Largest points total overturned to win drivers' championship?
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- 9th September 2015, 20:28 at 8:28 pm #304909Caroline GeddesParticipant
Sorry if this has been asked/answered elsewhere. Lewis is now 53 points clear of Rosberg. Does anyone know what is the largest points deficit to be overturned for someone to win the drivers’ championship?
9th September 2015, 20:43 at 8:43 pm #304910Keith CollantineKeymasterObviously there’s a degree of variance here because the points system has changed so much over the years:
Every F1 points system, 1950-2010
In 1976 James Hunt won the world championship having been 33 points behind Niki Lauda at one stage. That was equivalent to 3.666 wins at the time (a win was worth nine points then).
To put that into perspective, Sebastian Vettel overcame a bigger points deficit to win the 2012 championship: he was 44 points behind at one stage. However as a win was worth 25 points then, his deficit was 1.76 wins – less than half of Hunt’s.
I’ve not got all the data on this to hand but my first guess would be that in relative terms, Hunt came from further behind than anyone else – aided, of course, by Lauda missing races due to the injuries he suffered at the Nurburgring. Note also that due to disqualifications and reinstatements during that year, the figure of 33 points may have appeared larger or smaller at different times – this is just going off the final classifications.
9th September 2015, 20:49 at 8:49 pm #304912andae23ParticipantI’m pretty sure the answer in terms of points is Vettel in 2012: after the German GP he was 44 points behind Alonso in the championship, but eventually won the title by 3 points over Alonso.
I’ll look it up, will update if I find something.
9th September 2015, 21:00 at 9:00 pm #304914Caroline GeddesParticipantThanks guys – interesting stuff as always. It seems Nico would have to pull off quite a feat to win this championship, though Hunt’s win would would still probably be overcoming a bigger margin due to the changing points system.
9th September 2015, 21:05 at 9:05 pm #304915andae23ParticipantIn absolute terms, indeed Vettel in 2012 had the biggest gap. In relative terms (as in points/points for winning), Keith is correct: Hunt’s 33-point gap was the biggest (3.67 wins). Had Damon Hill managed to win the 1994 championship in the final round, he would have a marginally bigger points deficit: 37 points after the French GP (3.7 wins).
9th September 2015, 22:40 at 10:40 pm #304919Keith CollantineKeymaster@lass321 To look at it the other way around, Rosberg would have to increase his current 53-point deficit to 92 or more and then win the title to beat Hunt!
I should also add there is another relevant dimension here: how long it took them to overcome their points deficit. For instance in 2007 Raikkonen overcame a 1.7-win (17-point) deficit in two races to win the title, which was extraordinary.
Hunt overcame his peak deficit over ten races, so that’s 0.36 wins per race recovered. Raikkonen’s recovery rate was more than twice as fast: 0.85 wins per race.
10th September 2015, 7:35 at 7:35 am #304927KingsharkParticipantIn more recent times, Kimi Raikkonen was 2.6 wins (26 points) behind Lewis Hamilton after the US Grand Prix in 2007, that is equal to about 65 points in today’s points system. He was able to overhaul it into a WDC by 1 point at the end of the season.
11th September 2015, 9:19 at 9:19 am #304929Sir TeukkaParticipantF1.com did an article about this a while ago
11th September 2015, 10:29 at 10:29 am #304990AtticusParticipantVery good topic, I also pondered this idea after the Italian GP and Rosberg having almost doubled his points deficit.
But I did not give it any serious thought as I do not think – whatever the state of play is in the 2015 championship – that we are about to see a turnaround this time. It all proved too academic for me.
11th September 2015, 10:36 at 10:36 am #304991dragollParticipantIf it was a case of role reversal and Lewis was behind Nico due to strange circumstances, mechanicals, etc… I couldn’t help but think that Lewis in current form could win the championship from that far back. However, Rosberg lost his chance last year, and he’ll forever regret Spa 2014.
11th September 2015, 12:21 at 12:21 pm #304995David Not CoulthardParticipantWow F1’s got a decent website now (not only in terms of content but also the stylesheet!)
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