The other driver who has been hit hard by unreliability is Lewis Hamilton: most recently with his gearbox problem in Suzuka, but also with no-scores in Spain and Hungary.Īlonso is in fine form at the moment, but mistakes earlier in the season at Shanghai, Monaco, Silverstone and Spa have taken a toll. Another tangle with Jenson Button at Spa cost him a podium finish. Car failures in the first two races alone cost him 35 points and two wins.īut he has made some high-profile mistakes as well: the crash with Webber in Istanbul, for example (but remember that just 24 hours earlier anti-roll bar failure in qualifying saw him start third instead of a likely first). Using the same data as above we can work out how many points each driver lost – and how. See this Excel file for a complete list of the results used. In those instances I’ve erred on the conservative side. For example, Alonso’s failure to participate in qualifying in Monaco after his crash in final practice. In some instances it’s difficult to predict a likely scenario for what might have happened. Here’s how the championship might look: Position In this case one where racing drivers don’t crash and their cars don’t break down.

Think of it like one of those science fiction programmes where the characters visit a parallel dimension.

The points table below was created using race finishing orders that were altered to remove drivers’ mistakes or car failures.įor each race a new finishing order was created based on the original results but with drivers being credited for places or finishes lost due to mistakes or car failures.įor example, the finishing order for Bahrain became Vettel-Alonso-Massa-Hamilton, ‘editing out’ the exhaust failure that dropped Vettel from first to fourth in the real race. Instead a combination of unreliability and a few disastrous mistakes at the wheel mean he’s trailing championship leader Mark Webber with three races to go.Īnd with this year’s championship so finely poised any further mistakes by driver or team in the final race could carry a high price. Sebastian Vettel should be going into this weekend’s Korean Grand Prix on the verge of clinching the world championship.

Download vettel 2010