What Would The IndyCar Standings Look Like If It Used The F1 Scoring System?

Calum Gill 08:00 01/03/2021

The points system used in IndyCar is quite a bit more complex than that found in its counterpart series, Formula 1.

IndyCar adapts a much more lenient system over points scoring, with anyone who qualifies for the race scoring some points at the very least. Even if the entry goes on to retire from the race, half points are awarded from the total already gained over the course of the weekend. The winner of an IndyCar race, excluding the Indy 500 where double points are awarded, will receive 50 points, ten more than the driver in second place. 35 points go to third, with 32 to fourth. From here on in, the points given decreases by 2 for every position, until we reach the 20 given to tenth place.

The points then go down by 1 with every position, until we get to 25th place, where that and everyone below are given 5 points each. There are also bonus points given out, one of which being like Formula 1 with the point given out for the fastest race lap. The other bonuses come through leading a lap of the race (1 point), taking pole position (1 point) and leading the most laps in the race (2 points).

So we calculated what the final IndyCar standings in 2021 would have looked like had the F1 points system (25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4 ,2, 1, + 1 for fastest lap) been implemented.

The title fight

At the top of the standings, Álex Palou of Ganassi would still have been champion, but he would have confirmed this after the Laguna Seca round, due to him being 32 points ahead of Penske driver Josef Newgarden heading into the Long Beach finale, with a maximum of 26 points on offer. After hitting the top of the championship after Gateway, Pato O'Ward would have only gone on to score 5 points in the final three races, which, like in real life, saw him overtaken for second place in the standings by Newgarden during the west-coast triple header.

The title fight though would have been finely poised in the aftermath of the Gateway round, with O' Ward leading the championship on 139 points, ahead of Palou on 138 and Newgarden on 132. However, a win in Portland and second at Laguna Seca would have wrapped up the championship with a race spare for Spaniard Palou. O' Ward's failure to score at Long Beach would have also cost him third place in the standings, as a podium finish at Long Beach would have seen 6-time champion Scott Dixon (Ganassi) finish the season on 146 points, two better than the Arrow McLaren SP driver from Mexico.

The chasing pack

A points haul of 54 across the final three rounds saw Andretti's Colton Herta rise to fifth in the F1 inspired standings, ahead two-time race winner in 2021 Marcus Ericsson on 107 points for Ganassi. Graham Rahal remains in seventh place for the Rahal Letterman Lanigan squad, but despite finishing eighth in the real-life standings, Penske's Simon Pagenaud's total of 69 drops him behind Australian teammate Will Power, and Andretti driver Alexander Rossi.

RLL's Takuma Sato drops four places behind Dayle Coyne Racing's Romain Grosjean, Ed Carpenter Racing's Rinus VeeKay, Scott McLaughlin of Penske and Meyer Shank Racing's British driver Jack Harvey. Grosjean would also take the rookie of the year accolade away from McLaughlin, the Frenchman having 68 points to the Kiwi's 40. With the help of his win at the Indy 500, Hélio Castroneves comes next on 27 points for Meyer Shank, ahead of Sébastien Bourdais for A. J. Foyt Racing on 25 points, and Andretti's outgoing No. 28 driver Ryan Hunter-Reay and RLL's Santino Ferrucci, who are tied on 19 points. This feat is certainly more impressive for Ferrucci, who only partook in five races in 2021.

Towards the back

James Hinchcliffe in the No. 29 Andretti would have only had one points finish all season, a third place in Nashville, giving him 15 points. He narrowly edged out Arrow McLaren SP's Felix Rosenqvist on 12 points, DCR's Ed Jones on 11 points, and Ed Carpenter, whose fifth place finish at the Indy 500 would have given him 10 points. Sage Karam - driving for Dreyer & Reinbold - scored a seventh place finish at the Indy 500 in his only entry which would have seen him finish the season with 6 points.

In the handful of races driven by both this year, Oliver Askew, in the No. 45 RLL car, and Juan Pablo Montoya for Arrow McLaren SP managed personal best finishes of ninth place, which would have left the pair with 2 points each. Bringing up the rear of those to register a points finish, Tony Kanaan, who drove the oval rounds in place of Jimmie Johnson in the No. 48 Ganassi, and Britain's Max Chilton for Carlin both managed one tenth place each, and subsequently sit on 1 point each in the F1 points system table.

Despite finishing - in real life - higher than some to score points in the F1 system, Dalton Kellett and Conor Daly both sit pointless in the F1 inspired standings. The other drivers without a point in the new-look standings are Johnson, Pietro Fittipaldi, J. R. Hildebrand, Cody Ware, Marco Andretti, Charlie Kimball, Christian Lundgaard, Callum Ilott, Ryan Norman, Simona de Silvestro, Stefan Wilson, Kevin Magnussen and R. C. Enerson.

Conor Daly, Dalton Kellett, Jimmie Johnson, Pietro Fittipaldi, J. R. Hildebrand, Cody Ware, Marco Andretti, Charlie Kimball, Christian Lundgaard, Callum Ilott, Ryan Norman, Simona de Silvestro, Stefan Wilson, Kevin Magnussen and R. C. Enerson would have all failed to score points.