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Properly, it occurred; Lewis Hamilton lastly took his report eighth Driver’s World Championship to face alone on high of the record of the greats in Components One – and it occurred in really gorgeous trend.
No, you didn’t simply bang your head and skim all of this incorrect, you learn simply what would have occurred within the 2023 F1 World Championship within the alternate universe the place Pink Bull didn’t exist and all of the factors had been distributed to everybody else.
Regardless of not even ending within the high three when it got here to most wins in 2023, he remained a constant drive alongside the way in which with 11 podiums to his identify and solely two races outdoors the factors to storm residence to his record-breaking World Championship.
As has been the case with my different articles on this collection, this after all takes into consideration that every race would play out the identical and simply take away Pink Bull from the outcomes. In fact, it’s not that easy, however for a little bit of enjoyable, that’s what I’ve executed. That’s how Hamilton is an eight-time World Champion.
Lewis Hamilton. (Photograph by Michael Potts/BSR Company/Getty Photos)
Earlier than I present the ultimate leads to the Driver’s Championship, Hamilton did go into the ultimate race in Abu Dhabi in a decent battle in opposition to Fernando Alonso, who had led the Championship just about all 12 months.
Hamilton led Alonso by 20 factors heading into the ultimate race, which means he solely wanted to complete in sixth place or larger to safe the title. Whereas primarily based on the race outcomes redistributed he completed seventh, Alonso didn’t obtain the win with the quickest lap he wanted to safe the title on countback, handing Hamilton the magical eighth crown.
It nonetheless gave us an entertaining different battle proper till the loss of life, with the ultimate standings wanting like this:
1st – Lewis Hamilton – 330pts
2nd – Fernando Alonso – 314pts
third – Charles Leclerc – 289pts
4th – Carlos Sainz Jr – 283pts
fifth – Lando Norris – 277pts
sixth – George Russell – 248pts
seventh – Oscar Piastri – 156pts
eighth – Lance Stroll – 131pts
ninth – Pierre Gasly – 107pts
tenth – Esteban Ocon – 102pts
eleventh – Alexander Albon – 65pts
twelfth – Yuki Tsunoda – 47pts
thirteenth – Valtteri Bottas – 29pts
14th – Nico Hulkenberg – 20pts
fifteenth – Zhou Guanyu – 18pts
=sixteenth – Daniel Ricciardo – 12pts
=sixteenth – Kevin Magnussen – 12pts
=18th – Liam Lawson – 9pts
=18th – Logan Sargeant – 9pts
twentieth – Nyck de Vries – 0pts
It was an extremely shut battle all season, with six totally different drivers from 4 totally different groups successful races.
As talked about, Hamilton amazingly didn’t even end within the high three most winningest drivers for 2023. He completed fourth with three wins, two behind Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris, who received 5 every, and three behind Fernando Alonso, who received six races. Carlos Sainz took two wins, whereas Aussie Oscar Piastri received in Qatar.
Hamilton additionally received the title with just one pole place to his identify, the precise pole he secured in the actual Championship in Hungary. Leclerc was the king of qualifying, securing ten poles, with teammate Sainz subsequent greatest with three. Alonso, Norris and George Russell secured two poles every, whereas Piastri and Nico Hulkenberg ended up with one.
Podiums sensible is the place Hamilton did make up the bottom. With 11 podiums, he completed equal first for the season with Alonso, who was two away from the Ferrari pair of Sainz and Leclerc. Norris completed with eight, Russell with six, Piastri and Lance Stroll with three whereas the Alpine duo of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly secured two and one podiums respectively.
All of it got here right down to consistency for Hamilton, which was the important thing to his success. However did that then translate over to Mercedes for the Constructor’s Championship?
The battle went right down to the ultimate race of the season between Ferrari and Mercedes, however after all this time for first relatively than second.
1st – Mercedes – 578pts
2nd – Ferrari – 572pts
third – Aston Martin – 445pts
4th – McLaren – 433pts
fifth – Alpine – 209pts
sixth – Williams – 74pts
seventh – AlphaTauri – 60pts
eighth – Alfa Romeo – 47pts
ninth – Haas – 32pts
Identical to in the actual world, Mercedes pip Ferrari within the closest of margins to say their ninth Constructor’s Championship to maneuver them into equal second place with Williams within the total tally.
It’s one other astonishing feat provided that the three wins claimed by Hamilton had been the one three by the workforce all season, with McLaren, Aston Martin and Ferrari all attaining greater than double the wins of the German workforce.
Ferrari would really feel significantly aggrieved given they received seven races and secured 13 poles and had the identical quantity of podiums as Mercedes. However when it got here to total consistency, Mercedes took the cake.
It’s attention-grabbing to notice that on this situation, seven of the 9 groups secured a quickest lap throughout 2023, with solely Haas and Alpine failing to take action. 5 of the 9 groups scored not less than one podium and one pole place as effectively.
So whereas that is all fantasy, it’s an attention-grabbing idea that does showcase simply how shut the battle in 2023 was when it got here to all of the groups that weren’t from Austria.
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