about the impact the concept would have on F1.

It suggested that there would have been 13 occasions when the world title would have been won by a different driver - although the most recent two occasions would have been last year, when Felipe Massa would have won, and in 1989 ? when Ayrton Senna, not Alain Prost would have been champion.

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FIA publishes analysis on medals system

By Pablo Elizalde    Friday, January 30th 2009, 10:54 GMT

The FIA has made public the results of an analysis conducted to evaluate the possibility of the introduction of a medals system in Formula One.

The Olympic-like medal system has been proposed by F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, with gold, silver and bronze medals going to the top three finishers in each race. At the end of the season, the drivers with the most gold medals would be crowned champion.

Ecclestone said the system is aimed at making the driver with the most race wins be the champion.

The FIA analysis showed that the medal system would have changed the results of the top three championship positions 37 times out of 59, and that the world champion would have been a different driver in 13 occasions.

It would also give a title to three drivers who were never world champions - Stirling Moss, Didier Pironi and Felipe Massa.

Under the medals system, four-time champion Alain Prost would have won five crowns, one more than Ayrton Senna and Jim Clark. Nigel Mansell would have added two titles to his achievements.

The FIA also noted that the former Brabham team would not have won any drivers' championships under Ecclestone's ownership.

Results of the FIA analysis:

In the overall assessment the list of World Championships per driver would be altered as follows:

1958  Stirling Moss    instead of Mike Hawthorn
1964  Jim Clark        instead of John Surtees
1967  Jim Clark        instead of Denny Hulme
1977  Mario Andretti   instead of Niki Lauda
1979  Alan Jones       instead of Jody Scheckter
1981  Alain Prost      instead of Nelson Piquet
1982  Didier Pironi    instead of Keke Rosberg
1983  Alain Prost      instead of Nelson Piquet
1984  Alain Prost      instead of Niki Lauda
1986  Nigel Mansell    instead of Alain Prost
1987  Nigel Mansell    instead of Nelson Piquet
1989  Ayrton Senna     instead of Alain Prost
2008  Felipe Massa     instead of Lewis Hamilton

Michael Schumacher    7  1994 1995 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Juan Manuel Fangio    5  1951 1954 1955 1956 1957
Alain Prost           5  1981 1983 1984 1985 1993
Jim Clark             4  1963 1964 1965 1967
Ayrton Senna          4  1988 1989 1990 1991
Jack Brabham          3  1959 1960 1966
Jackie Stewart        3  1969 1971 1973
Nigel Mansell         3  1986 1987 1992

Instead of the existing totals:

Michael Schumacher    7  1994 1995 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Juan Manuel Fangio    5  1951 1954 1955 1956 1957
Alain Prost           4  1985 1986 1989 1993
Jack Brabham          3  1959 1960 1966
Jackie Stewart        3  1969 1971 1973
Niki Lauda            3  1975 1977 1984
Nelson Piquet         3  1981 1983 1987
Ayrton Senna          3  1988 1990 1991


Key notional changes to be noted:

Brabham under the ownership of Bernie Ecclestone would have won no Drivers' Championships. Stirling Moss would have been the first British World Champion.

Jim Clark would have won four titles, rather than two. He would have won three consecutive titles in 1963-64-65.

Mario Andretti and Alan Jones would each have won two titles instead of one.

Niki Lauda would have lost two of his three championships and would have just one title to his name.

It should be noted, however, that the 1977 result is skewed by the fact that Lauda left Ferrari as soon as he had won the title and did not compete in the final races. If the scoring system had been different the result would almost certainly not have favoured Andretti.

Nelson Piquet would have lost all three of his World Championships.

All four World Champions between 1981-1984 would have been different.

Alain Prost would have won five World Championships but they would be different to the four that he actually claimed. His titles were won in 1985, 1986, 1989 and 1993. With the medal system they would have been 1981, 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1993. He would have won three consecutive titles in 1983-85.

Nigel Mansell would have won three World Championships instead of one, adding to 1986 and 1987 to his 1992 triumph.

Ayrton Senna would have won the 1989 title and thus would have had four consecutive titles between 1988 and 1991.

The duration of the World Championship battles

The duration of the World Championship battle would have been altered in 22 of the 59 seasons. The medal system would have had no effect in 37 of the 59 World Championships.

Fourteen World Championship battles would have been shorter (1955, 1970, 1978, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2004).

Eight World Championship battles would have lasted longer (1973, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1990, 1991, 2001 and 2005).

In terms of World Championship final race showdowns, there would have been five lost (1955, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2000) but six gained (1977, 1979, 1980, 1990, 1991 and 2005).