Massa Deserves F1 Title This Year, Says Ecclestone

Ferrari's Felipe Massa deserves to win the world title this season, Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone said on Thursday.

Massa finished second behind McLaren's Lewis Hamilton last year 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.

Hamilton lost out on the 2007 title by a point to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.

"I hoped that Felipe would do something last year so let's hope he does it this year," Ecclestone told reporters on a surprise visit to Ferrari's ski retreat.

"Lewis had back luck the year before and won the championship, Felipe had bad luck last year so I hope this year he recovers."

Ecclestone remains keen to implement a change in the scoring system whereby the driver that 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 March 29.

"Forget the word medals, I just think the guy that wins the most races should win the championship. I don't think a guy that is second who's got a lot of points should be world champion, that's all," he said.

"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 (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 Briton had never previously visited Ferrari's ski retreat but denied he had come to smooth over tensions with Ferrari president Luca Di Montezemolo after some recent spats.

"It's not my intention (to meet him). To be honest it's a cheap weekend for me," he added.