WARNING Post is quite long, if you don't wish to be bored *hitless for the next 30mins, walk away now! + is points gained - is points lost Melbourne, Don’t think any driver lost or gained too many points here, Vettel may have lucked into the Safety car giving him 3 extra points (off Hamilton) has he never looked likely to get in touch with the McLarens up until then.. Alonso finishing 5th was the best he could do. Vettel 18pts (+3 pts) Hamilton 15pts (-3 pts) Alonso 10pts Malaysia, Always a bit of a lottery here due to the weather, had it stayed dry I think the McLarens would have gone off and raced each other. You could say that McLaren did balls up the pit stops and cost Lewis the win, but if you look back at the race, the pace the Ferrari and Sauber showed in the mixed conditions leads me to believe he may not have been able to hold them off.. Vettel cost himself a good haul of points by driving into the worlds fastest cucumber! Alonso 25pts (+7) Hamilton 15pts (-10) Vettel 0pts (-12) Even though he was catching Hamilton towards the end, I don’t think he had a enough laps left in order to get past. China Pretty straight forward, other than a 5 place grid pen for Lewis that made him start from 7th instead of the 2nd he qualified in, doubt the results would have changed that much. Hamilton 15pts (-3) could have finished second if he started second and there weren’t any pits stop issues. Vettel 10pts Alonso 2pts Bahrain Vettel “may” have been caught by Lotus had they had the balls to pit Kimi earlier but they bottled it! Lewis qualified 2nd but during the race it was clear their long run pace wasn’t there, still but for TWO dodgy pit stops I’d have thought he’d have been 4th maybe 5th behind Webber at worst. Alonso did what he could here so no points lost. Vettel 25pts Alonso 6pts Hamilton 4pts (-6) So, 1/5 in the season we have Vettel 53pts (-9) so could have been on 62pts Hamilton 49pts (-22) so could have been on 71pts Alonso 43pts (+7) so should be on 36pts Sort of underlines the dominance that McLaren had at the start of the year!! Spain McLaren up their incompetence ability, Hamilton was clearly the fastest combination of Car and Driver, pole by a country mile but someone hit the wrong button or was button.. hmmmm, Alonso Started 2nd after the penalty to Hamilton and finished there, Vettel got, IMHO a unlucky drive through that cost him at least 2 points, so Alonso 18pts Vettel 8pts (-2) Hamilton 4pts (-21) Monaco Can’t remember any issues with any of these guys during the race, so pretty straight forward here.. Alonso 15pts Vettel 12pts Hamilton 10pts Canada Strategy cost Alonso and Vettel points here, had they reacted quick enough, they may have challenged Hamilton for the win and at the very least hung to the second and third positions they were in! Hamilton 25pts Vettel 12pts (-3) Alonso 10pts (-8) Europe Vettel was in a class of his own, safe to say he lost a certain win here, Alonso was Jonny on the spot and picked up the win, even with Lewis dodge pit stop, his tyres were shot and Alonso would have taken him, but for Pastor punting him off the track, Lewis lost a certain 4th position here, whilst Webber and Schumi were catching him, he only had one more lap to go! Alonso 25pts (+7) Hamilton 0pts (-12) Vettel 0pts (-25) So, 2/5ths of the season gone, there were: Alonso 111pts (+6) should have been 105pts Hamilton 88pts (-55) should have been 143pts Vettel 85pts (-39) should have been 124pts Proving that Alonso was hustling that car into a position it had no right being in and that the others were beset by issues (apart from Vettel and the cucumber coming together) not of their own doing. Britain With the weather washing out all the FP sessions, the setup was a bit of a lottery, no issues during the pit stops and I think no points were lost or gained here, if they were I can’t be sure to workout who and how many, so will go with the results. Alonso 18pts Vettel 15pts Hamilton 4pts Germany Another mixed up grid, however this was the start of a good period for McLaren, was Lewis not 4th when he got the puncture? Dropped him out of the points, his unlapping himself and hustling Alonso before his floor gave way showed he’d have had the pace to challenge for the win. Also, Vettel’s ill advised overtake cost him a certain second place.. Alonso 25pts Vettel 10pts (-8) Hamilton 0pts (-15) he had the beating of Button here, think at the very least, puncture aside he have got 3rd Hungray Straight forward, Hamilton and the Lotus’ were the class of the race, no real issues to report for Vettel or Alonso here, so no points lost or gained Hamilton 25pts Vettel 12pts Alonso 10pts Belgium What a mess! Will work on the basis that Button wasn’t gonna get caught today. Will assume, given Alonso’s good start he would have finish 2nd at best, Kimi started well but his 2 stop strategy was wrong on the day, given the fact that Vettel who started 11th, pitted once and finished ahead of him. Hamilton too would have made it close if not onto the podium. Vettel 18pts (+6) Alonso 0pts (-18) Hamilton 0pts (-15) So, 3/5 into the season the stand at.. Alonso 164 (-12) so should be 176 Vettel 140 (-41) so should be 181 Hamilton 117 (-85) so should be 202 Italy Could Alonso have caught Hamilton? Doubt it, during the race it showed Ferrari weren’t as kind to its tyres as the Mclaren’s, he lucked into 2nd when Button retired and finished 3rd due to the hard charging Perez, Vettel’s alternator gremlin cost him a certain 6th maybe even 5th (could he have caught Kimi.. I think so) Hamilton 25pts Alonso 15pts Vettel 0pts (-10) Singapore Hamilton’s bad luck kicks into overdrive, Vettel and him were in a class of their own here, Vettel lucked into 7 extra points, he wasn’t goint to finish worse than 2nd and Alonso was unlikely to catch and overtake Maldonado, so he lucked into 3rd when he should have been 5th at best. Vettel 25pts (+7) Alonso 15pts (+5) Hamilton 0pts (-25) The finger returns! Japan No one was going to touch Vettel here, Alonso dropped a good chunk of points here, Massa’s pace showed the Ferrari would have done well here, had he got to P3 there’s no doubt Massa would have moved to one side for him, McLaren pretty much got what they deserved here, weren’t on the pace Vettel 25pts Hamilton 10pts Alonso 0pts (-15) generously giving him a 3rd position. Korea Similar to Japan, not a track that favoured McLaren but I believe Lewis was a solid 4th before his rear anti-roll bar broke, messed up his handling and started to chew up the tyres, but for that I think he may have had enough to hold onto 4th Vettel 25pts Alonso 15pts Hamilton 1pt (-11) So, now, 4/5ths into the season we have Vettel 215 (-44) should be 259 Alonso 209 (-22) should be 231 Hamilton 153 (-121) should be 274 Sort of indicating that Alonso is still working wonders, but had it gone to plan, it really would be a between Vettel and Hamilton with Alonso being on the fringes. India Read Japan and Korea, don’t think any points were won or lost here due to car issues or pit stops, one could say he (Alonso) caught Webber due to his Kers failure mid race but I’ll give the Last Samurai the benefit of the doubt here.. Vettel 25pts Alonso 18pts Hamilton 12pts Abu Dhabi Certain amount of luck involved in Vettel’s third place here, 2 SCs, sister team jumping out the way, Webber being asked to pit at a crucial time, lucky not to get a puncture when damaging his front wing twice! But he did race when he needed to, had the others not crashed around him I think he’d have got 7th at best! Alonso also got lucky with Hamilton’s car stopping, gave him 3 more points.. Alonso 18pts (+3) Vettel 15pts (+9) Hamilton 0pts (-25) So, going into Austin, the championship would/could/should look like Vettel 255 (-35) should be 290 Alonso 245 (-19) should be 264 Hamilton 165 (-146) should be 311 In short only Vettel and Hamilton should be in with a shot going into the last two GP, that’s how much I believe McLaren have messed up this year! Its not an exact sicence so don’t get too anal, just a simple working out of points lost due to no fault of the driver. If you've got this far, let me know who and I'll thank you for it
Can I say, in Singapore.. Alonso would have easily beaten Maldonado, as he was ahead and Maldo was on the softer compound which would have died. And in Italy, he probably would have gotten pole/win without the problem in qualifying and Vettel damaging his car. Other than that and Hamilton beating Vettel in Germany, it looks decent.
It's just a shame that for the foreseeable future it will be just Alonso v Vettel with Lewis off to Mercedes! Moving from one incompetent team to another.
The points lost and who would be where is obviously very debatable, but what is certain is that Hamilton has been the most screwed over by his team. He is out of the title race despite putting in the required drives
Interesting article and, barring the fact that all drivers lose points through no fault of their own, it does show the degree of McLaren's incompetence: Lewis has lost almost as many points as he has won!!!
The points lost isn't exact, others have been effected but other than the alternator issues for Vettel and a couple of dnfs for Alonso, one which wasn't his fault, I just wanted to highlight that the points lost by Hamilton this year weren't his fault, he had a collision with Pastor at Valencia but its was pretty universal at the time it was Pastors fault.
Obviously the points lost and won isn't quite exact, but still the whole point I think here was to show how unlucky Lewis has been this year, to which I'd have to agree. A little more reliability here and there and this could've been a 3 horse race. But anyways, nice post mate
Lewis was lucky that Alonso had problems in Q3 in Italy, but apart from that its a pretty good job. Interested to see what it looks like after Brazil.
Even if the numbers aren't exact Mclaren have still cost Lewis 100 points at the very least, which still put him in contention even with Alonso and Vettel's points lost added on. I really hope next year is even worse for Mclaren, so it gives them a wake up call that they should have had 2 years ago. If next season is similar to this season in terms of pace of the cars at each race, I think Mclaren might struggle anyway. The only thing they can hold on to is whether Perez is as good as Hamilton over one lap in a car that should have similar pace to this years car. Next yearwill be very interesting. I'm anxious to see how Mercedes and Nico perform with Lewis there, how Perez performs at, whats meant to be, a top team, and to see if Mclaren can fix the lack of competence throughout their team
no one considers his hard driving style could be the cause of his DNFs? and the reason Button doesn't have as many mechanical problems is because he is a smooth driver who takes more care of his machinery?
Fair point it is known that Button has better Engine, Gearbox, Plank and Rim management then Hamilton and has done for a long time
If the car can't take being raced and can only stand up to a steady drive then it really is in a bad way.
retirements were all part and parcel of F1 when I started watching it's only been in the last decade or so that they've become so reliable. the cars are precision instruments and precision instruments should be treated with a bit of care, there's racing and ragging the arse of something, which is something I know about, I was fairly hard on my karts when I raced and once blew three engines at one meeting because I always pushed from start to finish, regardless of how far in the lead I was, shouldn't have happened as they were race engines, but that's the way of it. During the race the cars are probably close to the limit of their tolerances, as making something stronger usually means making it heavier, Hamilton is known for pushing hard and many peope say he gets more out of the car than the car should have. It's for this reason that I personally think all races should count towards the WCC bu,t for the WDC, drivers should be allowed to drop 3 or 4 results, like in the 'old days'
I have to agree with Miggins on this one. At least to some extent. F1 reliability has improved a whole magnitude since it has become a requirement for various components to last far longer than before. However, everything has its limit. What Miggs says in contrasting McLaren's current pairing in terms of wear and tear, I largely agree with. I do not wish to be seen as jumping on side or other of the classic 'ButHam debate', since they are both very fine drivers but there is little doubt who of the two has the more 'ragged edge' speed, which helps overcome certain chassis difficulties; and who of the two has a lightness of touch with such minimal 'input' that it is unmatched by anyone else on the current grid (as has been the case for about ten years). Despite the amazing reliabilty some almost take for granted, one need not be a genius to predict who is more likely to suffer mechanical failures.
I understand the points to an extent, but this doesn't account for such a high volume of failures. The cars or specifically the engines and transmission can really only be pushed so far given rev limits and semi-auto shifts. The McLaren is just generally not a particularly reliable car right now and while Hamilton may push his car harder than Button it's still particularly fragile for whatever reason.
Bhaji: I hope I did not give the impression I was blaming Hamilton for McLaren's unreliability! Not at all! I was simply agreeing with Miggins that the manner of driving can exacerbate weaknesses to some extent – and that it is statistically more likely that a 'harder' driver will experience more trouble than a softer driver. Obviously this has nothing to do with many of McLaren's appalling gaffs this season. What I have said is simply a generalisation.
I agree, all through 09-10 Seb was considered a "car breaker". But it could be said maybe he was just driving it faster than Webber could? Same could be said with regards to Lewis and Jenson.
I want to agree with points made (and do to a certain degree)... Yes, F1 cars are precision instruments and as such need to be driven within certain tolerances.. Saying that, Lewis in adapting to the tyres this year appears to have smoothed out his driving style (well to my naked untrained eye), esp. over the course of the race. His last 4 failures, rear anti-roll bar in Japan and Korea, a more knowledgeable person than I will know what could cause this.. and I'd like to know ;-) Other failures were Electrical and Gearbox, not sure how his "rougher" driving style could effect these components, esp. the Electronics? Some issues could be part of the overall package (Car and Driver), but the recent spat of issues I believe can be firmly laid at the feet of the team.
