F1 2010 Season Preview

[The Immortal Dragon]

nice job, phil

[emmac]

Thanks Phil

[mountford]

Thanks for your efforts.

If you don't mind a bit of constructive criticism, I would advise against suffixing every scandal with "-gate" (spygate, crashgate, liegate). Popular as they may be, these terms are typical of the media's overreacting ways (omg this is the new watergate), and usually say more about the writer's lack of professionalism than about the facts themselves.

Also, interesting as it was, I felt your article was perhaps a bit too polite at times, not opinionated enough. To an extent, you're summing up the general (educated) consensus, which is a good start, but you'd need to dig deeper, and give this a distinctive phil1993 flavour. With both Hamilton and Alonso paired up with very capable teammates, you say nothing of the ugly side both of them showed in 2007, of their willingness to play dirty to assert themselves as team leader; you say very little of Kovalainen and Trulli's less-than-stellar drives throughout 2009; there'd be a couple other examples, but I think you see the point.

Lastly, you might want to iron out some typos, which you'll easily spot upon proofreading. "Massa wants to prove his better than ever", stuff like that.


This is by no means to put down your efforts; I deeply respect your work, and I hope my comments will be helpful in a way. Keep it up.

What this guy said

Interesting to read that Prost would be a 7 times WC under the new points system!

[F1~Michi]

Nicely written, enjoyed it.

[TwistedArmco]

Once again, good stuff. Keep at it, future journo.

[jhandley]

Thank you for making this available to us.
Great job!!!!

[teahouse]

great doc...complete with all stuff....to add something.......on how this previuos season went......after the 4 weeks of testing and 2 FP....we still are unsure who is fastest....but wait is over soon....

[harrisv48]

thanks dude

[Gawel]

very well done

[Omegablue]

Came across this in regards to the new points system. Interesting how the World champions would have been diffirent.

http://www.digi-darkroom.com/showthread.php?p=321206

This year there is is to be a new points system in Formula 1. It award the first 10 drivers 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1; this replacing the 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 system that has been in use since 2003.

This got me thinking how would that affect previous world championships. Would Kimmi Raikonnen still beat Lewis Hamilton by one point in 2007, would Lewis Hamilton still beat Felipe Massa by one point in 2008. What about 1984 when Niki Lauda won the championship by only half a point. So I put the results of all grand prix since 1950 into a spreadsheet and calculated the answer. I thought it would take a couple of days, putting in a few hours each evening. In the end it took almost 2 weeks, there were more races that I thought; 820 if you want to know.

In 2007 Fernando Alonso would have taken the championship from Kimmi Raikonnen, not Lewis Hamilton.
In 2008 Lewis Hamilton would still have won the championship. It would still be close, only 3 points in it.
In 1984 Alain Prost would have taken the championship from Niki Lauda by 4.5 points.

There are a few other interesting effects.
Alain Prost would have been the biggest beneficiary. Instead of winning 4 championships he would have won 7, equaling Michael Schumacher total. In addition to the 4 he would still retain he would take titles from Nelson Piquet in 1983, Niki Lauda in 1984 and Ayrton Senna in 1988.

There would have been 2 occasions where 2 drivers finished on equal points. The first was in 1965 when Jim Clark and Graham Hill would both of had 151 points. Jim Clark would still have won as he had 6 race wins to Graham Hill's 2. The second was in 1983 when Alain Prost and Nelson Piquet both would have had 183 points. This time Alain Prost would take the championship by winning 4 races to Nelson Piquet's 3.

Jacques Villenueve, James Hunt, John Surtees and Kimi Raikkonen would never have been world champion. The only new addition to the list would have been Eddie Irvine who would have taken one of Mika Häkkinen's titles.

Drivers who increased their number of championship titles are:
Alain Prost 7(4)
Damon Hill 2(1)
Fernando Alonso 3(2)
Graham Hill 3(2)
Originals number of titles are in brackets.

Drivers who decreased their number of championship titles are:
Ayrton Senna 2(3)
Mika Häkkinen 1(2)
Nelson Piquet 2(3)
Again originals number of titles are in brackets.