Points system 'absurd' says Di Montezemolo

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo was full of praise for Michael Schumacher's win at the Canadian Grand Prix but is unhappy about this year's points system. Schumacher now leads the championship but despite winning four races this season the German is only three points ahead of McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen, who has only one victory to his name.

"Michael truly demonstrated one more time that he is simply the best," Montezemolo said. "It was a huge performance and he drove an extraordinary race, especially as he had several problems."

"To go top of the championship was important in spite of this absurd points system. Schumacher only has a small advantage at the top of the table despite winning four races to Kimi Raikkonen's one."

Michael himself is not terribly impressed with the way the points are working out: "If you imagine that one wins one race and the other wins four races and there's only three points difference you think whether that's right or wrong," he remarked. "I'm probably not so pleased with it."

With the 2003 points system, absurd or not, Raikkonen's position is due to slightly more consistent results than Schumacher. The German has four wins but aside from that he has only one podium finish in third along with one fourth and one sixth. Raikkonen has had one victory and four second places, plus one third and a sixth.

With second now scoring eight points and third six, Kimi's efforts have kept him in touch with Schumacher despite the reigning champion having more wins. The intention of the new system was to stop any one driver running away at the top of the standings, so although it may not be popular with some, it's working.