If you were watching Formula 1 in 2008, you may remember Bernie Ecclestone proposing that the sport drop its traditional points scoring system and adopt a medals system akin to that of the Olympics. In 2002, Michael Schumacher won his fifth Drivers’ title almost three months before the end of the season, and with six races remaining. As well as this unparalleled dominance, the 2002 season had been a sinfully boring one, so for 2003 a revised points system was introduced that gave less weight to race victories, which in part helped to create an intense three-way battle for the Championship, which still ended up being won by Schumacher.
Five years on, discussions about the points system were starting again, as it was felt that awarding only two points extra for winning over finishing 2nd meant that there was less impetus to go for the win and created far less interesting races. So, as a possible solution, Bernie proposed a medals system, whereby instead of awarding points to the top eight finishers, the winner would receive a gold medal, 2nd place a silver, and 3rd place a bronze. And at the end of season, the driver with the most gold medals, i.e., the most wins, would be crowned Champion, with ties being broken based on the number of silver and bronze medals and then countback on the next best finishes. The Constructors’ Championship however would’ve been unchanged and would have kept the traditional points system.
Naturally, this idea was thrown out, and the current points system that’s been in place since 2019 works perfectly well. But what if they had adopted this? Hell, what if this had been in place since the very beginning of Formula 1? Time for another alternate history video. Let’s go back to 1950 and see how each Championship would have unfolded with an Olympics-style medals system.
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Timestamps
0:00 Introduction
2:22 1950s
8:09 1960s
13:12 1970s
18:19 1980s
23:29 1990s
28:50 2000s
34:07 2010s
39:13 2020s
40:37 Conclusion
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