[Chris Holland-Skinner]

So I was sat here bored this evening and decided to work this out. First of all, here is the WDC under the old points system (all listing all drivers who have scored points under the current system):

1st SV 107

2nd MW 69

3rd FA 65

4th LH 60

5th JB 60

6th FM 28

7th NR 20

8th MS 14

9th VP 11

10th NH 11

11th KK 8

12th AS 7

13th SP 2

14th PdR 2

15th SB 2

16th JA 2

17th RB 0

18th PM 0

Vettel has a 38 point lead, nearly 4 race wins, under this senario, and would likely win the title with 4 races to go (so in Japan) if he carried on at his usual rate this season. As it stands, he will probably wrap up the title in Japan anyway under our current points system. The other noticeable change towards the top of the championship is Lewis and Jenson having swapped places, thanks to Lewis having finished 2nd twice compared to Jenson’s once. Under the current system Jenson has two more points than Lewis.

After that it really is as you were until you reach the 13th-16th battle. Perez and DiResta both jump ahead of Buemi and Algesuari thanks to better personal best race results. The two Williams drivers lose their points as neither has finished higher than 9th in a race yet this season.

Now lets look at the WCC under the old system:

1st RBR 176

2nd Mclaren 120

3rd Ferrari 93

4th Merc 34

5th LRGP 22

6th Sauber 10

7th Force India 9

8th STR 4

9th Williams 0

10th Team Lotus 0

11th HRT 0

12th Virgin 0

Under the old system, RBR have a 56 point lead over Mclaren, compared to 131 points under the current system. Under either points system, McLaren could still catch RBR if they really got on the case in my opinion.

Down the bottom, the battle for 6th is really close under the old system. One crazy race could swing it for any of the 3 teams. Even Williams could turn their season around quickly if they could get the car to work better.

With so little changed up and down both championships, however, it makes me wonder if it was worth changing the points system? If anything, it makes the battle for 5th/6th downwards less of a close fight. Be interesting to hear your thoughts, now my model is set up I’ll try to update you after every race until the end of the year.

[matt90]

It was done to slightly increase the value of a win compared to 2nd and 3rd in particular, and to give a couple more points places (largely as a result of increased grid size and reliability). I’m actually fairly content with the current system. I think 2nd being worth 72% of a win seems a lot more reasonable than the previous 80%.

[Enigma]

Thank you for doing that, very interesting.

[KaIIe]

You know, there’s a website for this: http://f1-facts.com/statistics/regulations_comparison

:P

[Oscar Becker]

Hmm. Interesting, if they would’ve used the 2003 points system in the 1999 season, Irvine would’ve won the championship by 8 points(!)

http://f1-facts.com/statistics/regulations_comparison/1999

[Chris Holland-Skinner]

now you tell me! :L thought it was interesting to do anyway, filled up a good few hours of my evening :D

I too am content with the current system, but I am disappointed that the battle for 6th place isn’t so close. Then again, you can see why it has been done. Under the old system only 6 teams are into double figures thanks to impressive reliability. I’d rather see the technical regs relaxed than more points positions to be honest. It’s like Brundel said in commentary recently, “its like a lucky dip, everybody gets some [points]”.

[Chris Holland-Skinner]

Wow that is interesting! Irvine was a good driver, but it would have been like if Massa won the championship in 2008. Both Mika and Lewis were clearly much more talented in my opinion… I also noticed that Damon would have won the 1994 WDC under the current regs, making him a double world champion and leaving a certain Mr M Schumacher with a measly 6 titles.

I liked the old pre-2003 system more than either of the two recent ones, I’m off to go see how that system affects this years championship!

[Juan Pablo Heidfeld]

Prost would have won in 1988 in every points system except the one that year. Unlucky… http://f1-facts.com/statistics/regulations_comparison/1988

[Tom_ec1]

That’s a great link.

What do they mean by 2006 system (given that 2003 is already there for 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1). The numbers between 2003 and 2006 system are the same in their tables.

The only change I can think of is that drivers/teams with 0 points were included in the final classification.

[matt90]

The only problem with that site is that it doesn’t take into account dropping the worst results. I imagine Moss would have won 58 under another scoring system assuming the same number of races were dropped from his score. But it only shows the drivers maximum points rather than the corrected ones.

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