World Champions that never were

[beelsebob]

In another thread people were talking about "half" seasons, and how they were unrepresentative of drivers' performances. They're right. It did however get me thinking... what about people who would have been WDCs if the season had started a few races into the season, and ended a few races into the next.

Sooo... I did the figures for 2007/2008. I chose these two years because they were very close, so I thought they'd be more interesting than more recent ones. I expect adding 2009 would be interesting too. So, I added up the scores for a full season's worth of races from each offset into 2007. There's one gotcha – 2008 has one more race than 2007, because of this, come half way through 2007 I added an extra race to the calculation.

Here's the results:
2007 + 0: 1. Kimi (110); 2=. Lewis (109); 2=. Fernando (109)
2007 + 1: 1. Lewis (113); 2. Fernando (106); 3. Kimi (101)
2007 + 2: 1. Lewis (109); 2. Kimi (105); 3. Fernando (97)
2007 + 3: 1. Kimi (107); 2. Lewis (101); 3. Fernando (93)
2007 + 4: 1. Kimi (117); 2. Lewis (99); 3. Fernando (87)
2007 + 5: 1. Kimi (122); 2. Lewis (99); 3. Felipe (89)
2007 + 6: 1. Kimi (118); 2. Lewis (99); 3. Felipe (95)
2007 + 7: 1. Kimi (113); 2. Felipe (93); 3. Lewis (89)
2007 + 8: 1. Kimi (111); 2. Felipe (95); 3. Lewis (83)
2007 + 9: 1. Kimi (106); 2. Felipe (91); 3. Lewis (87)
2007 + 10: 1. Kimi (109); 2=. Felipe (97); 2=. Lewis (97)
2007 + 11: 1. Kimi (115); 2. Lewis (101); 3. Felipe (89)
2007 + 12: 1. Kimi (107); 2=. Lewis (99); 2=. Felipe (99)
2007 + 13: 1. Lewis (101); 2=. Kimi (99); 2=. Felipe (99)
2007 + 14: 1. Felipe (102); 2. Lewis (95); 3. Kimi (93)
2007 + 15: 1. Lewis (96); 2. Felipe (94); 3. Kimi (83)
2007 + 16: 1. Felipe (93); 2. Lewis (86); 3. Kimi (83)
2007 + 17: 1. Lewis (96); 2. Felipe (95); 3=. Kimi (79) 3=. Robert Kubica (79)
2008 + 0: 1. Lewis (98); 2. Felipe (97); 3=. Kimi (75) 3=. Robert Kubica (75)

So as we can see... Kimi's success in 2007 mostly comes through; Lewis wins quite a few, but most interesting... Felipe would have won a couple of WDCs if we carry over season boundaries.

I wonder who we gain if we do a few more years.

[Robbobnob]

Would Vettel possibly pick up a third if you shift the end of 2009?
the RB5 Was certainly quick end of 2009

[beelsebob]

Would Vettel possibly pick up a third if you shift the end of 2009?
the RB5 Was certainly quick end of 2009

I still have the spread sheet that I did it in, so I'll extend into 2009, and then 2010 given some time.

[Shrieker]

It's amazing had the double diffuser farce never have happened Vettel would be a triple WDC now, at only 24. Note that the only other two to have won 3 times back to back are Schumacher and Fangio. Senna could've done it too, in fact could be the only one alongisde Fangio to do it 4 times back to back had he not been unlucky in '89. Vettel could still get a triple though, at only 25 When I look back I see he's being given a lot less credit than he deserves.

(ok, schumi did it 5 times in a row so the 4 doesn't count :-")

[raymondu999]

It's amazing had the double diffuser farce never have happened Vettel would be a triple WDC now, at only 24.

Difficult to say. Changing that would probably cause a knock-on butterfly effect; and something could happen that changes it as such.