Comparing drivers by comparing career points scored

[x_dt]

During the ITV coverage of the Japanese GP James Allen made the comment that Kimi Räikkönen was going to overtake Keke Rosberg in the all time points scoring list if he finished were he was at the time (or something to that effect).

Strictly this is true: with his 6th place finish today Kimi has scored 162 points; more than Rosberg who finished up with 159.5pts. However this conveniently overlooks the fact that the points system has changed since the time of Rosberg when points were awarded down to 6th place with 9 awarded for the win. Calculated under the 9-6-4-3-2-1 system Kimi would now have 121 points - almost 40 short of Keke's total.

Can a comparison of drivers by comparing the number of points they have scored in their respective careers be considered in any way fair and balanced? Perhaps if the points system had stayed the same or almost the same since the beginning but that is not the case (certainly since 2003).

Thoughts?

[Kicking-back]

The points system has changed several times down the years.

There's no point in recalculating things (and there are various reasons why that may be less than 100% representative).

The simple fact is the statistic quoted by Allen is interesting, but not significant.

[BootsOntheSide]

Clearly Kimi will pass Keke's tally next season, barring another McLaren nightmare. After that point, Kimi will have had 4 seasons in top cars, Keke 5. However, as you say, F1 has changed in recent years in various ways (cars are much mroe relaible, so drivers in top teams score a bigger percentage of available points,f or a start) so it certainly doesn't provide proof that one driver is better than another, and I don't think James was using it as such - just as an interesting piece of trivia.

[Bleu]

Here:

http://www.formulaone.free-online.co...pdoverall.html

Prost would be other driver with 1000 points.

You could see that drivers like Alex Yoong, Taki Inoue, Andrea Montermini and Gaston Mazzacane would have scored under this system.

[ASCII Man]

Not to mention Luca Badoer with his 7th place in the 1993 San Marino GP...

[captain crunch]

Prost 1000 points? He has somewhere in the region of 700, Michael Schumacher is the only driver to ever exceed 1000 f1 points in a career.

[Rich R]

i think the f1 statiticians sometimes try to make a square peg fit a round hole, with the result being some figures they come up with are of no benefit to anyone, and can on occasion be downright misleading.
thats not to say that stats are always wrong, but sometimes you have to take a look at the wider picture.

[karimbo]

If you consider that Schumacher has won so many races, you should think that there are today 18 race championships. When Jim Clark used to race, there were 8 race seasons. Both Michael and Jim Clark are great drivers but you cannot compare two different drivers racing in different times.

[Kicking-back]

Originally posted by captain crunch
Prost 1000 points? He has somewhere in the region of 700, Michael Schumacher is the only driver to ever exceed 1000 f1 points in a career.

The figure for Prost with more than 1000 is adjusting it to the current scoring system.