Rerunning Formula 1 2008 On 2010 Scoring System

While writing the last blog post, I made reference to the continuing tinkering with the points scoring system in Formula 1 races. It argued that the more recent changes does not seem to make a difference to the outcome of the championship. Towards the end, the blog post stated that given the fact that the 2008 Championship also went down to the very last lap of the race, it is possible that the scoring system adopted in 2010 would yield a different winner. Concerned that I may have overstated, I went to the Formula 1 results archive to test that claim. The simple test involved ranking the championship winner and all other drivers who won at least one race in that year by using the 2010 scoring format.

The table on the above shows the finishing position of each of the seven drivers on the columns for each of the 18 races of that season, with the zeroes as code for drivers that did not finish that race. Clearly, I was mistaken to think that the championship results would have favored Felipe Massa due to his having won more races than Lewis Hamilton.  It remains that while the finish was still very close and was determined by that last race, Lewis Hamilton would still have been the championship winner. Truly, the scoring system requires massive tinkering to generate the excitement that Formula 1 bosses seem to think is lacking.