Some time ago I wrote about the FIA’s proposal to crown the driver with the most race wins champion and now that proposal has suddenly been approved just two weeks before the first race in Melbourne. This means that the points system is almost redundant and driving consistency gets no reward. It was possible to win the world drivers champions previously without winning a single race by consistently finishing in 2nd place but that will be a thing of the past. A driver could have 50 more points than the their rival and still lose the championship by having one less win, that really doesn’t seem far does it? The only time the points will count is if two or more drivers have the same amount of race wins. It’s not as bad as what was originally proposed though, the original proposal went as far as scrapping the points system completely which would have been disastrous for F1 as most of the teams wouldn’t have any incentive as winning races is out of their reach because of a lesser budget. In 2010 there will also be a $30m cap on spending in return for more technical freedom. This move is intended to entice new teams into F1 but in reality it’s not very practical as last year even the now defunct Super Aguri team spent $45m with Toyota, Ferrari and McLaren spending over $400m. I understand that money needs to be saved in the current climate but at the same time it takes away from the idea that F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport, it costs $30m+ to run a touring car team every year.
I have been very impressed with Barrack Obama in his first three months as president of the United States of America. His recent outburst about AIG paying out $165m in bonuses to it’s executives despite being bailed out by the government to the tune of $170 billion to date impressed me massively. He really seems to be on the side of the little person instead of big business like George W Bush. It’s definitely correct that Obama is angry about these bonuses after mismanagement caused to firm to require government aid in the first place. A bonus is paid for good performance, not for running the company into the ground and rightly so the people of America are pissed off that these bonuses were paid out of tax payers money. The US government will claim back the $165m in the next instalment paid to the insurance firm. Personally I believe that further funding should be suspended until the firm can show more responsibility in the current financial climate instead of recklessly throwing away money!