Gold, silver and bronze are convenient ways to measure a single event. I think they are a lousy way to measure progress over an entire season.
The man who owns Formula 1, Bernie Ecclestone, the little garden gnome hisself, wants to change the scoring system to determine a season-long champion from total points accumulated across all races to most race wins. He wants to award gold, silver and bronze medals to the top three finishers and the driver with the most race wins at the end of the season is the World Champion.
Bernie’s theory is that the sole emphasis on race wins will encourage more aggressive driving, more passing and spice up the show. Here’s a better idea to encourage more passing: put a clutch pedal and gear shift in the car. Anyway…
Had the races wins system been in effect this year Lewis Hamilton would not have won the title. It would have gone to Felipe Massa, 6 wins to 5. Except, one of Hamilton’s race wins was taken away and given to Massa by an asinine stewards’ decision. Anyway …
So because I have too much time on my hands, I went back though F1 history to see if the gold-silver-bronze system would have changed the final standings in other years. Oh my yes.
The numbers don’t lie.
1950, Nino Farina won on points but tied Juan Manual Fangio with three wins each. Based on whatever tie-breaker system is employed, the championship may have gone the other way.
1958, our first outright reversal. Mike Hawthorn would not have been the first British champion. He had a single victory. Stirling Moss had four victories. Sir Stirling would have gotten his rightful championship.
1961, Phil Hill had two wins, as did Wolfgang von Trips and Stirling Moss.
1964, John Surtees loses his title to Jim Clark, 3 wins to 2.
1967, Denny Hulme loses his title to, wait for it, Jim Clark, 4 wins to 2.
1968, Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart each have 3 wins. Hill might have lost his second title and Stewart may have begun his title run a year earlier.
1972, Emerson Fittipaldi doesn’t fair well under this system. Both he and Stewart have 4 wins. Stewart could have retired with 5 titles.
1974, Emo is tied with Carlos Ruetemann and Ronnie Peterson with three wins. Emo could have been shut out.
1977, Niki Lauda misses out on his second title to Mario Andretti, 4 wins to 3.
1979, Jody Scheckter loses his only title to Alan Jones, 4 wins to 3.
The 1980’s title roster would not look nothing like the historical record under the G-S-B system.
1981, Nelson Piquet ties Alain Prost with 3 wins each. So Nelson loses his first title and Prost starts his run 4 years early?
1982. Keke Rosberg wins a race. Yeah. But Prost, Lauda, Didier Pironi, Rene Arnoux and John Watson each win two races.
1983, Piquet loses to Prost – again – 4 wins to 3.
1984, Lauda loses the title to Prost, 7 wins to 5.
1986, the tables turn on Prost. He loses his second title to Nigel Mansell, 5 victories to 4.
1987, Piquet loses again. From 3 championships to none. This time Mansell wins, 6 to 3.
1989, Prost loses his title to Senna, 6 to 4.
Then all is calm until …
2005, Fernando Alonso is tied with Kimi Raikkonen with 7 wins.
2006, Fernando Alonso is tied with Michael Schumacher with 7 wins.
… and the aforementioned Massa beats Hamilton.
So what have we learned?
Sir Jackie goes from 3 titles to 5.
Emo drops from 2 titles to none.
Piquet loses all 3 of his titles.
Lauda loses 2 of his 3 titles.
Alonso might be title-less.
Clark goes from 2 titles to 4.
Prost could have had as many as 8 titles.
Nige triples his title count from 1 to 3.
… and Mario Andretti becomes a double World Champion.
All scoring systems are arbitrary. Whatever is used in 2009, it will eventually choose a champion. A season-long champion may not be the same person.
