The impressive dominance delivered by Max Verstappen this season has masked what is actually a very competitive field in Formula One. Heading into this weekend’s season-ending event, Verstappen has won all but three of the 21 main races and collected more than double the points of his closest rival and team-mate, Sergio Perez.
In fact, Verstappen has been so dominant that he is the odds-on favourite at 2/7 to sign off his season with victory – compared to the next most fancied driver, Lando Norris, at 12/1!
Yet behind him, more than half of the other drivers on the grid have managed to get onto the podium this year - which is why nine drivers are on tight odds to do so again this weekend!
So, we wondered what the table would look like if Verstappen was taken out of the equation and all the points-scoring places, including the sprints and points for the fastest lap, were adjusted to suit.
Clearly, this could never have happened – for a start, there would have been someone else in a second Red Bull! – but anyway, for a bit of fun, it still goes to show just how competitive F1 has actually been behind the leader in 2023.
TITLE TRIUMPH
First of all, removing Verstappen would not have eliminated Red Bull’s triumph as Sergio Perez would have already claimed the world title and be heading to Abu Dhabi on 337 points (compared to the 273 points he actually has).
Despite his impressive points tally, Perez has fallen off form in the second half of the season and the odds of him actually taking a win for real in the final race are 14/1. If Verstappen does win, the chances of Perez coming second are at odds of 7/4.
Source: Autosport