F1 2011: Sans Mr. Vettel

With five races remaining in this year's Formula One season, Sebastian Vettel needs to score one more point in order to successfully defend his championship crown. That being all but certain to happen, not to mention Jenson Button also having to win each of the remaining five rounds to be able to foil Vettel, the spotlight will inevitably turn towards the battle for second place between Button, Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton. But, what if Vettel was, say, mysteriously omitted from the championship table he so deservedly heads?

All of a sudden, we would have a thrilling four-way battle for honours on our hands. If one was to simply retrospectively discount Vettel from the results of the fourteen Grand Prix we have enjoyed so far this year, Button and Webber would be in a joint championship lead, Alonso would be just two points behind in third, while Hamilton would be far from out of the running being a further nineteen points adrift in fourth. What a tantalising prospect such a scenario would be as the season reached its climax...

1. J Button            McLaren      224

= M Webber         Red Bull      224

3. F Alonso           Ferrari         222

4. L Hamilton        McLaren      203

5. F Massa            Ferrari         107

6. N Rosberg        Mercedes     82      etc.

Button would not only be co-leader of the championship, but also the man with the most wins so far in 2011. His second places at Sepang, Monza and Singapore, combined with his actual wins at Canada and Hungary, would give him a total of five victories, including three out of the last four races. His McLaren teammate Hamilton would have one less win to his name, haven taken victory at the curtain-raiser at Melbourne in addition to China, Catalunya and the Nurburgring. 

Alonso would be third in the winning stakes with triumphs at Monaco, Valencia and Silverstone, whilst just the remaining two rounds at Turkey and Spa would've been won by Webber - a rather illuminating indictment perhaps as to the gulf in performance that has emerged between the Australian and his teammate during this year. Others to benefit significantly from Vettel's absence would be Renault drivers current and former Vitaly Petrov and Nick Heidfeld, whose early third places would both have become second places; Michael Schumacher's performance in Canada would also have warranted the German's first visit to the podium in five years.

Felipe Massa meanwhile would still be languishing almost a hundred points behind Hamilton in fifth place in the standings, with Nico Rosberg just twenty-five points in arrears of the Brazilian in sixth. Schumacher, Petrov and Heidfeld would all occupy the next three slots, with Adrian Sutil, Kamui Kobayashi and Paul Di Resta rounding out the top dozen, the lattermost leading closest rival Sergio Perez in the Rookie stakes by fourteen points.

There have of course been other, equally fearsome displays of dominance throughout F1 history, so let’s take a look at how some particularly one-sided seasons may have looked when the champion is excluded from the results...

2004 sans Michael Schumacher:

1. R Barrichello     Ferrari         136

2. J Button            BAR            106

3. F Alonso           Renault        71

4. JP Montoya      Williams       67

5. J Trulli               Renault        56

6. K Raikkonen    McLaren      52

2004 was the pinnacle of Ferrari-Schumacher domination – the German driver clinched world title number seven after securing a record thirteen wins of a possible eighteen. Remove Schumacher from the equation, and Ferrari’s peerless speed and bullet-proof reliability would still have resulted in Rubens Barrichello taking a relatively comfortable title from BAR’s Jenson Button, albeit with a rather paltry nine wins. Button would have had his first win two years sooner than he did in reality at the San Marino Grand Prix before adding a second success at Hockenheim. The Brit would have thus finished second in the championship ahead of Alonso (1 win), Juan Pablo Montoya (2 wins), Jarno Trulli (1 win) and Kimi Raikkonen (2 wins).  

1992 sans Nigel Mansell:

1. R Patrese           Williams      84

2. M Schumacher   Benetton     67

3. A Senna             McLaren     61

4. G Berger            McLaren     59

5. M Brundle          Benetton     48

6. J Alesi                Ferrari        22

After several near misses, 1992 was the year where things finally went Mansell’s way. The Williams was by far the best package on the grid, a fact reflected by the team’s second driver Riccardo Patrese being on top in a protracted Mansell-free 1992 season. He would have taken seven wins on to way to championship glory; Schumacher would have taken two during his first full season of F1, the first of which would have been at Catalunya rather than Spa-Francorchamps. Ayrton Senna would have only managed third in the standings despite having taken twice as many wins as Schumacher, just two points clear of McLaren teammate Gerhard Berger who would have had three wins to his name.

1975 sans Niki Lauda:

1. E Fittipaldi        McLaren      53

2. C Reutemann    Brabham      46

3. J Hunt               Hesketh       42

4. J Mass              McLaren      32

5. C Regazzoni      Ferrari         31

6. C Pace             Brabham      27

Unlike the case for 2004 and 1992, the exclusion of title winner Lauda in 1975 would not have resulted in Ferrari teammate Clay Regazzoni being crowned champion. Instead, Brazil’s Emerson Fittipaldi would have secured his third title by a close margin from Argentine Carlos Reutemann. Interestingly, Lauda’s five wins of a possible fourteen would have been shared rather equitably: Fittipaldi would receive two to add to his existing pair, whilst Reutemann, James Hunt and Jody Scheckter would take one of the remaining three apiece. There is also an obvious beneficiary in the championship standings as the points are re-distributed in the form of Jochen Mass, who would gain three places in the standings to take fourth, surpassing Regazzoni, Carlos Pace and Scheckter.

1963 sans Jim Clark:

1. G Hill                BRM           40

2. R Ginther          BRM           37

3. D Gurney          Brabham     29

4. J Surtees            Ferrari        27

5. B McLaren        Cooper       23

6. J Brabham         Brabham     20

Without the Jim Clark hegemony of 1963, Graham Hill would have successfully defended the title that he took the previous year for BRM. This however was only made possible by the quirky points system of the time which stipulated that only a driver’s best six results over the course of the season counted for the championship (Clark in reality scored the theoretical maximum of 54). This meant that American driver Richie Ginther had to drop seven points, gifting the title to teammate Hill. Another American, Dan Gurney, would have also gained a place in the standings at the expense of Briton John Surtees. Bruce McLaren, who three years later would go on to found a rather successful team of his own, meanwhile claimed fifth place in the standings ahead of Jack Brabham, who had already become a driver-owner in 1962.

Next time out is the Japanese Grand Prix, so make sure you check back in a week's time to read about all the action as well as to discover whether Sebastian Vettel will be crowned world champion for the second time in succession.