Racingtime: you said "most those cars are European such as Honda... Toyota..??" Last time I checked, Japan was located in Asia, not Europe! You are mindless like Bernie, who stated that he is glad that common sense prevailed?! Bernie doesnt understand the notion of common-sense!! His notion of a winning solution is when only he wins so hes calling it a compromise because he is probably mad he didnt get away with fixing his exorbitant annual extortion-fees and won't be able to pay-off his mounting debt.It would be a plus if Mosleys vacuum-wake fast exiting the FIA would pull the troll away from F1 fast behind him, like 305km/hr and no KERS to slow them down. Glad there's real hope for a competitive F1 to return to England, France, Brazil, USA, Germany and perhaps Zandvoort? And Tyrrel, Alfa-Romeo, Brabham and Lotus?

Junior dueled quite successfully with LH in GP2 and we saw a short but accurate replay of similar GP2 battles revisited, with Jr showing a cool side that he is capable of overtaking and fending off a Hamilton driving at his full potential, as LH himself stated. Credit to Junior and LH for the brief but pure racing spectacle as it should be and let's hope will be seing Junior picking up more confidence in these battles with his former GP2 rival LH. Both should keep up the good work and keep racing hard and fair, the old fashioned way, like F1 was meant to be, if F1 can survive beyond 2010 with incompetents like Flav, Montez and Bernie in chronic denial and making a mockery of a crumbling world economy. And watch out for Rubens coming from nowhere!

Rubens rethoric is only matched by his inability to overcome the stigma of his past career with Ferrari. He is an embarrassment for Brazil, which has one of the richest F1 Driver legacies with three F1 icons all of whom won MULTIPLE WDCs: Emo Fittipaldi(2x), Nelson Piquet-Sr(3X) and Senna(3X). Shut up and win one single race for a change, would you?!!

Rombapalle, you forgot we live in 2009. How can anyone still believe what this clown Bernie says in public? Cant you get it is all pure theater? What made F1 exciting and competitive over the years and until around late nineties was not Ferraris presence but the pure speed of 30 - 40 cars screaming on the racetrack. The pinnacle of F1 is not Ferrari, never was. It was the competition and historic driver x driver battles on the race track, which were legislated out of existence from F1 courtesy of FIA and Bernie's nostalgic mind. The world of F1 doesn't revolve around the Ferrari primadonnas. It is stupid of anyone to suggest that F1 would lose fans if Ferrari left the sport. I actually hope Ferrari quits for a couple of seasons so they can get rid of a half dozen top-incompetents and while new and multiple driver x driver battles develop on the race track, not on the media, with new team-partnerships, british, german or even italian marques like Alfa-Romeo, with whom Ferrari learned the basics of motor-racing.

Truly a shame for Massa and Kimi. Ferrari is looking more like a madhouse, led by top clown Montez. I don't buy the notion that the problem is with the guys doing the dirty work on the test-labs, the shop-floor or the race pits, it must be much higher. 2009 Ferrari-F1 is a textbook mis-management case.

Hope it motivates a comeback of other former F1 teams/cars like Maseratti, Lamborghini and Alfa-Romeo too. REAL F1 became extinct 15 years ago. The field consisted of anywhere from 30-40 cars. Now that was motor racing! Schumi would not have gotten away with 777-world titles if he had to race against so many drivers. KERS has removed competitiveness from F1, not because my favorite team is or is not scoring points, but because of the absurd disparity of performance and results that teams are experiencing from applying the standard rules.

This is actually good news! Hopefully the Ferrari team will work better without a celebrity clown looking over their shoulders and improve as a team to get back into the business of racing before the season ends. If you were making as much money as he reportedly does in exchange for providing F1-racing-advice, wouldn't you think that it is expected of you to attend the races and try to improve the teams results? It is also surprising how much beating the large sponsors in F1 accept to take without apparently intervening, considering the hundreds of million$ they are $helling-out for ill-advice and lack of top management leadership, which allowed the situation to go downhill throughout 2008 and now free-falling in 2009. You would think the sponsors would be screaming at Fiat for committing all that money to see their sponsored cars: not leading, losing parts, losing engines and to top it off, for conducting a fuel-hose tensile-strength test during a race.

There is no such thing as being cautiously optimistic. It is glaringly and painfully obvious for Ferrari fans that it is not entirely Domenicalis fault. It looks like it was the un-dynamic duo Montez and his personal F1 advisor, the two most admired incompetents and possibly highest paid clowns in F1 and still controling Errari who were responsible for allowing the situation deteriorate to this level while other teams with far less resources and budgets are getting results. I don't know about the corporate executive compensation practices and policies of Italy, but I get the impression that the concept of pay for performance is not known or not practiced in that country.

Ferrari27, your father-in-law is wrong. My italian grandfather said, and I fully agree with him, that Montezemolo is the one who should have been sacked by Fiat after the season-ender in Brazil. Montez and his F1-clown advisor did absolutely nothing to improve Ferraris declining position in 2008 and if that wasnt enough, they also stole the championship from their own and only driver Massa. The outlook for the 2009 season is clearly worse than 2008. Forgetting today's performance is not the solution for Ferrari. Hopefully the pain-level gets high enough that large sponsors and Fiat investors might realize that big changes are urgently needed at the Maranello barn to prevent two incompetents from taking the Scuderia into further disrepute. With the Fiat-Chrysler partnership becoming a reality, it would be a great opportunity to reassign Montez to manage "Dodge" dealerships in Alaska and give schumi a sales job.

This discussion about medals is as futile as the search for the US$50B lost in the scam of Bernard Madoff in the USA. KERS was the proverbial last-nail in the coffin for F1 as a competitive motorsport, thanks to Bernie, Max and the teams who subjected themselves to their greed. The bar has been lowered and F1 has been reduced to a group of 8, maybe 9 nearly-bankrupt teams, running machines that could be defined as cordless-lawn-mowers with wings, pretending to compete semi-deserted tracks in new countries where most people barely have money to eat. It is a shame for F1, in contrast with the immense legacy from previous decades of the most superb racing from the best drivers in the world, up until the early 90's. There are other up and coming motorsport categories that beat F1 in competitiveness, entertainment value and cheaper to attend.

The problem with the medal system is that there is a probability of two drivers ending the season with the same number of medals. The ideal compromise for F1 driver-classification system would be one that combines BOTH Winning races AND encouraging all drivers to score points. Give points to every driver crossing the finish line and increase the points interval, from first to last position scoring, except for retirements. At the end of the season, if two drivers tie in medals, the tie-break would be the points. If still ties, the next tie-breaker would be the number of races completed (1 point) and mid-race retirements would count as -1. Every driver crossing the finish line deserves points and should receive credit for two hours of racing, for contributing to the spectacle and their fans and for making their sponsor's names visible to their target audiences. It would also encourage all drivers to give their best shot and score as many points as possible, which would make the race spectacle far more competitive and exciting than it is. This system woul help stir things up during the last hour of racing.

What else do F1-sponsors want or need to hear from Bernie to start acting and prevent further damage to the perception of their products and services? Some say Ferrari leads the FOTA tonight, but I am wondering how other teams are digesting and dealing with the internal issues affecting the future of the F1-organization but also the external and growing pressure from dismall sales in general. . It would not be totally impossible for BMW, Renault, Daimler and also Toyota, the worlds largest auto company re-create a really competitive and modern F1 organization in which all teams matter. Contrary to what Bernie says, Ferrari is no longer the center of the F1 universe.

Bernie and Max have destroyed F1, now the teams are paying the cost. Here is the only solution that would bring back some excitement to the sport and hopefully extend its life beyond 2011. If boxing has evolved from ropes to cages, why cant Bernie change the rules of HIS circus from guard-rails to a fully enclosed track? Put a cage around the tracks, so even if Castroneves made a move to F1 he would not be able to escape by climbing over the fence! Lock everything down, the pits, boxes, so no one can get in or out. Start the race, no rules, no cheat, no fuel limit, no team orders, just pure speed and avoid collisions, no need to replace broken wings. First car with highest number of laps to cross the finish line gets a MEDAL others get points. These new no-rules would help drive down the costs of running a F1 team and Toyota migh stay in the game.

It is only January of 09. Montez and Bernie just had their annual board meeting at Ferrari retreat last week and something must have been decided!! It must be reassuring for the other teams to have Ferraris trusted leadership to deal with Bernie! Yeah right! I do not recall any middle-eastener or asian-pacific sponsors stepping up with big money to help support any F1 team lately! They probably gave it all to Bernie Madoflestone. I am not suggesting that Bernie kept it all for himself! He certainly made equitable distributions as holiday gifts to all his F1 buddies from Ferrari to FIA!

Strange will be Montez face when McL partner Daimler starts flexing their global muscles to knock down Ferrari on the high-end markets, countries with extensive F1-base visibility and getting increased attention from big sponsors in search of a strong vehicle, driver to identify and promote their brands with, in this highly challenging economic cycle. I also read that Daimler is willing to help out Honda-F1 during their transition, a sign that Daimler might be able to influence and have more control in shaping the future of F1 (namely Bernie Ecclestone) than Ferrari appeared to have had.

KR stopped racing for Ferrari in April 2008 last I checked! This is old news.

The only thing that looks as an aberration in this F1 (and some others) is the KERS system. It is a monstruosity that does not belong in F1 and should be banned irrevocably. The so called reinvention of F1 is actually turning out to be the proverbial reinvention of the wheel! One final touch would turn these 2009 F1 cars into masterpieces: add a mandatory pair of chrome-plated, fake jet-engines on the engine covers! Eureka!

The sport has been dumbed-down by Dumb and Dumber. As for DNA of F1 being retained by FOTA, I am not so sure: KERS was never part of F1 DNA, its was hip-replacement gone bad. Rev-limits is a DNA-mutation of F. Dont forget to bring a head-set with built-in amplifiers (not ear-plugs)to your next race if you want to hear the dumbed-down sound of a lawn-mower engine! No more hi-revs to deliver the typical screaming sonic boom that only F1 power-plants could. Toyota is still in a strong position but things could change rather abruptly, if the bleeding continues in their showroom floors. For a drastic step in cost reduction: bring back a sequential manual tranny, for the ultimate test of racing skills and a return to a great show.

They let him do the rally, to remember what racing feels like and the Abarth noise should keep him awake!

Massa is wrong. His greatest adversary in 2009 and 2010 will not be Hamilton. I predict the Ferrari Inquisition will tell him to shape up, slow down and give way for snoozer KR. How dare a ¿South American¿ threatening the campaign of a member of the Ferrari inner circle of Farcical Champions!! The brazilian has shown to be mentally tougher and faster overall than the mediocre KR myth but F-Counsel has a pet-peeve with brazilian drivers who refuse to fulfill their ¿contractual agreements¿. I predict McLaren and LH will have a field-day every race, with KR limping behind Kubica , Alonso, Heidfeld with Massa throttling his F-60 wearing Ferrari-red boot-shackles, somewhere behind the KR clown.

Let's hope that his Fiat Abarth is equipped with anti-snoozing devices!

Ferrari and McLaren might be in for a rude awakening, with the reinvention of F1, called a KERS (french for "defibrilator on wheels"). KERS is the curse that will turn F1 the most boring act on wheels since bumper-cars were invented. Thanks to the brilliant minds of derelicts Bernie "Madoflestone" and Mad Max. I am still in disbelief that they are actually getting away with it, or almost? KERS must be BANNED from F1 before someone gets electrocuted! You dont have to be an electrician to realize that that high-amps motors, electricity, transmissions, internal combustion-engines loaded with high-octane fuel and lubricants, all in one single-package with conductive materials(Aluminum, steel, etc) is a highly explosive, if not lethal combination? F1 was meant to be a racing event, not a fireworks show!! KERS is another infantile mistake by the fossils Madoflestone and Mad M!!

Right on Murray! Substandard is actually an understatement. Kimi would not make the cut for a test-driving job by today's standards, yet this clown still ranks as the highest paid driver in the F1 grid, while Massa keeps delivering the goods for the benefit of Ferrari and their dwindling sponsors. Mark my words, next time you see Kimi overtaking Massa next season, it will be after Massa gets a message from team-manager to ease-off the gas so little Kimi doesn't get too depressed eating Felipe's dust!

It shouldn¿t come as a surprise that Montezemole would sell the heart and soul of his company just to appear more influential and powerful. Eventually, Ferrari will lose the $80M/yr ¿incentive bonus¿. It smells like another inside deal in the making between Bernie Madoflestone who is probably short on cash and Montez, to arrange a quick-fix for the Honda team, which Bernie himself dismissed as a negligible loss a couple of weeks ago!

Totally agree with Berger. The state of F1 almost shies in comparison to the scam of the century from "Bernie" Madoff 50$B in the USA! There's nothing that could preventing other teams from following Honda's example and putting the plug on their F1 sink-hole anytime, specially if the global economy continues to contract as it is. Who can rule out BMW, Toyota or Renault pulling out? Now, more than ever before, its a matter of business survival for the auto companies and its only a matter of time! F1 has become an expensive and low-return option for sponsors under the new world economic order. It surprises that smaller teams AND sponsors are still defying the odds by continuing to lend support to fossils like Bernie Madofcclestone and mad Max. Given the current state of F1-affairs, it appears to me that Ferrari's leadership position and potential to influence the future of F1 is borderline irrelevant if not precarious.

Bravo! Hopefully if Sir Jackie Stewart keeps talking, it might help get the message to sponsors that there is huge money to be lost or wasted in F1 unless they, the source of $$$ start calling the shots and pushing for radical changes at the very top of F1-FIA mgmt and their two derelicts Max and Bernie!

That could be a remote possibility if Ferrari wired the KERS ("defibrilator on wheels") to Kimi's seat to give him a jolt when he falls asleep during the race!! All he can achieve are fastest-laps and a pole here and there. Plus, he's reportedly making three times as much money as Massa, so I don't understand what still makes some people believe that this MS-protege is going to turn things around in 2009! Massa should have looked for a serious team and bailed out of the Ferrari mad-house a long time ago. He's the one who carried Ferrari on his own shoulders but apparently never gets the public recognition from that he deserves from this own team. Massa should have bailed out of the Ferrari mad-house and looked for a serious team. Can you imagine doing all the dirty work for Ferrari and still have to put up with all the media-hype about Kimi?!

THussey, you must be a pseudo-anti-Schumi: no one in his/her right-mind can claim to be anti-MS and go on to say he had talent! There are at least 6 current drivers in F1 who could do equal or better than MS did, without a wing-man and without special favors on and off the track. But who's MS to opine about what would-have, could-have happened with LH. He certainly would have continued to fight for his first title, on his own and by himself! Speak for yourself MS: "pole or P2, off you go, wing-man on tow!" I've always wondered why MS was so avid to move from F1 to motorcycle racing and this is my conclusion: it must have been a burning desire to satisfy the need and thrill of racing without the confort of a wing-man.

Spigotblister: your write and think like a 5-year-old!

Massa has the right to express his opinion but the debacle over medals is smoke-screen tactics from Bernie. Medals or not, is neither going to improve the appeal of F1 nor make it more equitable to drivers results. The meltdown will continue to challenge all F1 sponsors and prevent teams from assembling a decent, truly competitive F1-grid of 35-45 cars, as in the glory days of F1, regardless of medals! The teams, investors, sponsors and constructors need first to break-away from Bernie and stop him from proceeding with his own "reinvention" of F1 which is a total failure. We need to bring back the fundamentals of F-1, as the pinnacle of motorsports for 2012. With a new, equitable long-term financial agreement between all teams and sponsors they could turn it into an almost recession-proof global business and free from the myopic vision of derelicts like Max and Bernie. Can anyone tell me how much fuel is wasted and the massive air pollution that is generated to shuttle the entire F1 circus (cargo and people) around and back the globe to the Middle-east and Asia-Pacific venues combined? For what? Just reinstate all the traditional F1 circuits in Europe and Americas. Scrap the Middle-Eastern, Asia-Pacific venues and offer promotional flight/race packages for the 1,995 or so people from those regions who genuinely follow the sport. Ban KERS from F1!! It doesn't belong in the pinnacle of car-racing. KERS is for commuter, daily-drivers. F1 should only allow internal-combustion engines running on high-octane ethanol, which is renewable and cleaner than gasoline. Just keep what works: the old raw machine power, speed, slick-tires, minimal power-assisted options, some ground-effects and from this combination, world-class F1-racing will re-emerge. BTW, I highly doubt any team or driver would be able to win more than three CONSECUTIVE titles under those new rules. Over!

When F1 WAS a competitive sport, as a relatively level playing field, with anywhere from 35-50 cars on the starting-grid per season(yes you read correctly, for those of you who were in diapers in 1975 or later), that could create a problem. But considering F1 has been been gradually reduced to the league of theatrical sports both by FIA and Bernie, with managed results, preferred team advantages, internal team orders, both on and off the race track and with less cars on the grid than starting players on football match, traffic should not be a reason for concern. The real problem is not the new cars external envelope-dimension as Heidfeld indicated, but more so finding the right kinetic, dynamic balance with KERS.

Hope they keep him for 5 more years to see Ferrari being beaten again many times. People who say MS help build the Ferrari cars are wrong. A well-engineered F1 car is the result of having $MMMs available for design resources, engineering staff, expensive software to perform simulation, wind-tunnel analysis, FEA, extensive reliability testing and materials testing, which are all extremely costly. MS did not built the Ferrari cars but the engineering dept did, thanks to generous amounts of $$$M received as a favor from Bernie. MS was only lucky to be at the right place at the right time but he cannot erase from his past the fact that he benefited from those special favors from Bernie to Ferrari, special treatment on the track and internal team orders. His consulting services to Ferrari in 2008 were at the same level of his mediocre driving abilities, given the first time ever loss of the driver's championship with a constructor's win! In fairness to LH, he did a phenomenal job considering the additional pressure and partiality at various levels in favor of Ferrari. Bernie should provide $$$ for a new fund to help the introduction of new british teams and also Ferrari's archrival Lamborghini.

I admired Ferrari as a brand and for the epic history of the company and their founder's lifelong commitment to F1. But these revelations show that Montez has complicity with Bernie in the demise of F1 and for putting this legendary marque in the mud. Regretably, it will be very difficult to separate the seemingly exceptional achievements made by Ferrari and Schumi from the cold facts just revealed by Bernie: unfair team financial advantages since 2003 revealed!! This stuff could make the late Enzo roll-over in his grave. I am wondering where the FIAT board is on this. Aren't they reading the news? They own Ferrari, last time I checked. Between Montez, Shcumi and Kimi, they're probably making more money than the combined salaries of the entire FIAT board of directors!! It is time for the FIA to assemble and reconvene with the true living and legendary F1-Champions: Sir Jack Stewart, Alain Prost, Fittipaldi, Nelson Piquet, James Hunt, Nikki Lauda, Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve and M. Hakkinen, as part of an advisory team to the FIA to try to create a new business model for F1 if it is to survive. What a shame for Ferrari and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that some major, I mean major sponsors might use this as a reason to detach themselves from Ferrari in light of the worlwide economic meltdown, if not already in motion behind the scenes. As Timem-1 said, there is probably more to come on this than the average F-1 fan on the streets know.

Just playing politics because the pressure is mounting on Bernie but it didn't seem to bother him that the F1 circus was not a viable business model for smaller teams more than three years ago. I was hoping FIAT bosses would hint at Montezemolo's departure. As Castle wrote, he sold out manufacturers in 05 and also has complicity in bringing F1 to its near demise. He is also responsible for hiring the most expensive driver in the F1-grid (Kimi) who never raced for the legend in 2008. He also added a F1-consultant to his payroll so I presume this trio alone is costing the Ferrari payroll more money than the entire FIAT board of directors combined.

Genes don't matter in F1, specially when you are given the fastest car on the grid for 6 consecutive years and a personal wing-man driving the same, equally fast car, under team orders not to overtake you. Schumacher comments seem to indicate that he is genetically related to Bernie Ecclestone.

Agree with Robson. I'm actually surprised his boss Carlos Gohsn didn't fire this clown at end of the 2007 season. Flav is just another opportunist who made millions for himself but did not enhance F1 as a business. He's partner in a soccer team somewhere and could careless about F1.

The solution is simple Bernie: just create a rule to automatically remove the 9th-placed team from your circus because they were unable to clinch either the 1st or 2nd position and as such, are wasting their money. Or better yet, keep only the first and second place teams in your F-1 circus so they are all winners, less money will be wasted and the only two teams competing will be a great example for the other¿.humm, teams! I am going to donate my used F-1 stuff to a local charity and I'm hoping they will accept it.

Massa did not "loose" the championship: it was taken away from him by FERRARI in two critical incidents for a total net cost of 14 points: engine failure in Hungary and the Ferrari pit-crew refueling fiasco in Singapore (on lap 18 of 59), none of which were specifically caused by Massa. Had it not been for those two incidents alone, he had the points lead through Interlagos. In fairness to Massa, he still managed to overcome those losses and move on, while Kimi resigned himself to showing up for races only to collect his fat paychecks. Schumi did not add any value to the team in 2008 either. Massa has proven that he can stand on his own and Schumi is just another useless, big-ticket item on Ferrari payroll, just because of politics. Ferrari F1 operation increasingly resembles the Big-3 in the USA: highly-paid incompetent top-managers, inefficiencies galore, lack of clear direction and strategy, too much showmanship and politics driving decisions instead of actual race-track results. Massa should start looking elsewhere for a smaller, more focused and growing operation with less politics, where he could get better support, better car and possibly, more money. Massa stands little chance of things getting better for him in 2009 with Schumi and Kimi keeping their jobs at Ferrari. As Massa himself stated, he should use the experience from this season to start looking elsewhere, perhaps BMW-Sauber, before his career ends up looking like that of former Ferrari 2nd-fiddle Rubens.

Regrettably, Ferrari still managed to get the championship in spite of Montezemolo. It would be a long-term benefit to F1 if Luca himself resigned. Kimi¿s absolute disregard for the Scuderia in the 2008 season was not only ignored by Montezemolowho but he also ends-up re-hiring the looser. Worse yet, his lack of leadership at Ferrari contributed to the most embarrassing moments(engine failure;fuel-hose) in Ferrari¿s racing history, which prevented Massa, the only driver racing for Ferrari in 2008, from sealing both his first championship and constructor¿s titles a whopping two-races prior to Interlagos. I am not surprised why Schumi would rather go racing on two-wheels than having to report to Montezemole. Both Ferrari and the FOTA would be better off without him. One can only wonder how Enzo would be dealing with impostors like Montezemole and those who put him in charge, for making his Ferrari creation look like an arrogant, distrustful, unreliable and widely disliked brand around the world. The Ferrari board or whoever is it who governs this outfit should step up and do us a favor by removing this clown from the circus before he drives the Scuderia¿s image in further disrepute.

I laugh with you Race! Bernie says 600 million watch the sport worldwide. Must be all the ants roaming around his Asian-Pacific circuits and the ones he axed in Europe.

Why bother? Bernie, FIA and their cronies have only been taking as much money as they could from the circus of cards that F1 had turn into, but wait a minute: weren't the manufacturers and team owners in complicity all along? Of course! Who would want to watch those stupid "KERS" (loosely translated: defilabrator on wheels") anyway? Goodbye screaming-internal-combustion-engines of a by-gone F1 kingdom. At least I had the pleasure of enjoying a once-great motorsport for the past 15 years. There are plenty of other motorsport options to fill the gap and not having to deal with these weird F1 characters (Bernie, Max, SOME team owners and managers, and SOME drivers) will be great. The top players (constructors and manufacturers) should have bailed out and started their own league 8 years ago, now it is too late. RIP F1.

F1 is gone. Why bother? Bernie, FIA and their cronies have only been sucking as much money as they could from the circus of cards that F1 had turn into, but wait a minute: weren't the manufacturers and team owners in complicity all along? Of course! There hasn't been de facto governance in F1. Who would want to watch those stupid "KERS" (loosely translated: defilabrator on wheels") for heaven's sake? So long screaming internal combustion engines of a by-gone F1 kingdom. At least I had the pleasure of enjoying a once-great motorsport for at least the past 15 years, took my son twice to Indy and watched many races on TV together. There are plenty of other motor sport options no only in the States, Brazil, and Europe to out there to follow and not having to deal with these weird F1 characters (Bernie, Max, SOME team owners and managers, and SOME drivers) anymore! The top players (constructors and manufacturers) should have bailed out and started something on their own 8 years ago, now it is too late. RIP F1.