The No McLaren Alternative Championship

[Londoner]

It is the first day of the summer holidays for me, and I'm already bored. So, I'm going to try my hand at these old-fangled alternative championships that seem rather popular around here, in order to pass the time and to creep closer to the fabled 2000th post mark.

So what I've done here is removed McLaren from both the constructors and drivers championships, and redistributed the points as such. This will get tricky as I intend to use the old point allocation method (best 6 scores/best 11 scores count etc) to keep things authentic for such seasons. There might be a lot of swearing...

1966

Driver's Championship
1. Jack Brabham - 42
2. John Surtees - 28
3. Jochen Rindt - 22
4. Denny Hulme - 18
5. Graham Hill - 17
6. Jim Clark - 16
7. Jackie Stewart - 14
8. Mike Parkes - 12
9. Lorenzo Bandini - 12
10. Ludovico Scarfiotti - 9
11. Richie Ginther - 5
12. Dan Gurney - 4
13. Mike Spence - 4
14. Bob Bondurant - 3
15. Jo Siffert - 3
17. Peter Arundell - 2
18. Jo Bonnier - 1
19. John Taylor - 1
20. Chris Irwin - 1

Constructor's Championship
1. Brabham-Repco - 42
2. Ferrari - 31
3. Cooper-Maserati - 30
4. BRM - 22
5. Lotus-BRM - 13
6. Lotus-Climax - 9
7. Eagle-Climax - 4
8. Honda - 3
9. Brabham-Climax - 2
10. Brabham-BRM - 1

This one was reasonably simple, as McLaren only had the one driver (Bruce McLaren), and only scored twice. A grand total of 3 points. A 6th place at the British Grand Prix is given to Chris Irwin who drove a Climax-engined Brabham, meaning he scores a point on his debut. At the United States Grand Prix, Peter Arundell is moved up from 6th to 5th, scoring an extra point in his Climax-engined Lotus. The 6th place he vacates is left vacated, as he was the last classified runner. Richie Ginther and Jo Bonnier were still running, but were many miles behind the rest and thus remain NC.

Little change in the constructors championship, save that McLaren had two entries in this, as Bruce drove with either a Ford engine, or with a Serenissima V8. Got to love privateers...

Phew, that was hard work. I don't envy those members that come up with these alternative championships on a regular basis.

[James1978]

Looking forward to:

1984, 1986, 1988, 1989, 2008 in particular.

[TomWazzleshaw]

Little change in the constructors championship, save that McLaren had two entries in this, as Bruce drove with either a Ford engine, or with a Serenissima V8. Got to love privateers...

What in the blue hell is a Serenissima?

[dr-baker]

Little change in the constructors championship, save that McLaren had two entries in this, as Bruce drove with either a Ford engine, or with a Serenissima V8. Got to love privateers...

What in the blue hell is a Serenissima?

It was an F1 engine used by McLaren in the 1960s, duuuuuuhhhhhhh.

It is clear I have absolutely no idea what else they ever did. Like I have no idea what else Coventry-Climax ever did.

[Londoner]

Little change in the constructors championship, save that McLaren had two entries in this, as Bruce drove with either a Ford engine, or with a Serenissima V8. Got to love privateers...

What in the blue hell is a Serenissima?

It was an F1 engine used by McLaren in the 1960s, duuuuuuhhhhhhh.

It is clear I have absolutely no idea what else they ever did. Like I have no idea what else Coventry-Climax ever did.

Coventry Climax made fire pumps, and their original 2.5 litre engine used by Cooper and Lotus at the end of the 1950s was directly derived from it.

As for Serenissima, your guess is as good as mine.

[Londoner]

1967

Driver's Championship
1. Denny Hulme - 51
2. Jack Brabham - 46
3. Jim Clark - 41
4. John Surtees - 20
5. Chris Amon - 20
6. Pedro Rodriguez - 16
7. Graham Hill - 15
8. Dan Gurney - 13
9. Jackie Stewart - 10
10. Mike Spence - 10
11. John Love - 6
12. Jo Siffert - 6
13. Jochen Rindt - 6
14. Jo Bonnier - 3
15. Chris Irwin - 2
16. Bob Anderson - 2
17. Mike Parkes - 2
18. Guy Ligier - 1
19. Ludovico Scarfiotti - 1
20. Jacky Ickx - 1

Constructor's Championship
1. Brabham-Repco - 63
2. Lotus-Ford - 44
3. Cooper-Maserati - 29
4. Honda - 20
5. Ferrari - 20
6. BRM - 18
7. Eagle-Westlake - 13
8. Lotus-BRM - 6
9. Cooper-Climax - 6
10. Brabham-Climax - 2

Again, simple stuff really. Bruce was the only driver, and only scored once in 1967, a 4th in Monaco. This means that Pedro Rodriguez and Mike Parkes move up a spot, scoring an extra point for the works Cooper and BRM squads respectively. As only 6 cars finished that race, the 6th place remains vacant.

No change whatsoever in the overall standings. Chris Irwin unrejectifies himself by scoring a 5th to go with his inherited 6th last season.

1968 will be interesting, as it was the first year that McLaren were properly competitive. They also scored a victory...

[tommykl]

As for Serenissima, your guess is as good as mine.

Serenissima was a racing team owned by Giovanni Volpi, and the team entered a handful of F1 races in the early 60s. Apparently, they also briefly built engines.

[Sunshine_Baby_[IT]]

Really interesting topic. I'm looking forward for 70s, 80s, 90s and later.

[Londoner]

Here is 1968, and it's the first of many difficult seasons for me, as McLaren produced a competitive car, expanded to two drivers and won 3 races. In addition, Dan Gurney and Jo Bonnier also drove McLarens as private entries.

1968

Stipulations

Championship points were awarded on a 9-6-4-3-2-1 basis to the top six drivers in each race. Only the best five results from the first six races and the best five results from the remaining six races were counted towards a driver's total.

Points were awarded on a 9-6-4-3-2-1 basis to the first six finishers at each round, however only the best placed car from each manufacturer was eligible to score points. The best five results from the first six rounds and the best five results from the last six rounds were retained.

Driver's Championship
1. Graham Hill - 51
2. Jackie Stewart - 41
3. Jacky Ickx - 31
4. Pedro Rodriguez - 25
5. Jo Siffert - 16
6. Jean-Pierre Beltoise - 14
7. John Surtees - 13
8. Chris Amon - 10
9. Jim Clark - 9
10. Johnny Servoz-Gavin - 9
11. Jackie Oliver - 9
12. Jochen Rindt - 8
13. Richard Attwood - 7
14. Lucovico Scarfiotti - 7
15. Vic Elford - 7
16. Lucien Bianchi - 7
17. Brian Redman - 7
18. Piers Courage - 6
19. Jo Bonnier - 3
20. Jack Brabham - 2
21. Silvio Moser - 2

Constructor's Championship
1. Lotus-Ford - 64
2. Matra-Ford - 54
3. BRM - 38
4. Ferrari - 36
5. Cooper-BRM - 17
6. Honda - 15
7. Brabham-Repco - 10
8. Matra - 9
9. Cooper-Maserati - 1

Pedro Rodriguez benefitted big-time from the lack of McLarens in the field, taking two victories in Belgium and Canada on his way to 4th in the championship. Johnny Servoz-Gavin unrejectified himself in style with a commanding victory at Monza. Other beneficiaries included Beltoise, who leapfrogged John Surtees in the championship standings and the various works Cooper drivers, who plundered the lower points places with gusto. Graham Hill still won the championship, with JYS close behind. Chris Amon didn't benefit at all, which is par for the course for him.

As a result of Rodriguez's two victories, BRM finished in 3rd place in the constructors championship, narrowly beating Ferrari. The works Cooper team leapfrogged Honda, in the final year for each team.

It was a bloody nightmare doing this one, especially for the constructors championship and it's stipulation that only the highest placed car in each race counts towards the championship. I kept getting the Matra teams mixed up because Beltoise drove for both the works squad and Ken Tyrrell's team. Fortunately, there seemed to be a unreliability curse that struck pretty much all the big guns that year, so I didn't have to faff around with a driver's best results.