WMC (World Minors Championship)

[Schummy]

In the first 9 races we have had a fixed pattern with the first 5 positions achieved by the mercs, the ferraris and Max, with only "exception" of Gasly substituting the "unfortunate" Leclerc in Monaco.

It means, not unexpectedly, that the three major teams are, almost literally, miles ahead of the rest, aka minor teams, or, as Toto could say , minnows teams.

I find the fight of the other 7 teams (well, 6 teams) pretty worthy to follow and, for me, the true interest in the races (and other sessions) is to watch the ups and downs of those teams and of course their drivers.

So, I am introducing "officially" the World Minors/Minnows Championship, i.e. the championship of the rest, formed by 14 drivers (ok, 12). Like I feel I am the Bernie Eclestone of this championship and I am not very fond of the current scoring system (for technical reasons), I will use the most traditional scoring system, that I like very much: 9-6-4-3-2-1 points (we have to take in count that we have 6 less cars.)

In a slightly more serious(?) tone, this WMC is better suited to show the performances of those drivers/teams than the real WDC, deluged by mercs, reds and maxes.

So far, after Austria, the M-clasification is:

SAI 0 0 0 6 6 9 2 9 6 = 38  29  3.5 McLaren
NOR 1 9 0 4 0 1 0 3 9 = 27  18  2   McLaren
RAI 4 6 4 2 0 0 0 6 4 = 26  20  1   Alfa Romeo
RIC 0 0 9 0 1 3 9 2 1 = 25  16  2   Renault
PER 0 3 6 9 0 0 1 1 2 = 22  13  1.5 Point
MAG 9 0 0 0 9 0 0 0 0 = 18   9  2   Haas
HUL 6 0 0 0 0 0 6 4 0 = 16  10  1   Renault
KVY 2 1 0 0 4 6 3 0 0 = 16  10  0.5 Toro Rosso
ALB 0 4 3 1 2 4 0 0 0 = 14  10  0   Toro Rosso
STR 3 0 1 3 0 0 4 0 0 = 11   7  0   Point
GRO 0 0 2 0 3 2 0 0 0 =  7   4  0   Haas
GIO 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 =  5   2  0   Alfa Romeo

The second and third columns in the totals are further scoring methods that are not particularly interesting now (or ever).

There is a lot of fight, with wins by 5 drivers and 4 teams (out of 7 teams).

By now, Sainz has a clear advantage and the next drivers are closely packed. It is interesting that Mac has the two first drivers; also noteworthy is that Norris has won two times.

Another interesting point is to see how the best positions are occupied by the best drivers, not just by the cars they drive: Sainz, Raikkonen, Ricciardo, Perez, Magnussen (the exception is Norris, and it speaks well about his skill). In contrast, Hulk, Stroll, Grosjean and Giovinazzi are floating a lot lower (to be honest, Hulk is not so low as the rest).

Toro Rosso is clearly below par with only one second position in one race out of 9 races. Williams continues its rough path, but hopefully the great team will recover some of the performance gap.