Felipe Massa has spoken out in favour of the 2008 points system that saw him lose the world championship to Lewis Hamilton at the last race. The new system proposed by the FIA last week would have seen the
Brazilian crowned champion by dint of his larger number of wins last year. But after pressure from the teams, the FIA today confirmed the ”winner takes all” system would not be introduced til 2010 and the Ferrari driver told the BBC that he was satisfied with that.
“To assign the title to the driver who wins the most races is not correct. I’m really not interested in the fact that with such a system I would have won the title last year. I’m interested in what’s right for our sport.”
Massa went on to reiterate concerns made by other drivers in recent days, notably Mark Webber, about consistency not being rewarded under the proposed new system.
“A driver might win more races, but might be inconsistent in his performance not gaining many points. In this case I think he wouldn’t deserve the title.”
The obvious example of this is Robert Kubica, who won only one race in 2008, but yet was in contention for the championship right up until the last few races. Under the new system, he would have had no incentive to go for the championship, which might have had the opposite effect the FIA had desired and made the racing duller.
