The Number 2s Alternative championship

[James1978]

1998

David Coulthard 101 (8 wins)
Eddie Irvine 90 (5 wins, 5 2nd)
Giancarlo Fisichella 54 (2 wins, 1 2nd, 4 3rd)
Heinz-Harald Frentzen 49 (4 2nd, 5 3rd)
Ralf Schumacher 39 (1 win, 2 2nd, 2 3rd)
Johnny Herbert 24 (1 2nd, 1 3rd)
Shinji Nakano 15 (2 4th, 4 5th)
Pedro Diniz 10 (2 3rd)
Olivier Panis 10 (4 5th)
Jan Magnussen 8 (1 3rd)
Ricardo Rosset 6 (2 5th)
Jos Verstappen 2 (2 6th)

Very similar to the "No Real Champions" again, with only Benetton not fielding a champion out of the top 5 teams. I'm impressed with Nakano beating Arrows, Prost and Stewart!

Line-up for 1999:

McLaren: Coutlhard
Ferrari: Schumacher/Salo (their points total combined is 20 points less than Irvine's!!)
Williams: Zanardi
Jordan: Hill
Benetton: Wurz
Sauber: Diniz (Alesi was almost always quicker despite Diniz scoring one more point)
Arrows: Takagi
Stewart: Herbert (despite scoring their win)
Prost: Panis
Minardi: Badoer
BAR: Salo/Zonta (so Salo will score for two teams)

[James1978]

1999

Michael Schumacher 72 (6 wins, 2 2nd)
David Coulthard 72 (5 wins, 3 2nd, 1 3rd)
Johnny Herbert 37 (2 wins, 2 2nd)
Alexander Wurz 37 (2 2nd, 4 3rd)
Mika Salo 33 (2 wins, 1 3rd) - 27 for Ferrari, 6 for BAR
Damon Hill 32 (3 2nd, 2 3rd)
Olivier Panis 31 (2 2nd, 2 3rd)
Pedro Diniz 17 (1 2nd, 2 3rd)
Alessandro Zanardi 16 (1 3rd)
Toranosuke Takagi 14 (1 win)
Ricardo Zonta 12 (1 2nd, 1 3rd)
Luca Badoer 9 (1 4th)

Bet nobody saw that coming with Schumacher missing almost half the season after his injury! Coulthard was 20 points in front going to Malaysia but he DNF'd both races and Schumacher won them both! Salo crucially took two wins off Coulthard during Schumacher's absence too. And yes, Takagi does win a race - in Australia only him and Schumacher finish of my selected drivers!!!

Trying to rattle through the rest of these now so I can start the backwards elimination after next week!

For 2000 line-up will be:

McLaren: Coulthard
Ferrari: Zippy
Jordan: Trulli
Jaguar: Herbert
Williams: Button
Benettton: Wurz
Prost: Heidfeld
Sauber: Diniz
Arrows: De La Rosa
Minardi: Mazzacane
BAR: Zonta

[QuickYoda41]

Takagi wins a race, wow

[Myrvold]

Would Tuero have many points in your 1998 season if you had included him?=)

[James1978]

Would Tuero have many points in your 1998 season if you had included him?=)

He was 8th at Imola so would have still been behind Coulthard, Irvine, Frentzen and Ralf, but would have got 5th. Not sure about any other races off the top of my head!

[James1978]

2000

David Coulthard 126 (11 wins)
Rubens Barrichello 94 (4 wins, 9 2nd)
Jenson Button 37 (3 2nd, 3 3rd)
Jarno Trulli 35 (1 win, 1 2nd, 3 3rd)
Alexander Wurz 34 (1 win, 2 3rd)
Ricardo Zonta 32 (2 2nd, 2 3rd)
Pedro Diniz 25 (2 3rd)
Johnny Herbert 17 (1 3rd, 3 4th)
Pedro De La Rosa 11 (2 3rd)
Nick Heidfeld 10 (1 3rd)
Gaston Mazzacane 10 (1 4th)

Pretty much as you would expect, the top two way out infront, then a very close batte for 3rd. Surprised De La Rosa is only just ahead of Heidfeld and Mazzacane, but it's down to poor reliability!

Line-p for 2001 will be:

Ferrari: Barrichello
McLaren: Hakkinen
Williams: Montoya (it wasn't really until the end of the year he was outperforming Ralf regularly)
Benetton: Button
BAR: Panis
Jordan: Frentzen/Alesi
Arrows: Bernoldi
Sauber: Raikkonen
Jaguar: Burti/De La Rosa
Minardi: Marques/Yoong
Prost: Mazzacane/Burti/Enge

Since 3 teams have multiple no 2's and Burti drives for 2 teams, I'll do a constructors championship for this as well.

[James1978]

2001

Rubens Barrichello 108 (8 wins, 4 2nd)
Mika Hakkinen 69 (4 wins, 3 2nd)
Juan Pablo Montoya 47 (4 wins)
Olivier Panis 42 (1 win, 1 2nd, 2 3rd)
Kimi Raikkonen 41 (3 2nd, 3 3rd)
Jenson Button 26 (2 2nd, 2 3rd)
Heinz-Harald Frentzen 25 (2 2nd, 2 3rd) - scores for Jordan only
Pedro De La Rosa 16 (2 3rd)
Luciano Burti 16 (2 4th) (6 for Jordan, 10 for Prost)
Jean Alesi 14 (1 2nd, 1 3rd) - again scores for Jordan only
Enrique Bernoldi 13 (1 3rd)
Tarso Marques 8 (1 2nd)
Ricardo Zonta 3 (1 4th) - I totally forgot he drove two races for Jordan!!
Gaston Mazzacane 1 (1 6th)

Ferrari 108
McLaren 69
Williams 47
BAR 42 (won one race)
Jordan 42 (3 2nd)
Sauber 41
Benetton 26
Jaguar 22
Arrows 13
Prost 11
Minardi 8

A poor first half of season for Hakkinen and bad reliability for Montoya means a comfortable title for Rubens. Indeed Montoya only salvaged 3rd in the last race! Brazil was the most obscure result with the three top teams all retiring, Panis won and Marques was 2nd!!!!

For 2002 the line-up will be:

Ferrari: Barrichello (he won't have to worry about Austria!)
Mclaren: Raikkonen
Williams: Ralf Schumacher
Sauber: Massa
Jordan: Sato
BAR: Panis
Renault: Trulli
Jaguar: De La Rosa
Arrows: Bernoldi
Minardi: Yoong/Davidson
Toyota: McNish

[James1978]

2002

Rubens Barrichello 110 (10 wins)
Ralf Schumacher 87 (4 wins, 5 2nd)
Kimi Raikkonen 45 (2 wins, 3 2nd)
Felipe Massa 34 (1 win, 1 2nd, 2 3rd)
Jarno Trulli 33 (3 2nd, 2 3rd)
Takuma Sato 25 (3 3rd, 4 4th)
Allan McNish 21 (1 2nd, 3 3rd)
Pedro De La Rosa 21 (1 2nd, 2 3rd)
Olivier Panis 18 (1 2nd, 1 3rd)
Alex Yoong 13 (1 2nd)
Enrique Bernoldi 2 (1 5th)
Heinz-Harald Frentzen 2 (1 5th) (for Sauber in USA)

You know I'd completely forgotten Frentzen drove one race for Sauber in 2002, I thought he was out of a drive for the rest of the season after Arrows folded. Was Massa injured?

Anyway, this was not quite the Ferrari walkover everyone probably expected. Ralf Schumacher actually lead for the most of the year as Barrichello suffered quite a few DNFs, and he only overtook Ralf in the points at Monza, a win for him at Indy and a no-score for Ralf clinched it. Kimi was way behind due to terrible reliability. Massa's win was in Spain where all the top three no. 2's hit trouble.

Also if I'd chosen Coulthard to be the McLaren #2 instead of Raikkonen, like he will be in '03 and '04, then Alex Yoong would have won in Australia (only trouble was DC beat Kimi by 17 points in reality so I couldn't)........


2003 line-up:

Ferrari: Barrichello
Williams: Ralf Schu/Gene for Monza
McLaren: Coulthard
Renault: Trulli
Sauber: Heidfeld
Jordan: Firman/HWNSNBM
Jaguar: Pizzonia/Wilson
BAR: Villeneuve/Sato
Minardi: Wilson/Kiesa (they are both qualified rejects and Verstappen isn't)
Toyota: Panis (as da Matta outscored him 10:6)

I'll also do constructors championship again with all the teams with more than one number 2.

[QuickYoda41]

You know I'd completely forgotten Frentzen drove one race for Sauber in 2002, I thought he was out of a drive for the rest of the season after Arrows folded. Was Massa injured?

Massa got a 10-place grid penalty to Indy. Sauber could avoid a last place-start with the switch, and Massa's performance was not a satisfactory anyway.

[James1978]

Well it did them a massive load of good as Frentzen finished in a scintillating.........13th place. Must have missed it as the 2nd half of the 2002 season sent me to sleep anyway.

Anyway, points system changed to 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 for 2003 of course.

2003

Ralf Schumacher 99 (5 wins, 3 2nd, 3 3rd)
Rubens Barrichello 97 (7 wins, 2 2nd)
David Coulthard 84 (3 wins, 5 2nd)
Jarno Trulli 71 (1 win, 3 2nd, 4 3rd)
Nick Heidfeld 52 (1 2nd, 1 3rd, 4 4th, 4 5th)
Jacques Villeneuve 34 (1 2nd, 1 3rd)
Olivier Panis 30 (2 3rd, 2 4th)
Ralph Firman 22 (1 3rd)
Antonio Pizzonia 19 (2 4th)
Justin Wilson 17 (1 3rd) - 10 for Minardi, 7 for Jaguar
Nicolas Kiesa 15 (1 4th)
Marc Gene 8 (1 2nd)
Takuma Sato 5 (1 4th)
HWNSNBM 4 (1 5th)

Ralf accumulated lots of podiums for the first two-thirds of the year, struggled towards the end including missing Monza but he scraped a 7th at Suzuka which was just enough to hold off Rubens. If he'd DNF'd Rubens would have won by having more wins. Improved reliability measn no wins outside the big four teams.

Williams 107
Ferrari 97
McLaren 84
Renault 71
Sauber 52
BAR 39
Toyota 30
Jaguar 26 (1 3rd, 2 4th)
Jordan 26 (1 3rd, 3 5th)
Minardi 25

I'll decide on the 2004 line-up tomorrow, struggling to decide on several teams (namely Renault, Toyota and Minardi!!)

[Shizuka]

I'll decide on the 2004 line-up tomorrow, struggling to decide on several teams (namely Renault, Toyota and Minardi!!)

Renault: Alonso, THEN Villeneuve. Trulli simply had more points for two-third of the year.
Toyota: Da Matta, Trulli AND Zonta. Pretty tricky. Panis had more points.
Minardi: Bruni. That particular other driver scored their point.

[James1978]

I've decided on Alonso for Renault, so he gets a full year in this (the only other possible year he could feature in is 2007 but then Hamilton wouldn't feature in this at all - unless Button wins in Abu Dhabi this weekend and Hamilton no-scores), and I try to get every champion in it at least once!). Plus Trulli was still ahead of him when Flavio "I am incapable of supporting two drivers" Briatore gave him the shove.

Toyota I'm going to make it Da Matta and Zonta, and for the race (Japan?) when Trulli drove with Panis, I'll just include whichever finished lower.

For Minardi, I'm going to include the more popular reject on here, so what about the attritional point in USA? Who was Bruni anyway?

Full line-up:

Ferrari: Barrichello (this is getting familiar!)
Williams: Ralf/Gene/Pizzonia
McLaren: Coulthard
Renault: Alonso
BAR: Sato
Sauber: Massa
Jaguar: Klien
Toyota: as above
Jordan: Pantano/Glock
Minardi: the legendary HWNSNBM (I can't disqualify him for an alternative championship, I just can't).........

[James1978]

2004

Rubens Barrichello 159 (14 wins) (!!!!!!)
Fernando Alonso 101 (3 wins, 6 2nd)
David Coulthard 78 (4 2nd, 3 3rd)
Takuma Sato 70 (4 2nd, 3 3rd)
Felipe Massa 67 (2 2nd, 2 3rd, 4 4th)
Christian Klien 46 (1 3rd, 2 4th)
Ralf Schumacher 42 (1 win, 3 3rd)
HWNSNBM 24 (2 4th)
Cristiano da Matta 22 (1 3rd, 2 5th)
Antonio Pizzonia 16 (1 3rd, 2 4th)
Timo Glock 11 (1 3rd)
Ricardo Zonta 10 (2 5th)
Giorgio Pantano 10 (1 5th)
Marc Gene 8 (1 4th)
Olivier Panis 3 (1 6th) - as promised I had the lower Toyota finisher in Japan, he was behind Trulli.

Barrichello only dropped 21 points the whole year!!!

Ferrari 159
Renault 101
McLaren 78
BAR 70
Sauber 67
Williams 66
Jaguar 46
Toyota 35
Minardi 24
Jordan 21

Guess the oddest thing here is the lowly position of Williams!

Line-uo for 2005 will be:

Ferrari: Barrichello yet again
BAR: Sato
Renault: Fisichella
Williams: Webber (as Heidfeld comfortably outscored Webber before his injury)
McLaren: Montoya/De La Rosa/Wurz
Sauber: Villeneuve
Red Bull: Klien/Liuzzi
Toyota: Ralf Schumacher (Trulli was nearly always faster but had worse reliability, an Trulli would have been easily ahead on pre '03 points, there was only 2 points difference here)
Jordan: Karthikeyan
Minardi: Friesacher/Doornbos

[James1978]

This is the biggest surprise yet!

2005

Ralf Schumacher 110 (4 wins, 2 2nd, 5 3rd)
Giancarlo Fisichella 102 (3 wins, 8 2nd)
Rubens Barrichello 100 (3 wins, 2 2nd, 2 3rd)
Juan Pablo Montoya 85 (6 wins, 1 2nd, 1 3rd)
Mark Webber 82 (2 wins, 3 2nd, 4 3rd)
Jacques Villeneuve 59 (1 2nd, 2 3rd)
Christian Klien 50 (3 3rd, 3 4th)
Narain Karthikeyan 31 (1 2nd, 1 4th)
Takuma Sato 28 (1 3rd, 1 4th)
Alexander Wurz 10 (1 win)
Patrick Friesacher 10 (1 3rd)
Vitantonio Liuzzi 10 (2 4th)
Pedro de la Rosa 8 (1 2nd)
Robert Doornbos 7 (3 7th)

Toyota 110
McLaren 103
Renault 102
Ferrari 100
Williams 82
Red Bull 60
Sauber 59
Jordan 31
BAR 28
Minardi 17

Guess that's going to be the only time Toyota ever win anything!!!!

Ralf's knack of picking up lots of 6th, 7th and 8th places finishes through the year made tham big scores with the top teams' lead drivers eliminated. Fisichella and Montoya hit self-destruct too often (not to mention Montoya missing 2 races), and Ralf finshed ahead of Rubens for real anyway! Also Karthikeyan ahead of Sato!!!

2006 line-up will be:

Renault: Fisichella
McLaren: Montoya/De La Rosa
Ferrari: Massa
Toyota: Trulli (for definite this time!)
Williams: Rosberg
Honda: Barrichello
Red Bull: Klien/Doornbos
BMW: Villeneuve/Kubica
Midland: Monteiro
Toro Rosso: Speed
Super Aguri: Ide/Montagny/Yamamoto

[Ferrim]

Guess that's going to be the only time Toyota ever win anything!!!!

Mmmmm...

[Shizuka]

Jordan ahead of BAR. Nice...

[James1978]

Guess that's going to be the only time Toyota ever win anything!!!!

Mmmmm...

I think I know what that means.......

[Aerond]

Schumacher may be in for 1999, or am I wrong?

Half of the season, probably.

[Ferrim]

Guess that's going to be the only time Toyota ever win anything!!!!

Mmmmm...

I think I know what that means.......

The thing is, it could change on Sunday.

[James1978]

Schumacher may be in for 1999, or am I wrong?

Half of the season, probably.

Correct - he won that year even though didn't contest the whole season due to the main competition (Coulthard) retiring too often. Him and Salo shared the Ferrari seat from that year, as in reality their points total was less than Irvine's - I've no doubt if I had included Irvine instead he would also have won comfortably.

[James1978]

2006

Another very close one!

Giancarlo Fisichella 132 (6 wins, 6 2nd, 4 3rd)
Felipe Massa 128 (7 wins, 4 2nd, 2 3rd)
Rubens Barrichello 80 (3 2nd, 5 3rd)
Jarno Trulli 52 (4 3rd)
Juan Pablo Montoya 44 (3 wins, 1 2nd, 1 3rd)
Scott Speed 42 (3 4th, 4 5th)
Pedro De La Rosa 40 (1 win, 2 2nd, 1 3rd)
Nico Rosberg 40 (1 2nd, 2 4th)
Jacques Villeneuve 35 (1 2nd, 2 4th)
Christian Klien 27 (1 3rd, 1 4th)
Robert Kubica 24 (1 win, 1 4th)
Tiago Monteiro 17 (1 4th)
Robert Doornbos 7 (1 5th)
Yuji ide 4 (1 5th)
Franck Montagny 2 (2 8th)
Sakon Yamamoto 1 (1 8th)

Renault 132
Ferrari 128
McLaren 84
Honda 80
BMW Sauber 59
Toyota 52
Toro Rosso 42
Williams 40
Red Bull 34
Midland (or MF1 or whatever they were called) 17
Super Aguri 7

Very close fight between Fisichella and Massa - the crucial thing which give the decisive advtage to Fisichella was Massa's retirement in China. Two wins for Massa in the last two races were not quite enough with Fisi coming 2nd both times. Excellent consistency from Barrichello, coming 3rd despite not winning a race. I'm also astounded by Toro Rosso in their first year beating both the senior Red Bull team (hard to believe four years later!) and Williams as well!

OK, line up for 2007:

McLaren: Hamilton (probably the only chance I'll get to include him in this, unless something highly unlikely happens on Sunday!)
Renault: Fisichella
Ferrari: Massa
Honda: Barrichello
BMW Sauber: Kubica/Vettel for USA
Toyota: Ralf Schumacher
Red Bull: Webber (Coulthard outscored him 14:10)
Williams: Wurz/Nakajima for Brazil
Toro Rosso: Liuzzi (as he was fairly even in relation to Speed but Vettel blew him into the weeds)
Spyker: Albers/Winkelhock/Yamamoto
Super Aguri: Davidson

I will rewrite with Alonso for McLaren instead of Hamilton in the very unlikely event of Button overtaking Hamilton in the standings on Sunday!

[James1978]

2007

Lewis Hamilton 140 (9 wins, 4 2nd)
Felipe Massa 125 (8 wins, 3 2nd, 3 3rd)
Robert Kubica 76 (4 2nd, 4 3rd)
Giancarlo Fisichella 73 (2 2nd, 2 3rd)
Mark Webber 51 (1 2nd, 4 3rd)
Alexander Wurz 47 (1 2nd, 1 3rd)
Rubens Barrichello 42 (1 4th, 3 5th)
Ralf Schumacher 40 (2 3rd, 1 4th)
Vitantonio Liuzzi 22 (1 2nd, 1 5th)
Anthony Davidson 20 (1 5th, 1 6th)
Christijan Albers 6 (2 7th)
Sebastian Vettel 5 (1 4th) - for BMW-Sauber only
Kazuki Nakajima 5 (1 4th)
Sakon Yamamoto 4 (2 7th)

McLaren 140
Ferrari 125
BMW-Sauber 81
Renault 73
Williams 52
Red Bull 51
Honda 42
Toyota 40
Toro Rosso 22
Super Aguri 20
Spyker 10

How boring is two drivers/teams sharing all the race wins??

[James1978]

Forgot to sat what my 2008 line-up would be!

Ferrari: Raikkonen
BMW-Sauber: Heidfeld
Renault: Piquet Jr.
Williams: Nakajima
Red Bull: Coulthard
Toyota: Glock
Toro Rosso: Bourdais
Honda: Button
Super Aguri: Davidson
Force India: Sutil
McLaren: Kovalainen

[James1978]

This is the best one yet!!

2008

Nick Heidfeld 126 (4 wins, 6 2nd, 3 3rd)
Kimi Raikkonen 116 (8 wins, 1 2nd, 3 3rd)
Heikki Kovalainen 103 (3 wins, 4 2nd, 4 3rd)
Timo Glock 79 (1 win, 3 2nd, 3 3rd)
Kazuki Nakajima 56 (1 win, 2 3rd)
David Coulthard 50 (1 2nd, 2 3rd)
Nelson Piquet Jr 48 (1 win, 1 2nd, 1 3rd)
Jenson Button 47 (1 2nd, 2 4th, 5 5th)
Sebastien Bourdais 45 (1 2nd, 3 4th)
Adrian Sutil 7 (1 6th)
Anthony Davidson 4 (2 7th)

Like I said about Toyota in 2005, that's probably going to be the only time Nick Heidfeld ever wins anything!!

He actually scored in every race (his lowest finish was a 6th) and was an absolute model of consistency. He even had it clinched in China! Kimi lost out mainly due to 4 retirements. Timo Glock emerged from a tight midfield battle with a great 2nd half of the year for 4th.

Plus Glock, Piquet Jr and Nakajima all win races! Indeed everyone apart from Sutil (oh dear!) and Davidson who only took part in the first 4 races got at least one podium.

2009 line-up:

McLaren: Kovalainen
Ferrari: Massa/Badoer/Fisichella
BMW-Sauber: Kubica
Renault: Piquet/Grosjean
Toyota: Glock/Kobayashi
Toro Rosso: Bourdais/Alguersuari
Red Bull: Webber
Williams: Nakajima
Force India: Sutil
Brawn: Barrichello

Some of those were quite difficult to choose with all the replacements throught the year, such as Ferrari (you'd argue Massa was lead driver until his accident in Hungary, then it's easily Raikkonen for the rest of the year). I wanted to keep all the choices to one car (ie the #3 or the #4). But I think all these are the cars with the lowest points scores!

[QuickYoda41]

YEEEEEEEAAAAAH! Nice, one, Nick!

[James1978]

2009

Rubens Barrichello 128 (7 wins, 5 2nd*, 3 3rd)
Mark Webber 107 (7 wins, 1 2nd, 2 3rd*)
Timo Glock 75 (2 wins*, 2 2nd, 1 3rd)
Heikki Kovalainen 67 (3 2nd, 4 3rd)
Robert Kubica 63 (1 win, 1 2nd, 2 3rd)
Felipe Massa 40.5 (3 3nd, 2 3rd)
Kazuki Nakajima 37.5 (1 4th, 4 5th)
Adrian Sutil 32.5 (1 2nd, 1 4th)
Nelson Piquet Jr 22 (1 3rd)
Sebastien Bourdais 20 (1 3rd)
Giancarlo Fisichella 19 (2 4th) - points for Ferrari only
Kamui Kobayashi 11 (1 3rd, 1 4th)
Romain Grosjean 8 (4 7th)
Jaime Alguersuari 3 (3 8th)
Luca Badoer 1 (1 8th)

Brawn 128
Red Bull 107
Toyota 86
McLaren 67
BMW Sauber 63
Ferrari 60.5
Williams 37.5
Force India 32.5
Renault 30
Toro Rosso 23

Fourth title for Rubens - it was close between him and Webber, especially mid-season, but two no-scores and only 8th in Japan for Webber sealed his fate. Half points awarded for Malaysia, at least Glock managed to get a full-points win later in the year (Singapore).

And I'll complete for this year tomorrow evening after the race - haven't even decided who I'll pick for Red Bull and McLaren yet (will depend on result).

[James1978]

Ha, Webber will be included in this year after all like he said!

OK it's gonna be:

McLaren: Button
Mercedes: Schumacher
Red Bull: Webber
Ferrari: Massa
Willliams: Hulkenberg
Renault: Petrov
Force India: Liuzzi
Toro Rosso: Alguersuari
Lotus: Trulli
Sauber: since Kobayashi is still technically a reject, and De La Rosa and Heidfeld aren't, then I should really include Kobayashi!
Virgin: Di Grassi
HRT: Senna (and Yamamoto for Britain).

[James1978]

2010

Mark Webber 345 (9 wins, 2 2nd, 4 3rd)
Jenson Button 326 (7 wins, 5 2nd, 3 3rd)
Felipe Massa 275 (3 wins, 6 2nd, 2 3rd)
Michael Schumacher 210 (3 2nd, 4 3rd)
Jaime Alguersuari 148 (4 4th, 3 5th, 7 6th)
Vitaly Petrov 131 (2 2nd, 1 3rd)
Kamui Kobayashi 119 (1 2nd, 1 3rd, 3 4th)
Nico Hulkenberg 118 (4 4th, 3 5th)
Vitantonio Liuzzi 116 (4 3rd)
Jarno Trulli 32 (1 6th, 1 7th)
Bruno Senna 27 (2 7th, 2 8th)
Lucas Di Grassi 26 (1 6th, 3 8th)
Sakon Yamamoto 1 (1 10th)

All the wins are shared by the top 3 teams again. Alguersauri does so well as he only retired twice (Hmm, maybe I should have picked Buemi instead?). Maybe I chose the wrong HRT driver too but choosing Senna and Yamamoto for Britain when he replaced Senna made it simpler.

Anyway, in a honour to the current champion Webber, I will rename it the "Not bad for a number 2 driver" championship.

[James1978]

I'm also going to do a 2011 version of this championship too, but the line-up isn't decided yet.

Webber, Massa and Hamilton look to be dead-certs (unless Button retires from the last 2 races or something).

Mercedes is close but I'm tempted to say I'll go with Rosberg since Schumacher has had more peaks really.

Renault will probably end up being the Heidfeld/Senna combo as Senna hasn't unrejectified himself (their total points equal Petrov's though).

Force India, Sauber, Williams and Virgin all have one driver still classed as a reject and the other not so those choices should be straightforward.

Toro Rosso is another close one but on recent form looks like it'll have to be Buemi as #2.

Trulli seems a cert for Lotus which only leaves HRT - it should be Liuzzi on the basis Karthikeyan unrejectified himself, even if it was a com,plete fluke, and then Ricciardo seems to have had the better of him since. Who would I pick for India though?

[James1978]

I decided on my line-up and this is what I came up with:

2011

Mark Webber 394 (10 wins, 8 2nd)
Lewis Hamilton 335 (8 wins, 6 2nd, 1 3rd, 1 4th)
Felipe Massa 232 (1 2nd, 12 3rd)
Michael Schumacher 176 (4 2nd, 2 3rd)
Paul Di Resta 166 (2 3rd, 2 4th)
Sebastian Buemi 126 (6 4th)
Sergio Perez 116 (2 4th, 6 5th)
Nick Heidfeld 105 (1 win, 2 3rd)
Pastor Maldonado 70 (1 4th, 1 6th, 6 7th)
Bruno Senna 54 (2 5th, 2 6th)
Jarno Trulli 48 (1 6th, 2 7th)
Jerome D'Ambrosio 43 (3 7th, 3 8th)
Vitantonio Liuzzi 20 (1 6th, 1 8th)
Pedro De La Rosa 10 (1 5th)
Daniel Ricciardo 4 (1 8th)
Karun Chandhok 1 (1 10th)

Red Bull 394
McLaren 335
Ferrari 232
Mercedes 176
Force India 166
Renault 159
Toro Rosso 126 (6 4th)
Sauber 126 (2 4th)
Williams 70
Lotus 49
Virgin 43
HRT 24

The hardest decision about whose teams' drivers to include were Mercedes and Renault, but 13 points between Rosberg and Schumacher was too big a gap really to put Rosberg as the number 2, and Petrov just beat Heidfeld and Senna's total, plus Senna has yet to unrejectify himself.

HRT was difficult but I decided to go for the number 23 car due to Karthikeyan unrejectifying himself in 2005 and Ricciardo generally being more impressive than Liuzzi - this caused a problem for India but Ricciardo drive the #23 there so his 4 points are that race only. De La Rosa and Chandhok also manage points in their one-off replacements for the main drivers.

Anyway Webber and Hamilton shared all the wins apart from Malaysia when Heidfeld snuck in there, Massa couldn't win a race and couldn't even get a 2nd until the last race - his 12 3rd places showed how far back he was from his immediate rivals. Webber won mainly because he had only one retirement against Hamilton's three. Force India beat Renault and Toro Rosso beat Sauber on countback!

[James1978]

Now the season's over I gotta decide who I'm going to pick from each team for this championship:

Red Bull, Ferrari and Lotus are obviously Webber, Massa and Grosjean (plus Custard Man for Monza) respectively.

McLaren had only two points between the drivers but I feel Hamilton had lots taken away from him through no real fault of his own (OK he had two racing incidents in Valencia and Brazil where the other driver was penalised but there was also unreliability when leading in Singapore and Abu Dhabi, and being chucked to the back of the grid in Spain). Whereas Button only really had the wood on him at odd races such as Belgium and Australia, so Button gets McLaren number 2.

Mercedes is tricky as I feel Schumacher was better than Rosberg when the car was really bad, however as Rosberg scored their win and 93 points against 49 means it has to be Schumi really - Rosberg made more hay when the car was good.

Force India was 63:46 in Hulkenberg's favour; given his 2nd half of the season it actually felt more than that - so Di Resta is in for them.

Sauber had only 6 points between the drivers but Perez had 3 podiums to only one for Kobayashi - so Kobayashi is in here.

Williams is easy; Maldonado scored their win and Senna only minor points and still a reject (I always said if one driver was still a reject and the other not then that was conclusive).

Toro Rosso were close and both drivers are as yet still not unrejectified; I'm picking Ricciardo as Vergne outscored him 16:10.

For the three new teams Marussia is easy as Pic is still a reject; Karthikeyan too is an easy pick (he's only unrejectified by fluke); the tricky one is Caterham. I'm going to say Kovalainen as it was Petrov who got them their 10th place in the WCC and I didn't like Kovalainen's defeatist atitude since Singapore.

Any objections to that line-up?

[tommykl]

Well, I would say that Pic has overall been more impressive than Glock, but you can't tell much from what we actually saw.

[James1978]

Well, I would say that Pic has overall been more impressive than Glock, but you can't tell much from what we actually saw.

I did make the criteria than if a team has one driver a reject and the other not, then the reject will feature in this. (Even if Glock has done sod-all in the way of unrejectification since the start of 2010)

[James1978]

Wow it's close!!

2012

Jenson Button 301 (7 wins - AUS CHN GER BEL SIN ABU BRA, 3 2nd, 2 3rd)
Mark Webber 301 (5 wins - MAL MON GBR KOR IND, 5 2nd, 2 3rd)
Felipe Massa 269 (3 wins - ITA JPN USA, 5 2nd, 2 3rd)
Paul Di Resta 196 (1 2nd, 5 3rd)
Romain Grosjean 190 (4 wins - BRN ESP CAN HUN, 5 3rd)
Kamui Kobayashi 172 (4 2nd, 2 3rd)
Daniel Ricciardo 154 (2 4th, 6 5th)
Bruno Senna 152 (1 2nd, 1 3rd, 4 4th)
Michael Schumacher 142 (1 win - EUR, 1 2nd, 1 3rd)
Heikki Kovalainen 64 (1 5th)
Charles Pic 37 (2 6th)
Narain Karthikeyan 16 (1 6th)
Jerome D'Ambrosio 6 (1 7th)

Button wins on countback! WEbber was 70 points ahead of Buttton after Silverstone which just underlines how poor he was in the 2nd half of the year, and Massa was well on the way to catching them too having been nearly 100 points behind at one point!

Lotus scrape 4th in the constructors - D'Ambrosio's 6 points in Monza ties them with Di Resta but Grosjean had 4 class wins and the glass of milk didn't have any.

What about Schumacher being the worst of the established teams?

[James1978]

2013

Mark Webber 320 (7 wins, 7 2nd, 1 3rd) MAL CAN HUN ITA JPN ABU BRA
Nico Rosberg 295 (5 wins, 5 2nd, 1 3rd) MON GBR BEL SIN IND
Felipe Massa 261 (3 wins, 2 2nd, 6 3rd) AUS CHN ESP
Romain Grosjean 243 (4 wins, 4 2nd, 1 3rd) BRN GER KOR USA
Sergio Perez 204 (1 2nd, 5 3rd)
Adrian Sutil 139 (2 3rd, 2 4th)
Esteban Gutierrez 124 (1 3rd, 4 5th)
Valtteri Bottas 110 (1 4th, 3 5th)
Jean-Eric Vergne 107 (1 3rd, 2 4th)
Max Chilton 51 (1 6th, 3 7th)
Giedo Van Der Garde 48 (1 6th, 2 7th)

Hope everyone agrees with my #2 drivers selected - in most cases I simply went with the points table, and that includes Lotus - it's over the full year and Grosjean was still behind Raikkonen's total despite the Finn being replaced by his non-scoring countryman for the last two races.

The exception was Williams - I made the criteria at the start that if one driver was a reject and the other not, then the reject would be the #2, so I'm sticking to that.

Anyway, the drivers finished in the order their respective teams did in the constructors championship, except Vergne due to unreliability finished behind Bottas. The version I oriignally started doing at mid-season had Ricciardo as the Toro Rosso #2 but Vergne didn't score a point after that, so I switched it!

There were just 3 points between Webber and Rosberg with 3 races left, but the last 3 races were 2 wins and a 2nd for Webber and he sealed it easily in Brazil.

[James1978]

Another year, another update!! (Couldn't update until I knew which Mercedes driver was going to be champion obviously!)

2014

Nico Rosberg 416 (16 wins - yes that is 16 wins!!)
Sebastian Vettel 290 ((2 wins, 6 2nd, 7 3rd*)
Felipe Massa 252 (1 win*, 7 2nd, 2 3rd)
Kimi Raikkonen 224 (1 2nd, 4 3rd)
Kevin Magnussen 223 (3 2nd, 3 3rd)
Sergio Perez 200 (2 2nd*, 2 3rd)
Daniil Kvyat 117 (1 3rd, 1 4th)
Pastor Maldonado 78 ((1 5th, 5 6th)
Esteban Gutierrez 63 (1 6th, 5 7th*)
Max Chilton 54 (1 5th, 1 6th)
Marcus Ericsson 33 (1 4th)
Will Stevens 8 (1 8th*)

Thta's what happens when you get a dominant car and a second driver who finishes very close behind his champion teammate, this was a similar level to Prost in 1988! Some obscure driver called Vettel makes his championship debut and scores 2 wins when Rosberg retires, and Massa wins when he hits problems in Abu Dhabi.

Double points only makes one difference - without them, Magnussen would have beaten Kimi.

Also of interest, Chilton was ahead of Maldonado until Monza, and was still ahead of Gutierrez when Marussia went into administration.

In all instances I went with the driver who finished behind his teammate in the standings (even Gutierrez was behind Sutil on best finish) except for Caterham as Kobayashi isn't a reject, that meant Lotterer missed out as it was Kobayashi's seat he took for Spa.

[James1978]

2015

Nico Rosberg 402 (14 wins)
Kimi Raikkonen 244 (1 win, 9 2nd)
Felipe Massa 237 (2 wins, 4 2nd)
Daniel Ricciardo 227 (1 win, 2 2nd)
Nico Hulkenberg 153 (5 3rd)
Marcus Ericsson 132 (2 4th)
Carlos Sainz Jnr 118 (1 2nd, 3 4th)
Pastor Maldonado 111 (1 2nd, 1 3rd)
Fernando Alonso 100 (1 2nd, 1 4th)
Will Stevens 69 (1 5th, 1 6th)

Hardly a surprise really, though Massa nearly caused a shock, and would have been runner-up had his finish in Brazil stood (he would have been 4th which would have given him 249).

I just simply chose to include the driver who finished behind his teammate in the championship (you could argue the case of Ricciardo and Alonso especially mind you). Both Merhi and Rossi recorded a 12th place finish, but Stevens' best was 13th which is why he's here too.

I did another version with Kvyat as the Red Bull driver but very little changed, though Stevens didn't unreject himself in that one and Raikkonen got an extra win.