Championship by laps

[Schummy]

When I have too much time I do two things: I do a bit of number crunching and I watch my cat wandering thru his realm. I do one of those things to relax of the other

Well, I have time in this vacation week... I have calculated how much points would get each driver considering his position in each lap. For example, if MS had been in Melbourne 50% of laps in 1st position, 25% in 2nd position and 25% in 3rd position, I'd give him: 10*0.50 + 8*0.25 + 6*0.25 = 5 + 2 + 1.5 = 8.5 points. It is a "weigthed average" of positions during the whole race.

I know that the important thing for a racer is de position in the last lap, but this sort of calculation can show who has been lucky, who has dominated, etc. I don't claim at all this method is better than the official point system! It is kust an instrument to see some things about how season develops.

I have added the real scores and the difference between both systems.

  Name AUS + MAL + BRA  =  TOT  FIA  DIF
 1.RAI 6.09  9.32  6.81  22.22  24  +1.8
 2.COU 5.38  0.36  8.74  14.48  15  +0.5
 3.BAR 0.69  6.91  5.85  13.45   8  -5.5
 4.ALO 1.88  7.36  2.24  11.48  14  +2.5
 5.MSC 6.24  1.02  1.94   9.20   8  -1.2
 6.MOY 7.47  0.07  1.56   9.09   8  -1.1
 7.RSC 1.64  4.18  2.85   8.67   8  -0.7
 8.TRU 3.45  2.36  1.69   7.49   9  +1.5
 9.BUT 0.72  3.88  0.63   5.23   2  -3.2
10.WEB 0.64  0.30  2.72   3.66   0  -3.7
11.FRE 2.34  0.07  0.78   3.19   7  +3.8
12.HEI 0.33  2.25  0.00   2.58   1  -1.6
13.FIS 0.43  0.07  2.02   2.52  10  +7.5
14.PAN 0.72  0.80  0.00   1.53   0  -1.5
15.VIL 0.95  0.07  0.30   1.32   3  +1.7
16.CDM 0.00  0.21  0.59   0.81   0  -0.8
17.FIR 0.02  0.45  0.00   0.46   0  -0.5
18.PIZ 0.00  0.07  0.19   0.26   0  -0.3
19.VER 0.02  0.07  0.09   0.18   0  -0.2
20.WIL 0.00  0.14  0.00   0.14   0  -0.1

With this system, the podiums had been:

AUS: Montoya - MSchum - Raikkonen
MAL: Raikkonen - Alonso - Barrichello
BRA: Coulthard - Raikkonen - Barrichello

In a light point of view, if we interpret diff between real points gotten and points "deserved"(?) by actuation during the whole race as how much "lucky" or "unlucky" the driver has been, we get:

"Luckiest" drivers:
Fisichella +7.5
Frentzen +3.8
Alonso +2.5

"Unluckiest" drivers:
Barrichello -5.5
Webber -3.7
Button -3.2

If there is some error in these calculations they are responsability of my PC (ummm...ok, I would be the only "culprit")

[BootsOntheSide]

Nice work Schummy. Makes for fairly interesting reading. Of course Webber wasn't really unlucky, it's his fault he crashed it, and Frentzen and Fisichella reaped the rewards from secure drives having fuelled up early in Brazil.

Of course it'd be interesting if this system was really in use, as teams would have to adjust their pitstop timings to ensure that they spend as much time as possible running high up the order.

Another thing this shows is jsut how dominant Raikkonen was in Malaysia, and also that the Coulthard tortoise beat the Montoya, Raikkonen and Michael hares in Australia (figure of speech, don't get offended by it). Fisichella would've only been seventh in Brazil!

[Inigo Montoya]

Very interesting Sch.. keep up the good work!

[Damon]

You are bored aren't you! Although that is pretty interesting.

[krt917]

Nice one Schummy, some of this statistical stuff can be quite interesting and revealing (and misleading!). The system would be even better for GPs before they brought in refuelling as now drivers often occupy higher positions than they would have (eg. the Renaults) or vice versa (eg. the McLarens).