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Ecclestone puts medals back on the agenda

Bernie Ecclestone has come under fire for proposing medals again © Getty Images

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Bernie Ecclestone has launched another campaign to see a medal system introduced to F1, where the championship is awarded to the driver with the most wins.

Ecclestone first suggested the idea in 2008 but it was widely panned and the current points system, which puts more emphasis on a win than the old one, was introduced instead. However, Ecclestone is keen to see medals in F1 as he still believes it would encourage drivers to race for wins rather than settle for points.

"If you look at the [current] points system, it has made absolutely no difference," Ecclestone is quoted by Autosport. "If we had the old system it would be exactly the same position as now. Which is strange.

"Maybe they will wake up and think about my gold medal system now. Because Mark [Webber][would have four gold medals now and two other guys with three, so the championship could go all the way to the wire."

Under the medal system Webber would still be leading the championship on four wins, ahead of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton on three and Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel on two.

However, the idea has again been met with a negative reception in the paddock, with Lewis Hamilton saying: "Out of the many ideas that have come out, this is potentially one of the worst -- I would say it's not his greatest idea.

"I don't think that is a true reflection of someone's performance. For example, if Red Bull had not failed their car so many times this year, they would have won the championship ages ago and we might as well have gone home."

In 2009 Jenson Button would have secured the championship with four races to go rather than the title going down to the penultimate round in Brazil.

"Last year I would have loved that and could have sat out the last few races and gone on a big holiday for three months, but this year it has been so close it has been a fantastic season," Button joked.

"The problem is also for the smaller teams. If it is a medal system then there have probably been four or five teams this year that would have got a medal, and that is really tough for a lot of teams on the grid. At the moment there are three teams at the back and they are a little bit away from getting points. It is still difficult, but to get that point is so exciting for them."

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