Try the brilliant new Championship Calculator designed by Jamie

Posted on

| Written by

Reader and JScript guru Jamie has knocked up a new version of the Championship Calculator which makes my feeble effort look like it was scrawled on the back of an envelope. Which, er, it was…

Jamie’s new version lets you figure out how any of the remaining three races could affect the standings in the drivers’ championship in just a few clicks. Give it a try now.

The question is, what combination of results over the final three races would give us the closest finishing positions in the championship?

Give the new and improved Championship Calculator a try now and post your findings in the comments.

Big thanks to Jamie (who posts on here as Invoke) for his excellent Championship Calculator.

Read more: F1 Fanatic championship calculator

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

59 comments on “Try the brilliant new Championship Calculator designed by Jamie”

  1. Very good one. Interesting is that you are forced to make more and more unrealistic predictions until someone other than Redbull driver comes out on top.

    1. Indeed, you have to get quite creative for not having Webber there on the top… damn! ;)

      1. Like, maybe Webber running over a back marker or have a terrible Q3 and remaining behind the lead pack for the duration? That would be crazy-talk.

        I think we should still brush up on our tie-breaking rules.

    2. Unrealistic? If Red Bull come say 4th and 5th at Korea – quite likely with Korea’s long straights, and Alonso wins the last two (very likely) Red Bull lose even if they finish 2 and 3 in those races.

      I don’t fancy Red Bull’s chances at all, if they’re 4th & 5th in Korea.
      If Alonso even then finishes 3, 1, 2 and Webber doesn’t win, Alonso wins the championship again.
      If Alonso only finishes 2,1,2 and Hamilton and Vettel win the other 2 races with Webber 3rd in all 3, again Alonso is champion.
      If Alonso finishes 2, 1, 2 and Webber finishes 4,2,3 again Alonso wins. Etc etc. And none of those could be described as unlikely results.

      It’s not looking good for Webber at all unless he can get ahead of his team mate in at least one race – which he hasn’t looked like doing recently.

  2. Great work, thanks!

    1. I second this, Jaime for king of the world plox!.

  3. ok here we go. lets imagine that the top 5 in the champ all finish the last three races in the top 5 positions. (ie, noone will finish a race below 6th from now.

    KOR- 1st.BUT 2nd.ALO 3rd.HAM 4th.VET 5th.WEB

    BRA- 1st.HAM 2nd.VET 3rd.ALO 4th.BUT 5th.WEB

    ABU- 1st.BUT 2nd.HAM 3rd.VET 4th.ALO 5th.WEB

    therefore championship after abu dhabi will be
    ALO 251 (1st)
    VET 251
    BUT 251
    WEB 250
    HAM 250 (5th)

    1. That would be insane! Imagine that. Then a safety car with a few laps to go.

      1. Don’t say things like that! 2008 was bad enough!

        1. I agree with TommyB89, a safety car near the end of Abu Dhabi with Button in first, Hamilton second, Vettel third, Alonso fourth and Webber in fifth would produce perhaps the most entertaining F1 scrap ever! Alonso would have to defend at all costs to win the championship! Obviously, this is highly unlikely, but imagining that sends shivers up my spine. :P

      2. In that situation – a five-laps championship – I would immediately put £50 on Hamilton.

        The boy simply doesn’t understand “you can’t overtake” :)

        PS – that’s a fantastic calculator tool, very nice!

    2. Except that Alonso cannot win the championship by six points or less …

      1. @PM – I hear you. It would be a very inapt ending to what has been a great year.

      2. Sure he can – he paid for it didn’t he? Out of the small change of his salary…

        I couldn’t agree more

    3. in this case, webber could hit gearbox of alonso for vettel. of course it’s very unlikely! lol

    4. Why would Alonso be first and not Vettel or Button?

      1. more wins on his account (compared to Vettel) and more high finishing positions (compared to Button?).

    5. '93 Peugeot 905 Le Mans Winner
      19th October 2010, 20:18

      Team Radio McLaren: “Jenson, you need to save fuel, fuel is critial”

      Jenson: “Is Lewis going to pass me?”

      Team: “No Jenson, No”

  4. Amazing!
    Very useful tool with this close championship…

    1. yeah, i have already used 1 sheet of A4 paper calculating :)

  5. It says I win!!!
    Oh,, wait,,

  6. Great tool! Thanks Keith, and Jamie!

  7. Very nifty! Like Webber’s position, keep him on top please?

  8. Okay, so here’s a far fetched hypothetical. If Kubica could pull out a win in Korea, followed by 2Hamilton, 3Button, 4Vettel,5 Alonso, 6Webber, then Brazil a Button win, followed by 2Hamilton, 3Kubica, 4Vettel, 5Alonso, and Webber in 10th, they would go to Abu Dhabi with Webber leading Button on number of race wins both on 229 points, and Alonso, Vettel, and Hamilton all on 228 points! Stranger things have happened, and that would make for the most epic showdown in Abu Dhabi.

    1. As much as i love Robert, winning in Korea doesn’t seem all that likely.

      1. I know it’s unlikely but consider this… If he can qualify as well as he did in Japan (some teams are comparing the circuits and saying they’ll run similar packages, also the walls are close and Kubica thrives on tracks like Monaco and Montreal), he’ll be starting right behind the Red Bulls. The RB6 is one of the slowest cars in a straight line and its massive advantage comes in the curves. Kubica was one of the fastest cars in the speed trap during qualifying and the Renault has been very fast in a straight line. Given the long straights of S1 and S2 in Korea, it’s entirely possible that if he DID qualify 3rd, he could be leading the race by turn 4.

        1. Actually i like your version. We would have Kubica winning a second race, Renault back to winning again and it sounds a lot more exiting than a Button -Alonso – Hamilton podium.
          I like your finale as well, that would be a smasher.

          1. Even if there are 4 drivers still in contention at the last race, that will be a first ever in F1! http://www.gpguide.com/Statistics.aspx#&&subcategoryCode=ALL&statisticCategoryCode=Drivers&statisticId=133

  9. mine came out as Webber winning by a single point over Alonso!

  10. I can see Kubica playing a major role in this years title, he was epic last year in a poor BMW at Brazil, and I can see him being in the middle of the championship five and making a nuisance for the others at Korea and Abu Dhabi.

    1. I think he’ll be extremely integral in the outcome.

  11. Korea = 1) BUT 2) VET 4) HAM 6)ALO 10) WEB
    Brazil = 1) HAM 3) VET 4) BUT 5) WEB 9) ALO
    Abu Dhabi = 1) ALO 3) BUT 4) HAM 5) WEB 9) VET

    That gives everyone 241 points. Highly unplausible though.

  12. Nice work Jamie.
    I can see how team orders (or lack of) could really mess up some drivers chances.

  13. Button needs to win every race and even then, Webber has to have a DNF to actually win this. Sad for Button, but Webber deserves it.

    1. If Button wins every race with Hamilton 2nd then Webber will need 3rd every race.
      If Webber is 4th in one and two 3rd places then Button would win.

      If Hamilton takes one of those wins off Button, leaving Button 2nd in one race with 2 wins(because there are no team orders at McLaren), then Webber wins.

      Hmmmmm.

  14. Korea:

    1-Kubica
    2-Button
    3-Hamilton
    4-Vettel
    5-Massa
    6-Webber
    7-Alonso

    Brazil:

    1-Massa
    2-Button
    3-Kubica
    4-Vettel
    5-Alonso
    6-Hamilton
    DNF/S Webber

    Abu Dhabi:

    1-Hamiltton
    2-Alonso
    3-Button
    4-Webber
    5-Vettel

    They all end up with 240 points.
    Alonso, Webber and Hamilton each have 3 Second places.
    Alonso, Webber and Hamilton each have 3 Third places.
    Alonso has 2 Fourth places to Webber and Hamilton’s 1 and becomes the 2010 WDC!

    1. Hamilton would be Second in the WDC with 2 Fifth places to Webber’s 1.

    2. And of course I left out the all important:

      Alonso, Webber and Hamilton each have 4 Wins to Vettel’s 3 and Button’s 2.

    3. lol I like this idea!

  15. Trialing a few different permutations it seems that Alonso needs to beat Webber in all remaining races to have a chance of winning the drivers championship. So to me it’s really down to Webber and Alonso, and the others are an outside chance if Webber and Alonso happen to tangle, or have unusually poor results. Will team orders come into it? Red Bull have said they won’t use team orders, and we know Ferarri will if they need to, but will Massa follow the team orders? He seems to be a bit of a rouge operator at the moment. Will Flavio Briatore have any influence? He does manage both Webber and Alonso. Will the fact Torro Rosso, being owned by Red Bull using Ferarri engines somehow “influence the results”? Will there be a back room deal made somewhere? Who knows.

    1. What is really spicy is that both Alonso or Vettel need the other driver (Vettel or Alonso) to beat Webber if they want a chance at the title.

      Go rivals! help me!

      Should Red Bull “misconfigure” Vettel’s car in order to ensure webber wins?

  16. In my simulations of the next 3 races, in all three, Webber, Vettel, Alonso all had spectacular first lap accidents with each other, and limped home barely in the points or not at all.

    Ham led Button home in a awesome McLaren 1-2 in Korea, followed by Button getting his own back in Brazil surviving the unbelievable first lap carnage to chase back from a poor qualifying session leading to a tense and exciting final round where places changed a number times before and after the pits stops but it all came down to Button’s superior tyre management skill as Hamiltons tyres went of 5 laps from the end and Button just managed to peg him out of the final corner.. it was a TENSE thriller and Button became the first Brit to retain his World Title back to back!!! HURAAAAAAAAAAAAH

    Exhausting I can tell you!

    1. lol – if only…

      i really wouild like to see Button do this, but i just can’t see Webber, Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso AND Massa getting out of his way, and despite his “go for it” attitude, Button just doesn’t have it in him to push as hard as he needs to…

      real shame.

      Given that… If my man can’t have it (Button) then i would like to see Webber take the championship. Then next year, let’s see Hamilton and Button fight it out for round 2!!!

      1. Yeah I guess I’m similar. I wouldn’t mind Webber winning if Button can’t. I don’t want Vettel to win because he doesn’t deserve having thrown the avantage of the most dominant car of it’s day away.

        Alonso, I don’t want to win, but if he does win, he will have deserved it. If either of the McLaren boys win, well, they’re gonna be legends!

        ( and another Button fan! High 5! )

  17. Don’t do it Fillipe! Be nice to Mark. Hit Vettel instead and tell them that you got the wrong car.

  18. I have got everyone finishing on 220 points:

    Korea: 6-LH,7-JB,8-SV,9-FA DNF-MW

    Brazil: 3-JB,6-LH,7-FA,9-SV, DNF-MW

    Abu Dhabi: 4-LH,5-JB,6-SV,7-FA, DNF-MW

    and that puts Mark Webber as champion I believe. :D

    1. and who is going to win those races? I am filling those in below:
      Korea
      1 Kubica, 2 Rosberg, 3 Schumi, 4 Sutil, 5. Kobayashi
      Brazil:
      1 Massa, 2 Rubens B, 4.Hülkenberg, 5 Kobayashi, 8 Heidfeld
      Abu Dhabi:
      1. Rosberg, 2 Kubica, 3 Petrov, 8. Massa,

      Sounds good!

      1. Sounds weird :) But Kubica, Massa and Rosberg might score podium…

  19. One interesting thing I noticed, nobody even counted Massa in the mix… But I think he can also throw a surprise or two, specially in Brazil… Imagine, Massa tangles with Webber and both are out of race…. LOL.

    1. Massa is mathematically out of contention as of the last race.

  20. Looks very good for webber, if he manages to lose this one, he can’t say it’s bad luck! If he win the next one, it is almost impossible for him not to be world champion

  21. HounslowBusGarage
    19th October 2010, 8:46

    That’s a highly impressive calculator, Jamie. Nice coding.

  22. It would be great, when we press the ‘Calculate’ button, the leaderboard should automatically sort based on the points.

  23. This calculator totally rocks. Thanks for doing such a cool thing.

    I just wish that it was not necessary. For most of my life getting a single point in F1 was special… and the point system was magically simple. I remember building matrix’s in the 70’s after reading about the races in road and track.

    At least its not like Nascar where you can get a point for just spitting your tobacco juice out the window without getting any on you…

  24. Given the unusual high number of driver still in the race, the number of outcomes still possible is mind-boggling.

    Point-wise we have 11 meaningful outcomes for each driver (10 point-scoring finishing positions, and 1 for every other position).

    The way to uniquely arrange 5 drivers out of 11 point positions can be calculated with the permutation formula: P = n!/(n-k)!,
    with n = 11 (point positions) and k = 5 (drivers).

    So we have P = 11!/(11-5)! = 55400 possibile outcomes, and that’s for one race only!

    The total range of outcomes for three races is: T = 55400 * 55400 * 55400, which is well over 170 TRILLION combinations…

    Plenty of chances to find every possible desired final outcome :)

    Note: with just 2 drivers still in the race the total would be a mere 1.331.000 combinations…

  25. I Managed to get all title contenders on 244 points, with shall we say “realistic” results and no DNF’s :

    Korea.
    1.Ham
    2.Vet
    3.Alo
    4.But
    8.Web

    Brazil.
    1.Mas
    2.But
    3.Ham
    4.Web
    5.Vet
    6.Alo

    Abu Dhabi.
    1.But
    2.Kub
    3.Alo
    4.Ham
    5.Vet
    6.Web

    Boom 5 drivers all on 244, could happen i guess.

  26. excellent calculator

    few days back i was also trying to write a code to sort of generate all P & C…but found it a bit too tough
    ….this one is excellent

    good job Jamie


    Saumya

  27. Goes to show how much of an advantage Massa will be to Alonso. If Massa can get in the way of a few of the top guys…..hmmmm

  28. Awesome — G8 Piece of Work…:):)

Comments are closed.