Ranking F1 Drivers

Last week tennis fans were aware that Switzerland's Roger Federer
had broken the record for most consecutive weeks ranked number one
on the ATP computer.

http://www.atptennis.com/5/en/rankings/entrysystem/

Federer has now been ranked number one in the world for 162 weeks.
He bettered the previous record set by Jimmy Connors in 1974-77.

Women's tennis has a similar ranking system.

http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com/2/rankings/singles_numeric.asp

Several other sports operate ranking systems along similar lines. For
example:

Golf http://www.pgatour.com/r/stats/current/186.html
Soccer http://www.fifa.com/en/mens/statistics/index/0,2548,All-Feb-2007,00.html
Cricket http://www.icc-cricket.com/icc/rankings/lg.html
Snooker http://www.snooker.org/rnk/

Formula 1 doesn't have (or need) a ranking system, but it might be interesting
to create one.

Actually there is such a system available on the FORIX website - it's called
the Wildsoft F1 Ranking - but, you have to subscribe to FORIX to be able to
see it.

http://forix.autosport.com/stats.php?l=0&c=1205

The Wildsoft system was devised by Dimitry Cherepovich, and is calculated over
the last five years of F1. Only data from GPs within the last five years are
included, so the 2002 Australian GP has just been "dropped" (actually, the
rankings haven't been updated since December, but I'm sure it will be soon).
Currently the system has 88 GPs in its database. Points are awarded for the
usual F1 achievements - wins, pole positions, fastest laps, etc., but also
include other criteria such as distance raced.

I wondered if I could "borrow" some of the features of the Wildsoft system
and produce my own version.

The first change I decided on was to drop the five year period and switch
to the last 100 GPs instead. This is easier to manage mathematically, and
I always prefer things to be simple. Two other "rules" I have adopted from
Wildsoft are that no points are awarded UNLESS a driver actually starts a
GP; and that any driver who gets disqualified also fails to gain any points.

Increasing the number of GPs in the database to 100 means that data is
used going back to the 2001 Austrian GP (13 May). That race was won by David
Coulthard, but clearly it should have less "value" than Felipe Massa's
Brazilian victory last October. Therefore the older races count for less
points than more recent ones and races in the current season are more
valuable than races last season (or older). Thus my rankings are based on
performances over the last five years 10 months, but if the number of
races per season continues at its present level the window will shrink.

It should be obvious that Michael Schumacher will be ranked as number one,
but my first question to ponder is, how long before Fernando Alonso (or
someone else) overtakes Michael. The 2007 drivers will all be adding to
their points totals as each race of 2007 is completed, but MS (and other
retired drivers) will steadily lose points as the oldest GPs are removed.

OK, preamble over, here are my current rankings.

GPs - number of GPs counted for each driver (from the last 100)
PP - number of Pole Positions (in the last 100)
W - number of wins (in the last 100)
FL - number of Fastest Laps (in the last 100)
Points - these are my points, allocated for various things, not just
the wins, poles, f.laps
(+/-) - the change in points as a result of the most recent race
Seasons - the seasons in which the driver competed (last 100 GPs only)

Numbers in brackets () in second column indicate the change in position
as a result of adding the most recent GP.

First race (GP #1) - Austrian GP, 13 May 2001
Last race (GP #100) - Brazilian GP, 22 Oct 2006

Driver GPs PP W FL Points (+/-) Seasons
===================================================================
1 M Schumacher 100 32 44 33 6505.19 (-17.71) 2001-06
2 F Alonso 81 15 15 8 5055.20 (+54.67) 2001/03-06
3 K Räikkönen 98 11 9 19 4035.21 (+62.04) 2001-06
4 R Barrichello 98 10 8 12 2958.73 (-28.39) 2001-06
5 JP Montoya 86 13 7 12 2647.00 (-42.15) 2001-06
6 G Fisichella 98 2 3 1 2242.73 (+4.01) 2001-06
7 J Button 95 3 1 - 2177.36 (+23.94) 2001-06
8 (+1) F Massa 70 3 2 2 2075.99 (+242.54) 2002/04-06
9 (-1) R Schumacher 91 5 5 5 1884.79 (-31.35) 2001-06
10 J Trulli 97 2 1 - 1677.53 (-27.04) 2001-06

11 D Coulthard 99 1 3 4 1491.48 (-26.85) 2001-06
12 (+1) N Heidfeld 94 1 - - 1270.37 (-2.11) 2001-06
13 (-1) M Webber 86 - - - 1125.09 (-16.75) 2002-06
14 T Sato 66 - - - 865.16 (+9.52) 2002-06
15 J Villeneuve 76 - - - 799.31 (-17.82) 2001-06
16 C Klien 46 - - - 675.66 (-9.48) 2004-06
17 T Monteiro 36 - - - 632.16 (+16.05) 2005-06
18 C Albers 36 - - - 553.22 (+17.39) 2005-06
19 (+1) V Liuzzi 22 - - - 385.46 (+19.79) 2005-06
20 (+1) P de la Rosa 38 - - 1 379.82 (+21.24) 2001-02/05-06

21 (-2) O Panis 61 - - - 374.79 (-11.74) 2001-02/04
22 S Speed 18 - - - 335.82 (+20.52) 2006
23 N Karthikeyan 19 - - - 283.00 (-3.86) 2005
24 N Rosberg 18 - - 1 281.78 (-0.46) 2006
25 C da Matta 27 - - - 254.46 (-5.99) 2004
26 A Pizzonia 20 - - - 201.14 (-3.83) 2004-05
27 (+2) R Doornbos 11 - - - 195.65 (+21.87) 2005-06
28 (-1) Z Baumgartner 20 - - - 194.89 (-3.62) 2004
29 (-1) H-H Frentzen 36 - - - 173.53 (-7.19) 2001-03
30 (+1) R Kubica 5 - - - 160.10 (+22.77) 2006

31 (-1) G Bruni 18 - - - 154.77 (-2.83) 2004
32 (+1) P Friesacher 11 - - - 121.04 (-1.74) 2005
33 (-1) J Verstappen 28 - - - 120.17 (-5.58) 2001
34 G Pantano 14 - - - 109.24 (-2.09) 2004
35 J Wilson 16 - - - 93.51 (-2.45) 2003
36 (+4) S Yamamoto 7 - - - 91.29 (+23.02) 2006
37 (-1) E Irvine 28 - - - 89.07 (-6.07) 2001-02
38 (-1) R Firman 14 - - - 87.54 (-2.36) 2003
39 (-1) F Montagny 7 - - - 80.93 (-0.90) 2006
40 (-1) M Salo 17 - - - 76.72 (-3.70) 2002

41 T Glock 4 - - - 61.13 (-1.03) 2004
42 R Zonta 7 - - - 57.00 (-1.30) 2001/04-05
43 (+1) A McNish 16 - - - 50.50 (-2.45) 2002
44 (-1) M Häkkinen 11 - 2 2 49.55 (-7.25) 2001
45 N Kiesa 5 - - - 48.68 (-1.13) 2003
46 Y Ide 4 - - - 48.04 (-0.57) 2006
47 M Gené 3 - - - 45.45 (-0.92) 2004
48 A Yoong 14 - - - 42.17 (-2.35) 2001-02
49 A Wurz 1 - - - 40.66 (-0.60) 2005
50 E Bernoldi 22 - - - 36.37 (-3.09) 2001-02

51 J Alesi 12 - - - 20.18 (-3.53) 2001
52 A Davidson 3 - - - 7.89 (-0.27) 2002/05
53 (+1) T Enge 3 - - - 6.58 (-0.61) 2001
54 (-1) T Marques 8 - - - 5.99 (-1.37) 2001
55 L Burti 8 - - - 4.54 (-1.44) 2001

I'll aim to post updated rankings after each GP.

I am working on compiling the data for 1950-2001 so I can see who
was "ranked number 1", or who was a "top 10 driver" all the way
back to 1950.

--

Brian W Lawrence
Wantage,
Oxfordshire, UK
Brian_W_Lawrence@xxxxxxx


.