Ecclestone backs Ferrari's Massa to win drivers' championship

Ferrari's Felipe Massa deserves to win the world title this season, according to Bernie Ecclestone, the head of formula one. Massa finished second behind McLaren's Lewis Hamilton last season after the Briton grabbed fifth spot on the final corner of the season-ending Brazilian grand prix to pip the Ferrari driver by a point.
"I hoped that Felipe would do something last year, so let's hope he does it this year," Ecclestone said today during a surprise visit to Ferrari's ski retreat. "Lewis had back luck the year before [in 2007] and won the championship. Felipe had bad luck last year, so I hope this year he recovers," he added, referring to the 2007 title race when Hamilton lost out by a point to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.
Ecclestone said he remains keen to implement a change in the scoring system whereby the driver who wins the most races, or gold medals, becomes the champion. He was unsure if his idea would be adopted for this season, which starts in Australia on 29 March.
"Forget the word medals, I just think the guy that wins the most races should win the championship," said Ecclestone. "I don't think a guy that is second who's got a lot of points should be world champion, that's all. This year a lot of them sat there being second. It's up to the teams to really push that through. I hope they have enough sense to agree."
Ecclestone reaffirmed his opposition to the introduction of the kinetic energy recover system, or Kers, on cars this season, saying the cost could balloon at a time when the sport was trying to save money during the credit crunch. The system is designed to store energy during braking manoeuvres and transfer it for short bursts of speed.
The Briton had never previously visited Ferrari's ski retreat but denied he had come to smooth over tensions with Ferrari's president, Luca di Montezemolo, after recent spats. "It's not my intention [to meet him]. To be honest, it's a cheap weekend for me," said Ecclestone.
The guardian

Luca Marmorini, the head of Toyota's F1 engine development, has left the company.
"Luca made a fantastic contribution to Toyota since the beginning of the Formula 1 project, including invaluable work on the RVX-09 engine and Kinetic Energy Recovery System projects, but he has chosen to leave the team," the team said. He will be replaced by Japan's Kazuo Takeuchi.
Under cost-saving measures, the engines have also been limited to 18,000 rpm compared to 19,000 last year and there is much less development possible. It is not clear what Marmorini will do in the future but he was previously employed at Ferrari.
grandprix.com