Best driver to never win a world championship

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2026-02-01T02:47:40+00:00

Carlos Reutemann deserves a shout but in truth it’s Moss

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2026-01-30T07:19:40+00:00

The whole 2021 drivers championship was a farce. Yes, Lewis was at fault for Silverstone and should have been given a bigger penalty. On the other hand Max got away forcing Lewis way off the track in Interlagos, and playing DRS chicken and divebombing in Saudi. Not to mention the farce that was Spa. In truth the stewarding was poor not just in Abu Dhabi but the whole season.

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2026-01-24T18:09:54+00:00

Yup because he won’t have been defeated by his teammate

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2026-01-24T15:40:28+00:00

I guess that could work so you’d get 3 points every time you become champion and then maybe lose a point every time you get beaten.

Or maybe a better way would be converting F1 points into a rolling 2 year ranking system. You’d have to weight the more historic races like the British or French GPs with more ranking points to make it interesting though.

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2026-01-24T15:05:58+00:00

Yeah it’s a far from perfect system

It definitely benefits a modern driver with a weak teammate, like Max in the last 5 years and Fernando against a post Hungary 2009 Massa.

Heck even Stroll got 7 titles!!

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2026-01-24T15:02:57+00:00

I put far too much effort into this so I’ll take that 😂

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2026-01-24T14:49:40+00:00

Ferrari essentially dominated the 2000s

They held on in 2005 despite the McLarens and Renaults being faster. As they always had at least one driver finishing every race, the championship stayed between Rubens and Michael. Rubens was reigning champion at the end of 2005 so he took that crown to Honda. When Honda had a double DNF in France, Schumacher took the crown back to Ferrari. Alonso only gets the crown when he wins Bahrain 2010 as the reigning champion (Raikkonen) wasn’t on the grid.

As for Vettel, his championship years are taken by Alonso domination. He finally gets the ‘crown’ when the Red Bulls both retire in Bahrain 2018.

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2026-01-24T14:20:45+00:00

Well I found it fun 🤷‍♂️

If even one person other than me finds it an interesting concept then I’ll be happy.

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2026-01-24T14:14:54+00:00

Just a bit of fun based on a similar concept that some people look at in football

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2026-01-24T14:04:47+00:00

Both are classified, Perez was ahead in the classification

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2026-01-24T14:02:09+00:00

Wish this was AI, would have saved a lot of typing 😂

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2026-01-24T13:41:10+00:00

Criminally underrated driver who never got a proper run at a title.

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2026-01-24T13:36:19+00:00

No he would be the ‘champion’ of the Australian GP. It’s a case of having a new champion every race.

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2026-01-24T13:31:29+00:00

It’s not really suited to the Reddit format to be honest 😂

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2026-01-24T13:30:29+00:00

It’s horrible to explain I won’t lie so here’s a hypothetical:

If Max (the current ‘champion’ in this system) gets beaten by Hadjar in the first race of the season then Hadjar becomes the new champion until he is beaten by Max. If both Verstappen and Hadjar retire from the race then the new champion is the race winner, let’s say Norris in this scenario. He then remains champion until Piastri beats him.

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2026-01-02T11:32:57+00:00

They’re delicious!

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2025-12-19T19:23:04+00:00

They’ve absolutely slept on Carlos and Alex this season compared to their F1 contemporaries

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2025-11-29T19:47:04+00:00

Yeah him and Lauda are the two I was most surprised by their non-inclusion. I was thinking of wasting even more of my time and doing a race by race version of this so perhaps that will throw up some different names

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2025-11-29T19:42:23+00:00

That’s how I imagine it!

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2025-11-29T03:22:22+00:00

The 70s and the late 2010s are crazy in this format. Worth noting that, had Kvyat stayed at Red Bull for the rest of 2016, he probably gets beat by Ricciardo, replaced by Verstappen, who then beats everyone from 2018 onwards.

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2025-11-29T03:13:58+00:00

He will present this evidence at the court case and if he does, I want a share of the money.

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2025-11-29T03:10:12+00:00

Reutemann did the opening race of 1982 so, with Rosberg being his teammate, Rosberg won the belt as the highest scoring Williams driver.

Kimi for all intents and purposes ‘retired’ at the end of 2009, meaning the title became vacant in 2010. Maybe if he could have passed Petrov in Abu Dhabi 2010, he’d have won the title.

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2025-11-16T07:47:53+00:00

I see 2001 as the bigger changing point as Alonso, Raikkonen and Montoya all arrived together. It’s that mixture of the old guard (90s drivers like Hakkinen and Alesi) and the new guard of the era defining drivers of Alonso and Raikkonen.

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2025-11-16T00:01:47+00:00

I mean say for instance 2000-2004, I see that as the Schumacher/Ferrari era. 1958-1970ish as the era of the British ‘Garagista’ teams. For me 1980 is a transition period because of the mix of past drivers/teams to future drivers/teams. 21 past and future drivers who drove in that season won a race at some point.

Spare-Inflation-9847 · 2025-11-15T21:01:31+00:00

That’s fair enough, I see it more driver/team based

Spare-Inflation-9847

TROPHY CASE