Points snapshot - 2012 vs 2013

[raymondu999]

Given that we had the same 4 races to start 2012 and 2013, I thought it would be interesting to compare the championships in a snapshot compared to at the same point last year after the first four flyaway races.

2012
Sebastian Vettel - 53
Lewis Hamilton - 49
Mark Webber - 48
Jenson Button - 43
Fernando Alonso - 43
Nico Rosberg - 35
Kimi Raikkonen - 34
Romain Grosjean - 23
Sergio Perez - 22
Paul di Resta - 15
Bruno Senna - 14
Kamui Kobayashi - 9
Jean-Eric Vergne - 4
Pastor Maldonado - 4
Daniel Ricciardo - 2
Nico Hulkenberg - 2
Felipe Massa - 2
Michael Schumacher - 2

2013
Sebastian Vettel - 77
Kimi Raikkonen - 67
Lewis Hamilton - 50
Fernando Alonso - 47
Mark Webber - 32
Felipe Massa - 30
Romain Grosjean - 26
Paul di Resta 20
Nico Rosberg - 14
Jenson Button - 13
Sergio Perez - 10
Adrian Sutil - 6
Daniel Ricciardo - 6
Nico Hulkenberg - 5
Jean-Eric Vergne - 1

Note that Bruno Senna, Michael Schumacher, Kamui Kobayashi and Adrian Sutil aren't added, because they either only raced in 2012 or 2013.

Gainers
Kimi Raikkonen - 33
Felipe Massa - 28
Sebastian Vettel - 24
Paul di Resta - 5
Fernando Alonso - 4
Daniel Ricciardo - 4
Romain Grosjean - 3
Nico Hulkenberg - 3
Lewis Hamilton - 1

Losers
Jean-Eric Vergne - 3
Pastor Maldonado - 4
Sergio Perez - 12
Mark Webber - 16
Nico Rosberg - 21
Jenson Button - 30

Just out of interest, here's isolating the team movers:

The team changers
Lewis Hamilton - 1
Nico Hulkenberg - 3
Sergio Perez - -12

[beelsebob]

It just shows how incredibly unreliable McLaren were last year, for Hamilton to have scored more this year with the 4th fastest car than last year with a car that was dominant in the early season.

p.s. you probably want to add him to the team movers.

[raymondu999]

It just shows how incredibly unreliable McLaren were last year, for Hamilton to have scored more this year with the 4th fastest car than last year with a car that was dominant in the early season.

p.s. you probably want to add him to the team movers.

Done, cheers. Though I'm not quite sure how the hell you quoted me to say that

[turbof1]

He took the words right out of your mouth :p.

Yeah Hamilton did an awesome job. Traded performance for consistency.

The field also seemed to have opened up. Last year the top 5 were within 10 points of eachother, now 45.

[beelsebob]

Dargle flibble blibble blobble

[PlatinumZealot]

He took the words right out of your mouth :p.

Yeah Hamilton did an awesome job. Traded performance for consistency.

The field also seemed to have opened up. Last year the top 5 were within 10 points of eachother, now 45.

He was the most consistent last year ya know... What he traded was an unreliable team for a more reliable one.

[raymondu999]

Nah, I'd say he was at best 3rd most consistent, after Alonso and Raikkonen. Mind you on balance of Raikkonen's results, I'd still say Hamilton drove better than Raikkonen in 2012.

[Overdriving]

Ferrari have one of the best car this year, if not the best, and yet Alonso gained only 4 points. Speaks volumes about how consistent at getting points Alonso&Ferrari were last year and how inconsistent they are this year.
Kimi and Vettel are the most consistent so far.

[beelsebob]

Ferrari have one of the best car this year, if not the best, and yet Alonso gained only 4 points. Speaks volumes about how consistent at getting points Alonso&Ferrari were last year and how inconsistent they are this year.
Kimi and Vettel are the most consistent so far.

Yep, his fortunes this year, and Hamilton's fortunes last year, together, show you exactly how much this is a team sport, and what happens when the team gets it wrong.

[Overdriving]

Ferrari have one of the best car this year, if not the best, and yet Alonso gained only 4 points. Speaks volumes about how consistent at getting points Alonso&Ferrari were last year and how inconsistent they are this year.
Kimi and Vettel are the most consistent so far.

Yep, his fortunes this year, and Hamilton's fortunes last year, together, show you exactly how much this is a team sport, and what happens when the team gets it wrong.

Yup, but to be fair to Ferrari, Alonso can blame only himself for bumping into Vettel. That was a rookie mistake. If he didn't make that mistake, he would have been a lot closer to Vettel and Kimi, even considering his Bahrain misfortune. So he's far from flawless this year.

[Phil]

Ferrari have one of the best car this year, if not the best, and yet Alonso gained only 4 points. Speaks volumes about how consistent at getting points Alonso&Ferrari were last year and how inconsistent they are this year.
Kimi and Vettel are the most consistent so far.

I was thinking about this the other day, and somehow, I think it's sometimes easier to focus on consistency when you're not battling for wins podiums and poles. Last year, it was easy for Ferrari to play the number game because they were having a hard time. Now with a stronger car, they are also taking more risks too, which is also back-firing.

I also noticed this when looking back at 2010-2013 when Hamilton and Button were team-mates. Button to me is the classic non-risk-taker and 'always play it safe' kind of guy. It still surprises me how close he ended up to Hamilton points in those years, despite Hamilton regular outperforming him. Hamilton took a lot more risk in those years - by fighting for the win, which also netted him a few DNFs which of course were very costly - where as Button with a usually worse qualifying position always drove consistently and stayed out of trouble. He was rarely a race winner in those races, but ended up scoring good consistent points.

[Overdriving]

I was thinking about this the other day, and somehow, I think it's sometimes easier to focus on consistency when you're not battling for wins podiums and poles. Last year, it was easy for Ferrari to play the number game because they were having a hard time. Now with a stronger car, they are also taking more risks too, which is also back-firing.

True. It's a lot easier to be an underdog. When there's a fast car, there are expectations, and when there are expectations, the pressure is much stronger. Looking back, it makes me reevaluate Vettel's performance. He deserves far more credit than he gets.

[ChrisF1]

Pretty much why I say Alonso's drive last year was overrated. He probably picked up 50-75 points from other people retiring, and the car was nowhere near as bad as he said it was.

[Joey Zyla]

Wow, the points were quite a bit more evenly spread at the top last year.

[beelsebob]

Wow, the points were quite a bit more evenly spread at the top last year.

Yep, McLaren were dominant, but throwing it away at this point. Merc hadn't collapsed, RedBull hadn't hit their stride yet, and Ferrari had got lucky a couple of times.