Other F1 seasons with the underdog story

[flattyre]

It's no secret that the popular opinion this year is that Alonso very much put the Ferrari where it shouldn't have been, and to come within a few points of winning the title. I've even seen a few people say that they will "consider Alonso as the true 2012 champion."

But, what will go down in the record books is "Sebastian Vettel: 2012 Drivers Champion." Naive people in the future will not know how close Alonso came to winning the title this year.

And that got me thinking...

What other F1 seasons has this situation occurred? I am sure that there are at least one or two other seasons where one driver came so close to claiming a title that he really shouldn't have won, that many of us never even knew about - especially in the earlier years... what other nearly-men were there?

I don't want this to turn into an Alonso-Vettel bashing thread, over who was more deserving - so let's keep that chitter chatter elsewhere people [-o<

[Sombrero]

1977 Niki Lauda (3 wins). Curiously the austrian won quite easily the WC with an aging but very reliable 312 T 2. He was at the beginning of the season the number 2 behind Carlos Reutemann (1 win). Niki Lauda wasn't supposed to be in the team in 1977.

Andretti 7 pole-positions, Hunt 6 and Lauda 2. That year the fastest car was the Lotus 78 (Andretti 4 wins, Nilsson, 1 win). Mario Andretti lost three races (!) because of fuel shortage. Jody Scheckter with the newborn Walter Wolf Racing (3 wins) and the defending champion James Hunt (Mc Laren M-26, 3 wins) won as many GP as Niki Lauda...

[snoop1050]

ferrari being a crap car is a bunch of ****

its been consistently a good car atleast the 3rd best of the season overall.

he wouldnt be anywhere near top either without mclaren messing up almost every race

[wesley123]

ferrari being a crap car is a bunch of ****

its been consistently a good car atleast the 3rd best of the season overall.

he wouldnt be anywhere near top either without mclaren messing up almost every race

It wasnt what should have been and it was consistently slower than the McLAren and Red Bull. Race pace was a bit better and Ferrari mainly gained ground on the bad luck of others and great strategy calls, like the wet weather wins at the start of the season