Bernie Ecclestone is confident that his plans to introduce a medal system to Formula One will be in place for next season.
New format would see top three get gold, silver and bronze
Bernie Ecclestone is confident that his plans to introduce a medal system to decide Formula One's drivers' championship will be in place for next season.
Instead of the existing points format, Ecclestone wants to see the top three finishers in a Grand Prix receive gold, silver and bronze medals.
The world champion would then be decided by who had won the most races during the course of the year.
Had that structure been in place for 2008, Ferrari's Felipe Massa, and not Lewis Hamilton, would have taken the title.
Ecclestone expects his new idea to be ratified at the next FIA World Motorsport Council meeting, which takes place in December.
Happy
"It's going to happen," he said. "All the teams are happy. The whole reason for this was that I was fed up with people talking about no overtaking.
"The reason there's no overtaking is nothing to do with the circuit or the people involved, it's to do with the drivers not needing to overtake.
"If you are in the lead and I'm second, I'm not going to take a chance and risk falling off the road or doing something silly to get two more points.
"If I need to do it to win a gold medal, because the most medals win the world championship, I'm going to do that. I will overtake you."
Ecclestone was speaking at the announcement of a technology partnership between F1 and Korean electronics giant LG.
