F1 Wolf | Formula 1 Blog from F1Wolf | A Bernie post, on Canada and on those medals one more time

A Bernie post, on Canada and on those medals one more time

Posted on November 22, 2008 by F1Wolf

Bernie Ecclestone

Bernie Ecclestone has been in the news quite a bit in recent days. His divorce, the Canadian GP future, the medals… I do not really care about his divorce at this moment but I would like to return to the other 2 topics for a while. (read on)

The Canadian GP issue

We now know that unless some miracle happens there will be no GP in Montreal next year. The organizers, the local governments gave up all teir attempts to save the race as they were never going to be able to meet the ridiculous demands of Mister Ecclestone. It looks like Bernie does not think his demands are ridiculous:

“Unreasonable compared to what? We do business worldwide and nobody else thinks we’re unreasonable. We’ve got a queue of people that want races. So we can’t be unreasonable.”

Unreasonable comapred to what ? To the revenue the race can realistically generate for example ! Canada for example was asked for USD140 mil over 5 years. That would for example mean selling 100,000 tickets every year for average price 280 dollars each only to cover Bernie’s fees …

Yes, there may be queue of people who want the races and are willing to pay these huge fees. But, that some governements that do not have to justify the spending to their taxpayers can afford to pay those horrendous amounts does not mean that that kind of money is reasonable… Even free spending China seems to have realized that already …

The Medals

The other thing that made Bernie Ecclestone popular with media and blogs are the medals. I am not alone slowly starting to like the “medal system” that may replace the traditional points. A lot has been said already here and elsewhere (check this post be Vee8). But I wonder if anyone thougt about what effect would this have on the good old problem of team orders. These days especially in the early parts of the season the top teams do not mind to let both drivers fight for wins and only throw all the support behind one driver after the other one is out of the title hunt. But as 2008 and 2007 seasons have shown sharing wins between team mates can ultimately cost the team the drivers championship. And that is while what counts are points, 170 of them available at the beginning of the season (17 races). Now imagine that what counts will be wins, only 17 of them available … How would for example Ferrari handle their drivers if McLaren, BMW and Renault all had race winning cars but only one driver good enough to win races …

Discussion: 9 Comments

9 Responses to “A Bernie post, on Canada and on those medals one more time”

zblkhwk

- 22nd Nov, 08 11:11pm

I can’t believe changing to medals, limit awards to the top three is good for the sport. How can you leave the bottom tier teams completely out of scoring? These teams struggle enough to generate both advertising and fan support, eliminating their chance of scoring surely has to hurt, and perhaps chase teams from F1.

It appears that the world is starting to push back on Bernie and his huge $$$$ demands to bring his F1 product to your city. Perhaps Tony George was ahead of his time in telling Bernie that F1 was not worth the big $$$$. Canada and now China appear to be following suit. Perhaps now the teams and their sponsors will have some pull in placing races in key markets.

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- F1Wolf (author comment)
  
  - 22nd Nov, 08 11:11pm
  
  the constructors championship would not be affected. the driveres would still collect point from 1-8 but those would only count towards constructors table, the “medals” would decide the drivers title
  
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Kotenok

- 23rd Nov, 08 02:11am

I do not understand both of his purposes, to delete classical GP’s for new events in other places to get the F1 more popular (where else???) and the pursiut of making F1 drivers categories or classification (as they would be placed in 4 shelfs, those who won, those who were second, and third, and those who are losers). My credit to that revolutionary ideas is low still.

Kotenoks last blog post..RubberGoat

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- F1Wolf (author comment)
  
  - 23rd Nov, 08 01:11pm
  
  getting rid of those good old and POPULAR Grands Prix is something that will one day come back to haunt Mr Ecclestone
  
  but with some tweaking that medal thing may not be that wrong. in any case, the drivers are already catgorizied, tere are winners, there are the ppdium scorers tere are those in points here and then and theb there is the rest …
  
  this is how the 2008 final standings would look under medal system:
  
  what would be the order in 2008 with the medal sysyem in place ?
  
  1. Massa
  2. Hamilton
  3. Raikkonen
  4. Alonso
  5. Kubica
  6. Kovalainen
  7. Vettel
  
  In the case of the top 2 who knows what would have happened if they had to go for win race in race out instead of preserving the points lead. at the same time I believe that Ferrari would throw their support behind Massa few races earlier.
  
  the only one eliminated from top 7 would be Heidfeld as he won zero races.
  
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  - Kotenok
    
    - 23rd Nov, 08 10:11pm
    
    Yes, I do understand that the top of an F1 driver career is to win races. Beautiful itself when a driver scored the golden medal and owns the biggest number of them, and that gives him the World Title. But there’s a lot in that game which I don’t like simply, I commented that being regular is very important to win a championship. But I’m sure I defend a lost cause, when Mr. Ecclestone has one idea between his lashes he usually doesn’t let it escape. Also he has few times mistaken, but he always managed to take profit from the situation.
    
    I’m sure Massa was the proper driver to get the World Title this season when he won more races than all his rivals, but Hamilton’s fans would cut my head off if I didn’t accept that the ones from McLaren did a better car which didn’t break that much as the Ferrari ones. So still Lewis Hamilton deserves that championship not for the great results seen, just because he was holding on top until the end with consistent races.
    
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Bruno

- 26th Nov, 08 01:11pm

As you can read from my post I think this system is total nonsense, resulting in more accidents probably.
Please read more here if you can

http://f1-in-singapore.blogspot.com/2008/11/is-ecclestone-medal-system-workable.html

Top 3 Good for them but whatabout the rest ??? Still can’t believe this comes from former F1 manager…

Brunos last blog post..Red Bull take over Toro Rosso F1 team

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- F1Wolf (author comment)
  
  - 26th Nov, 08 06:11pm
  
  we all have our opinions I do not think the system is that bad, I think it suffers a bit from that silly “medal tag”
  
  it of course has its disadvantages – bigger need for team orderes, accidents, less motivation for those from 4th place down etc
  
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