F1 Fanatic

You need to take in account that Alonso lost 15 points in Canada due imcompitent strategy by the team. Not only was he catching Hamilton and had a lead large enough to pit on the next lap and come out ahead, he had a fresh set of options available while Lewis was on primes. Vettel lost only 3 points in the same race, also due a strategic mistake.

I also don’t believe Vettel would’ve gotten third in Malaysia, catching Hamilton is one thing, passing Hamilton is a whole other ball game isn’t it? Also, in Malaysia Vettel lost only 10 points, not 12. You need to remember that Webber was leading Vettel until his slow stop; which dropped him behind all Nico, Seb and Kimi. If you take in Vettel’s bad luck, you also have to consider that of other contenders.

Frankly, I don’t believe Grosjean would’ve passed Alonso after the SC. Fernando is a master defender and doesn’t crack under pressure when fending off a faster car, and he brilliantly saved his tyres until the end.

Also, why do you even count Grosjean misfortunes if he’s not a main title contender? By that logic, Vettel should only have been 7th in China as Grosjean pitstop took 5 seconds longer than normal, and Schumacher retired due a loose wheel-nut, both who should’ve finished ahead of him. But that’s a bit silly, don’t you think? That is far too confusing, let’s stick by the misfortunes of the championship contenders only.

So if we count in all the misfortunes from the season that both Vettel and Alonso have had, Vettel would be at 160 points, where’s Alonso at 172 points. Thus Alonso would still have a fourth place advantage over Vettel.

Also, we must take in record that Ferrari was a dog of a car in the first four races of the season, and also clearly inferior to Red Bull in Europe and Hungary. In fact, I don’t think there’s been a single race this season where you could safely say Ferrari had a better car than Red Bull. I can’t believe that people consider an occasional misfortune to be unlucky, but your car not being competive until Spain, and still inferior to your rivals not being unlucky.

So even taking in account misfortunes, Alonso would still be leading Vettel by 12 points; despite the Ferrari being inferior to the Red Bull throughout most of the season. What does that prove? Alonso is a better driver than Vettel.

For the top 4.

Australia, Schumacher doesn’t retire, Vettel and Webber get past, Alonso doesn’t.

Hamilton – 15
Vettel – 18
Webber – 12
Alonso – 8

Malaysia, Webber isn’t held in the pits and retains 4th ahead of Vettel, who avoids cucumber.

Hamilton – +15, 30
Vettel – +10, 28
Webber – +12, 24
Alonso – +25, 33

China, Schumacher wheel is attached properly and he finishes second.

Hamilton – +15, 45
Vettel – + 8, 36
Webber – +10, 34
Alonso – +1, 34

Bahrain, Lewis doesn’t have those pitstops, finishes fifth.

Hamilton – +10, 55
Vettel – +25, 61
Webber – +12, 46
Alonso – +4, 38.

Spain, Webber is sent out for another run in Q2, makes it, finishes fifth in race. Mclaren fuel Hamiltons car properly and he takes pole and win.

Hamilton – +25, 80
Vettel – +4, 65
Webber – +10, 56
Alonso – +15, 53

Monaco, no changes.

Hamilton – +10, 90
Vettel – +12, 77
Webber – +25, 81
Alonso – +15, 68

Canada, Alonso and Vettel pit in response to Hamiltons last stop, Webber doesn’t have gearshift issue in first stint.

Hamilton – +25, 115
Vettel – +15, 92
Webber – +12, 93
Alonso – +18, 86

Valencia, with no technical issues a RB one-two on grid and in race. Hamilton overtaken by Maldonado and Schumacher at end as tyres go off, no car failure for Grosjean.

Hamilton – +6, 121
Vettel – +25, 117
Webber – +18, 121
Alonso – +15, 101

Britain, no changes.

Hamilton – +4, 125
Vettel – +15, 132
Webber – +25, 146
Alonso – +18, 119

Germany, no gearbox penalty for Webber, finishes fourth, no puncture for Hamilton, finishes fifth, Vettel told by Horner to give place back to Button and finishes third.

Hamilton – +10, 135
Vettel – +15, 147
Webber – +12, 158
Alonso – +25, 143

Hungary, Webber does not have differential issue and finishes fifth.

Hamilton – +25, 160
Vettel – +12, 159
Webber – +10, 168
Alonso – +8, 151

NB. Removing speculated result for Webber in Spain and not giving Vettel +5 for Germany.

//Edit1 – Vettel -7 for being dropped down to 6th in Germany, classifying potential result as Alonso->Button->Webber->Hamilton->Raikkonen->Vettel.

//Edit2 – Hamilton +3 with gearbox penalty in China removed and finishing position adjusted to third.

Hamilton – 162
Vettel – 152
Webber – 161
Alonso – 151

Alonso’s season looks even better, to be within 11 points of the lead with the championship adjusted like this.

Don’t support him, but if he wins this season I’ll boot Senna out of my all time top 5 for him :p .

All IMO of course. //Webber/Schu fan for any forthcoming accusations of bias ;) .

I wouldn’t rate Vettel any differently than I do now, which is bloody fast but not top level yet in racecraft
( not far off though ).

Saying that Alonso would have won Canada doesn’t seem to me to be based on any fact or logic.

When you took the points off Vettel in Germany you forgot to increase Hamilton’s and Webber’s accordingly.

@kingshark, are you sure Alonso had unused option tyres left in Canada? I actually missed much of that qualifying session, but the only occurrence I remember of a dry qualifying this year where a Q3 runner completed qualifying with one set of options to spare was China, where Rosberg set a blistering first lap, and then sat out the rest of Q3 while track conditions got worse. In other qualifying sessions this year, drivers often had to use two sets of options already to get through Q1 and Q2. On those occasions that drivers make it through to Q3 having used only one set of options (mostly Hamilton), they usually did two runs in order to gain a place on a very competitive grid. This in contrast to some occasions in the past two years, such as Barcelona 2010, when RBR did only a single run as they were almost a second faster than anyone else. Finally, with around 20 laps to go, I’m not sure option tyres would actually be faster over the stint than (also new) primes.

@njack, you forgot to take into account that Hamilton had a gearbox penalty in China, otherwise he would have started from second on the grid, with race pace to match Button, who was challenging for the win prior to a disastrous second pit stop.

Ah yes, that gearbox penalty (and was there a bodged pitstop for Hamilton as well as Button) in China took what could well have been 1st or 2nd from Hamilton.