Whatever Bernie Wants, Bernie Gets...

...Although not completely. The FIA's World Motor Sport Council decided to award the Formula One championship based on the number of wins a driver gets, irregardless of the number of points he earns thoughout the season. Points would only matter if the drivers are tied, but do matter for all positions but the World Champion

It's not the entireity of Monsieur Ecclestone's stupid medals concept, but has the same gist. I think it's a rather unnecessary concept that could have been remedied in a better fashion - changing the points and widening the gap between P1 and P2.

The modern era of Formula One has been so slanted towards one or two power teams that the rule would rarely be an issue. But what if this year is different? Say Kovalainen wins four races but performs poorly otherwise (wholly possible if McLaren is just sandbagging it so far), meanwhile the Ferrari guys and Hamilton each get three wins and dominate the podium? It would be a farce.

I have looked back every Formula One season since the beginning to see how the champs would have differed under this system. Of the 58 seasons so far, 10 have had the World Champion not be the driver win the title.

• 1958: Stirling Moss' 4 victories gives him the edge over Mike Hawthorn to be the first British F1 champ.
• 1964: Jim Clark wins back to back titles (3 wins to John Surtees' 2)
• 1967: Clark wins title #4 (4 wins) instead of Denny Hulme (2 wins)
• 1977: Mario Andretti goes into his real life title season as defending champ, besting Niki Lauda 4 wins to three.
• 1982: No one wins more than two times, with Keke Rosberg winning just once. Didier Peroni edges John Watson for the title on third place finishes (tied with points and second places).
• 1983: Alain Prost takes Nelson Piquet's title (4-3)
• 1986: Prost's title is taken from him by Nigel Mansell (5-4)
• 1987: Mansell wins back to back (5 to Piquet's 3)
• 1989: Senna's six wins beat Prost's four.
• 2008: Massa doesn't need Glock to hold off Hamilton this time.

Looking back at history, this idea is an unfortunate knee-jerk reaction to a situation that outside of the 1980s, is an incredibly rare occurence.

Chinese GP Trouble?

Autosport is reporting that the Chinese Grand Prix may be in jeopardy after 2010. Poor ticket sales and sponsorship uncertainty may force F1 to leave Shanghai for the foreseeable future.

Shifting away from GPs with certain audiences (Canada, France) to places that can give a huge fee but lack racing heritage or a hardcore fanbase has lined Bernie's pockets well. There are plenty of problems with these races though. Anyone watching the newer Grands Prix, especially China, Malaysia and Bahrain can tell the attendance is poor. Whatever novelty existed in their inaugural runs has subsided, and as a result fewer fans come out. Combined this with the fact tickets for F1 races are far out of reach for the average person in many of these countries, hopes of bringing new fans to the track are doubtful. While you could argue the demographics of Brazil are similar, consider that Brazil had three native sons on the grid of its Grand Prix, one of whom nearly become World Champion.

Save the Japanese Grand Prix, most of the Asian GPs exist because the organizers have been willing to dish out the money. They are hanging by a thin cord, and in China it looks ready to snap.

From a racing standpoint, I would not be so sad to see the Chinese GP go. Shanghai is yet another Hermann Tilke track with all the things you've come to expect: flat and a long straight leading into a hairpin. It never seemed like the fans that did come were very enthusiastic. The racing was not special either. In the last two years, the only interesting thing that happened was Lewis Hamilton's crash on pit in last year. On a plus side for F1, it would save money for teams to not have to go to China as well (particularly in '09 when it is not bundled with Japan).

My hope is that it causes Formula One to relook at Canada & the US for races in the future. The organizers actually made money on the events, which of course means they have the opportunity to stick around a very long time. Likewise, the brass need to think long and hard about future Asian races planned in India and Korea.

I don't think it will happen, after all this is Formula One we're talking about. Logic and F1 goes as well together sometimes as Alonso and Hamilton.

FIA = F***ing Idiots in Automobiles

This whole issue with the standardized engines in Formula One has gotten utterly ridiculous. Yesterday, golden children Ferrari said that if the FIA continues on the path to one, standardized engine, they might leave the series. The FIA's response, "it's not our job to cut costs, it's the teams."

This says to me that the powers that be in Formula One have no clue of how to actually run it. Leaving it up to teams is simply leaving thing status quo, where cutting costs is a game of chicken. It needs a regulatory body to make those changes.

Is a standard engine the right route though? It would kill one of the key distinctions F1 has over the large majority of other racing series: the distinctiveness of it's cars. Re-permitting customer cars is a better option, perhaps with a proviso that no one can own more than one team to prevent some teams from using one as the test subject. Limiting testing would be another way, since that is expensive as well. But to kill the one thing that makes F1 "superior" to most of the rest of the racing world? Madness.

In this cost cutting world, it would also behoove the Bernie & Max Circus to reconsider the global expansion initiative that has become ever present this past decade. Sure as sugar making all these trips to the Middle East and the Pacific Rim aren't cheap, while less costly options just whither away. Certainly trips to Brno, Imola, or the new track in the Algarve would costs millions less in transport than the races in Bahrain or Malaysia. Unfortunately, venue selection has been more focused on how much money Bernie Ecclestone makes from an event than other factors, such as enjoyable racing.

The problem is that these ideas seem to be falling on deaf ears. It may come to a manufacturer exodus that ultimately changes the sport for the better, but being a fan of American Open Wheel that road should be avoided if possible.