The Championship of Championships

Atlas F1

The Championship of Championships

by Justin Wood, England

Following on from a recent Atlas contribution, which tried to make comparisons across the years fairer by weighting each race by how many races there were in a season, I thought it might be a good comparison if we looked at one season of F1 as one race, and awarded 10 points for a win, 6 for second, etc. and compare the resulting points. This I did, and came out with the following results.

While it still isn't a way to compare, for example, Fangio vs. Prost equally, it does give an idea of how drivers fared when not grabbing all the glory as a Champion driver, how drivers compared to their peers in a season, and also who was consistently highly placed in each season. Personally, I don't think there are many great surprises in this list but you may feel differently. I think it is a good indication of who the best drivers are/ were (well, point scorers were at least), but obviously it has it's drawbacks. Is finishing second twice really worth more than winning once? Any list that has Frentzen on an equal footing as Gilles Villeneuve is asking for trouble...

(NB If there was a tie for, eg, second place at the end of a season, I awarded 6 points to both drivers, then 4 for fourth, 3 for fifth etc and so on. I also ignored the Indy Car drivers who featured in the early tables of the World Drivers Championship, and concentrated solely on F1 drivers. All final tables used from 1950 to 1997)

RANK

DRIVER

POINTS

1

ALAIN PROST

69

2

JUAN MANUEL FANGIO

62

3

AYRTON SENNA

55

4

NELSON PIQUET

48

=

JACKIE STEWART

48

6

NIKI LAUDA

45

7

GRAHAM HILL

42

8

JACK BRABHAM

39

9

JIM CLARK

36

=

STIRLING MOSS

36

11

NIGEL MANSELL

35

12

EMERSON FITTIPALDI

34

13

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER

31

14

ALBERTO ASCARI

28

=

JOHN SURTEES

28

16

DAMON HILL

26

=

DENNY HULME

26

18

GIUSEPPE FARINA

25

19

GERHARD BERGER

24

=

JODY SCHECKTER

24

21

MIKE HAWTHORN

23

=

CARLOS REUTEMANN

23

23

JACKY ICKX

21

=

BRUCE McLAREN

21

25

ALAN JONES

18

=

RONNIE PETERSON

18

=

ALAN JONES

18

28

RICCARDO PATRESE

17

=

JOCHEN RINDT

17

=

KEKE ROSBERG

17

31

PHIL HILL

16

=

JACQUES VILLENEUVE

16

33

MARIO ANDRETTI

15

=

DAN GURNEY

15

=

JAMES HUNT

15

36

RENE ARNOUX

14

37

MICHELE ALBERETO

12

=

JEAN ALESI

12

=

TONY BROOKS

12

=

RICHIE GINTHER

12

41

JOSE FROILAN GONZALEZ

11

42

JACQUES LAFFITE

9

=

MAURICE TRINTIGNANT

9

=

JOHN WATSON

9

45

FRANCOIS CEVERT

8

=

DAVID COULTHARD

8

=

MIKA HAKKINEN

8

=

DIDIER PIRONI

8

49

THIERRY BOUTSEN

7

=

WOLFGANG VON TRIPS

7

51

ELIO DE ANGELIS

6

=

EUGENIO CASTELLOTTI

6

=

PETER COLLINS

6

=

PATRICK DEPALLIER

6

=

HEINZ HARALD FRENTZEN

6

=

PIERO TARUFFI

6

=

GILLES VILLENEUVE

6

58

INNES IRELAND

5

=

LUIGI MUSSO

5

=

LUIGI VILLORESI

5

61

CHRIS AMON

4

=

LORENZO BANDINI

4

=

LUIGI FAGIOLI

4

=

PEDRO RODRIGUEZ

4

=

PATRICK TAMBAY

4

66

JEAN BEHRA

3

=

RUDI FISCHER

3

=

JOHNNY HERBERT

3

=

STEFAN JOHANSSON

3

=

LOUIS ROSIER

3

=

ROY SALVADORI

3

=

HARRY SCHELL

3

=

JO SIFFERT

3

74

JEAN-PIERRE BELTOISE

2

=

EDDIE IRVINE

2

=

KARL KLING

2

=

ROBERT MANZON

2

=

PETER REVSON

2

79

RUBENS BARRICHELLO

1

=

PRINCE BIRA

1

=

MARTIN BRUNDLE

1

=

EDDIE CHEEVER

1

=

JACK FAIRMAN

1

=

GIANCARLO FISICHELLA

1

=

PAUL FRERE

1

=

OLIVIER GENDEBIEN

1

=

FRANCESCO GODIA

1

=

MASTEN GREGORY

1

=

HANS HERRMANN

1

=

JOCHEN MASS

1

=

ALESSANDRO NANNINI

1

=

CARLOS PACE

1

Of course, Michael Schumacher would have been up there in 9th, had he not had his second place taken away from him at the end of 1997.

Mario Andretti and James Hunt are the lowest Championship winning drivers, with Stirling Moss then Gerhard Berger the highest placed drivers never to have been World Champion.

I also did the same for the Constructors Championship - no prizes for guessing who came first!

RANK

CONSTRUCTOR

POINTS

1

FERRARI

210

2

LOTUS

154

3

McLAREN

151

4

WILLIAMS

139

5

BRABHAM

82

6

BRM

58

7

COOPER

50

=

TYRELL

50

9

BENETTON

49

10

LIGIER / PROST

25

11

RENAULT

21

12

MATRA

17

13

MARCH

14

14

VANWALL

10

15

JORDAN

7

16

PORSCHE

6

17

HONDA

5

=

WOLF

5

19

ARROWS

4

=

HESKETH

4

=

LOLA

4

=

SURTEES

4

23

MASERATI

2

=

PENSKE

2

=

SHADOW

2

26

ALFA ROMEO

1

=

BRP

1

=

EAGLE

1

=

SAUBER

1

This makes Minardi and Stewart the only current teams not to appear on this list. Stewart are only in their second year of trying, but Minardi have yet to finish in the top six constructors, despite coming into F1 before Jordan and Sauber.

If the current Constructors Championship stays as it is, McLaren will have to win every Championship until 2004 with Ferrari coming outside the top six for McLaren to catch the scarlet team!


Justin Wood
Send comments to: justin.wood@man.ac.uk

Justin Wood lives in Manchester, England and has been an F1 nut ever since watching the nail-biter between Prost and Piquet at Kyalami in 1983. When not watching F1 and adding up it's numbers he works at the University of Manchester.