Bernie Ecclestone confirmed to The Times that he wants a medal system for the 2009 Formula 1 championship, with the winner of most gold medals crowned champion.

Under that system, Felipe Massa - with six wins to Lewis Hamilton’s five - would have won this year’s world title. So Ecclestone is saying that Massa should have won the championship, he’s better than Hamilton, and that Hamilton’s rubbish. That definitely what he’s saying.

Anyway, would medals be a good idea? It would encourage drivers to really go for the win; but it would also be a kick in the pants for drivers outside the top three in each race, as they’d get nothing. That’s why the points system was changed some years ago to award points to 8th place rather than just 6th.

The constructors’ championship would be unaffected, so there would still be rewards for consistency - just not really for drivers. But on balance, I think it would be a good thing. Formula 1 needs drastic changes, and this is certainly less stupid than a standard engine.

But one of Ecclestone’s incidental assertions is bizarre: “Everybody understands gold medals and silver and bronze. Nearly all sports are done that way.” Really? Nearly all? Silly man.

While that sounds interesting and a bit of fun, it suggests that he might not be taking part in the main competition. If so, that’ll disappoint David Coulthard, who wanted to contest the Nations Cup with Hamilton, to “ride on his coat-tails and win something.”

I hope Hamilton will be racing against everyone else though. If not, it will only add to the impression that either he or his management consider him better than other drivers. Which he isn’t.

UPDATE

Hamilton won’t be taking part in the main competition, as he will be leaving early to attend the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Hmm, okay.

What I did know is that arguably the headline event is the Formula 3 Macau Grand Prix, which has been contested - and won - by some of Formula 1’s most evocative names: Senna and Schumacher to name but two. After British winners for the last two years - Mike Conway and Oliver Jarvis (though he was racing in Japanese Formula 3) - this year it was Japanese driver Keisuke Kunimoto taking victory. And as a result, apparently, the FIA Intercontinental Cup, which I’m sure is a lovely thing.

What I didn’t realise, is that the Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix also forms part of the event - and that really is dominated by Brits. 1997 was the last time another country won it, and Michael Rutter alone was victorious six times between 1998 and 2005. He finished second this year, behind winner Stuart Easton, and ahead of third place John McGuinness - another Brit.

I also didn’t know that the World Touring Car Championship race was previously known as - and still is known as, for that matter - the Guia Race of Macau. It was another good one for Brits, with Andy Priaulx on the podium twice, and Rob Huff taking the second race win.

So there you go: Brits rule in Macau. But not literally: it wasn’t part of the Empire. It was Portugese at one point though.

So Ian Lowry completing the line-up at Relentless Suzuki by TAS for next year’s British Superbikes is a slightly unusual story to find there.

More surprising still is that also featured there as of now is the news that James Walker is testing for two teams in World Series by Renault.

So what’s going on at BBC Sport? Is someone new getting over-excited? Has there been a very recent expansion in motorsport coverage? Or is there just less news about?

It’s hard to say, because the BBC News & Sport website is a very complicated thing. Often stories are published, but then relegated off homepages quickly - or don’t make it onto a homepage at all.

For example, there’s nothing on the Motorsport homepage about the A1GP race in China at the weekend; yet Alonso staying at Renault - from a week ago - is still there. Search for A1GP in BBC News & Sport, however, and there is Adam Carroll’s sprint race victory for Ireland.

Or take the Motorbikes homepage. Right now Shane Byrne quitting British Superbikes is still there, from 28th September. A quick search will find news of HM Plant Honda’s line-up, from 21st October - a story absent from the Motorbikes homepage.

And a step below that: I can’t find any mention of GSE Yamaha’s line-up being announced. That’s the team with which Byrne won this year’s championship, and undoubtedly of more significance than Relentless Suzuki by TAS.

The most likely explanation is that different people are making the editorial decisions - which of the many motorsport articles, presumably from a mixture of centralised BBC Sport staff and local BBC journalists, are worthy of prominence. These decisions probably aren’t exhaustively checked for consistency because - in the nicest possible way - it’s probably not worth it. That is to say: I imagine motorsport other than Formula 1 doesn’t pull in many readers.

Again: it’s not a criticism of the BBC, just my interpretation of the facts.

So there are only three seats yet to be filled. Jenson Button hasn’t got a confirmed pal at Honda - if he’s even staying there, which seems assumed though not official. It’s looking like either Rubens Barrichello or GP2 runner-up Bruno Senna.

The other two are at Toro Rosso. Sebastian Vettel is off to Red Bull Racing, and I still think GP2 driver and Red Bull Racing test driver Sébastien Buemi will take his place. Sebastien Bourdais is being made to wait for a decision on whether his services will be retained, following a poor start to the season, but better performances of late. I think he’ll be staying on for a second season, though for me there’s a chance that Takuma Sato could take the seat from him, due to Red Bull’s desire to increase their exposure in Asia.

Meanwhile Lewis Hamilton has echoed Heikki Kovalainen by practically pledging his life to McLaren. Unlike Kovalainen, the team probably feel the same about Hamilton.

Troy Bayliss bowed out of the championship in the best possible fashion with a double win, but those new Brits acquitted themselves very well too. Most impressive was Leon Haslam’s 3rd place in race 2, having fallen back to 7th in race 1. Supersport World Championship runner up Johnny Rea took 4th in race 1 and 15th in race 2; Cal Crutchlow retired from the race 1, but managed 9th in race 1.

So, in short, we can be hopeful that the Brits will be fighting at the front in 2009.

It was an emotional roller-coaster of a viewing experience. Before the final spell of rain, I was resigned to Hamilton doing just enough to take the title. When he fell back after the tyre changes - or not in the case of Timo Glock - I was literally jumping up and down; other people were less excited. When Hamilton passed Glock to take fifth in the last couple of corners of the race, I was satisfied - I’d lost my bet, but it was an extraordinarily exciting end to a generally quite exciting race.

But what made it all worthwhile was seeing the news hit the prematurely celebrating Ferrari garage. I bear the team no ill will, but seeing their faces turn was pure television gold. I thought Massa acquitted himself very well in the post-race press conference, however.

So, what of world champion Lewis Hamilton? I’ve nothing against the guy, but I’m not impressed by his guarded initial response to journalists - though neither am I surprised.

As Murray Walker suggested, Hamilton is the first manufactured Formula 1 driver. And that’s how he comes across: too corporate, which is no surprise - because McLaren’s as clinically corporate a team as you’ll find, at least superficially.

To my mind, the world champion has a responsibility to be an ambassador for the sport - a role exemplified by one Valentino Rossi. He is the world champion by which all other should be judged. But I can see Hamilton being more like Fernando Alonso - who gave little more of himself than he was contractually obliged to.

But we’ll see. I was generally of the opinion that Hamilton could do with another season of disappointment, but maybe with success will come something more of a personality. And to be fair, would Massa have been a more interesting world champion?

It was worse, even, than the orchestrated ‘chat’ between Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen early this season, clearly designed to show that Hamilton can get on with a teammate, after all the fuss with Fernando Alonso last season. Someone should have watched it and realised it was unfit for human consumption before broadcast.

One good thing did come out of the montage, however: the similarity of reporter Ted Kravitz and BMW boss Mario Theissen. Scary.

So, next season: back to the BBC. Rumour has it Martin Brundle will keep his job, and be joined by former BBC Radio 5 Live commentator Jonathan Legard; David Coulthard will replace Mark Blundell as pundit, and Jake Humphrey - CBBC, Fame Academy, various sports coverage - will assume the role of presenter. But we’ll see - an announcement can’t be far off.

Eddie Jordan has grabbed headlines with some extremely emotive language. Whether he genuinely believes his conspiracy theories or not, they make interesting reading. Hamilton “needs to be careful” because “right now the world is against him.” Jordan talks about the possibility of Massa trying to “steal the title” by taking Hamilton out, in which case, “Lewis has to turn his wheel into Massa to ensure he does not finish the race either – he has to take his wheel off.” Calm down, Eddie - really, it’s only motorsport.

The advice of John Surtees is more straightforward: “He has to forget about the championship and think about the race.” Thanks, John.

Surprisingly, Juan Pablo Montoya’s words of warning are probably more practical: “If Felipe comes anywhere near him, I would let him by.” He then goes on about not needing to win the race and so on.

Ross Brawn probably isn’t wrong, but his thoughts - “you cannot advise a driver” - are hardly helpful.

So I’ll stick with Mercedes bonce Norbert Haug: “All the talking is just wasting energy… you have to be concentrated on your car and you have to be bloody on it!” Well said, that man.