F1 Points Scoring Systems and Comparison With Previous Systems

Formula one is witnessing the best battle in the history, but for a second place finish. The battle for the 2011 F1 championship has just started to ramp up as McLaren and Ferrari had put some good performances to challenge the dominance of Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, who leads the championship with 234 points, a clear lead of 75 points to second place Mark Webber (149 points). Third placed Lewis Hamilton (146 points) leads Fernando Alonso with just 1 point, while Jenson Button is at fifth place with 134 points.

There have been some changes in the points scoring system since the start of 2010 season with new points system allowing 10 drivers to score points in race. The winner gets 25 points and the next goes 18 – 15 – 12 – 10 – 8 – 6 – 4 – 2 – 1.

The 2003-09 seasons’ points system allowed 8 drivers to score points, where winner used to get 10 points and next goes – 8 – 6 – 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1. Before 2003, the points system allowed only 6 drivers to score points, with top 6 drivers getting 10 – 6 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 points. But if we put and compare this seasons performances in terms of previous points systems used in Formula 1 we get some interesting data.

This season Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel is leading the championship with 75 points and also remains the leader when we convert points with the 2003-09 and pre-2003 points systems, where he would score 97 and 87 points respectively. With 2003-09 system Mark Webber gets the second place with 61 points and Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso both scoring 60 points. Jenson Button remains at fifth with 54 points. But if we convert those with pre-2003 system Hamilton gets the second place with 45 points, Alonso third with 42 points, Button fourth with 40 points and Webber drops to fifth with 39 points.

In the points scoring midfield, Felipe Massa remains sixth with both the systems. Nico Rosberg with 17 points, leads Vitaly Petrov, with 2003-09 system by 6 points, but with pre-2003, loses a place by 1 point to Petrov’s 6 points. Nick Heidfeld makes cut in both the tallies, leading Michael Schumacher (10 points) by 1 point with 2003-09 and and tied with 4 points with pre-2003 points system. Sauber F1 team’s Kamui Kobayshi scores 8 points and 2 points respectively.

Force India’s Adrian Sutil makes cut in both the tables with 5 points in 203-09 and 1 point in pre-2003 table and being the last driver to score point. Paul di Resta makes place in 2003-09 table with 2 points, sharing place with Sebastien Buemi, Jaime Alguersuari and Sergio Perez with 2 points each, but they all go pointless in pre-2003 system.

We have just managed to produce some data to our readers.