Historical points problems...

[dinizintheoven]

I looked through the Black Stig Memorial Forum a few days ago to see if there was an alternative championship history based on the 2010-present points system. I figured that this would be one of the first such alternative championships ever to be worked out... but it seems there isn't, maybe because it was such an obvious thing to do, it was assumed someone else already had done it.

But I can't find this alternative championship here or anywhere else, so I'm doing it myself. I'm working my way backwards from 2009, and I am working on the principle of not dropping any scores (as was the case until 1990), and also combining the Constructors' Championship results of those teams who changed engine mid-season and had two places in the championship because of it. The last time this happened was 1991 with Footwork-Porsche and Footwork-Ford, though only the Ford-powered car ever saw the chequered flag that year. (Then there's Coloni and Life in 1990, neither of whom ever qualified for a race as we all well know, so they don't affect the standings at all.)

I have reached 1986, and here I run into trouble. In 1987, Yannick Dalmas was excluded from scoring points in the second Larrousse as it wasn't registered at the start of the season. The only reason I noticed is because he scored a 5th place in Australia that meant an asterisk by the zero in the points column that should otherwise have been two. Had he been 7th that race, this problem would never have been visible - especially as he was in the #29 car that Larrousse would have been running anyway had it been from the start of the season; why were they allocated only 30 from the start if they intended to run a one-car team, why in turn were Coloni given 32 for Nicola Larini's two brief forays into the field when there was no #31 that year...

Which brings me to 1986: what of Huub Rothengatter? He joined midway through the season, driving for Zakspeed... in car 29, which was an obvious admission that Zakspeed's second car was an afterthought, seeing as their other car was #14 and was surrounded by Lotus (11/12) and Haas-Lola (15/16), with the superstition over 13 meaning Rothengatter wouldn't take that car...

1985 isn't going to be a problem (neither François Hesnault's spare Renault or Alan Jones' late-entry Haas-Lola finished a race), but 1984 will be, with the out-of-sequence numbering of Jo Gartner's second Osella... and the even more troubling case of Gerhard Berger swapping between the late-entry second Arrows (31) and the Manfred Winkelhock vacated for the last race of the year (14). I see Berger wasn't eligible for points that season... but he did finish 13th in the #14 car in that last race. Not that that would have scored any points anyway, but had he dragged it to 6th, would that have counted?

And then, further back in history, there are the private entries that ran a spare Williams, McLaren, March or anything else that was available...

I am tempted to restore Messrs. Dalmas, Berger and Gartner to the points they were otherwise denied, seeing as I've un-dropped the discarded points from the top of the table... but is this going to cause further problems, say, when I get back to the 1960s?

[Bobby Doorknobs]

Which brings me to 1986: what of Huub Rothengatter? He joined midway through the season, driving for Zakspeed... in car 29, which was an obvious admission that Zakspeed's second car was an afterthought, seeing as their other car was #14 and was surrounded by Lotus (11/12) and Haas-Lola (15/16), with the superstition over 13 meaning Rothengatter wouldn't take that car...

Yeah, when I did my 1930s points championship I decided not to take Rothengatter's results into account when working out the number of points Zakspeed scored, as it definitely had the appearance of being a one-car entry initially. I also used the pre-1979 "only the highest placed car scores WCC points" system, as otherwise one-car teams would have an unfair advantage over the more standard two-car efforts and Renault's third car entry for Hesnault would have made no sense. Although it would have been nice to see Osella win a championship under that system This created a problem for recent seasons though, as under the one-car system McLaren, Sauber, Toro Rosso, Williams and Marussia would all have been tied for 5th in the 2013 championship, so I introduced the current two-car rule for 1992, because that was the first season where every team ran two cars (even if it wasn't in every race, like what Brabham did). Though I was not fully satisfied with that because I tried to find out the first season where two-car teams were mandatory, as opposed to just being the universal norm, but couldn't find anything on that.

1985 isn't going to be a problem (neither François Hesnault's spare Renault or Alan Jones' late-entry Haas-Lola finished a race), but 1984 will be, with the out-of-sequence numbering of Jo Gartner's second Osella... and the even more troubling case of Gerhard Berger swapping between the late-entry second Arrows (31) and the Manfred Winkelhock vacated for the last race of the year (14). I see Berger wasn't eligible for points that season... but he did finish 13th in the #14 car in that last race. Not that that would have scored any points anyway, but had he dragged it to 6th, would that have counted?

I'd say it most definitely would have, as the #14 car was the one that was entered at the start of the year, and therefore eligible for points. Berger was just substituting for Winkelhock, as opposed to being entered alongside him in a second car that wasn't on the entry list at the start of the season.

And then, further back in history, there are the private entries that ran a spare Williams, McLaren, March or anything else that was available...

I don't think that will create any problems, as I don't remember ever reading about cars being ineligible for points before the 1980s, except for F2 entries in Germany in the '50s and '60s, but I'll get to those next. I think the best thing to do for the Constructors' Championship is to revert to the "highest-placed car" system when you get to 1978, as there was always an inconsistent number of entries by the same constructor before all teams were forced by the regulations to build their own car instead of buying an old Lotus or Brabham (see the 1958 Argentine Grand Prix where positions 4 to 9 were all filled by Maseratis).

I am tempted to restore Messrs. Dalmas, Berger and Gartner to the points they were otherwise denied, seeing as I've un-dropped the discarded points from the top of the table... but is this going to cause further problems, say, when I get back to the 1960s?

The only really problematic races in the sport's first two decades are the races where F1 and F2 races were run concurrently on the same circuit, which was only done on the Nurburgring and Ain-Diab, much like how WEC has four different categories in the same race nowadays. There was little consistency in how this was handled however, other than that F2 drivers were always ineligible for championship points. In the 1967 German Grand Prix Jo Bonnier finished 6th and Guy Ligier 8th, but were awarded points for 5th and 6th respectively because while they weren't 5th and 6th overall, they were 5th and 6th out of the F1 cars, as the cars in 5th and 7th on the road were F2 cars and therefore ineligible for points. But then in the 1958 race Cliff Allison was 10th on the road, but 5th out of the F1 cars, yet he was awarded no points. Here again you have the problem of figuring out when the FIA decided to change this, as in the 1966 race Peter Arundell was 12th on the road, but 8th out of the F1 cars, so you'll have to decide for yourself whether to award him no points for finishing 12th, or 4 points for finishing 8th.

Basically, I feel some liberties need to be taken with these alternate championships, just so long as they don't change things too much.

[Bleu]

I was wondering was that "no points rule" which took away points earned by Gartner, Berger and Dalmas also affecting possible points-finishes of teams which joined the field in the middle of the season (usually late). There was Spirit in 1983 (best finish 7th), Beatrice-Lola in 1985, AGS in 1986 and Coloni in 1987 (no finishes for those teams).

I think they wouldn't have got any points.