The year is 1981, and the FIA are taking control of Formula One. They have done away with the antiquated World Championship of Drivers and are instead bringing in a Championship format that is decades ahead of its time: The Formula One Cup Series.
In addition to the FIA now sanctioning every Grand Prix that will make up the season, they are making a raft of changes to how the Championship is conducted. The old format of having the winner be whoever scores most points over their best 12 races has been done away with: instead, the World Champion will have to perform well throughout the season with a guaranteed Championship decider at the last race of the season.
This will be done with a seven-race playoff series to finish the season: the top ten drivers (usually the top ten on points, but race winners will automatically progress) will advance to the playoffs, with two lowest-scoring drivers eliminated at the Round of 10, Round of 8 and Round of 6 stage to leave a Championship Final for the top four drivers at the last race of the season.
Additionally, the old system of points for the top six drivers has been completely abandoned: instead, Formula One will award points to the top fifteen classified finishers at any given Grand Prix, incentivising drivers to fight for position all the way down the field. The points system shall be: 25 - 20 - 16 - 13 - 11 - 10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1.
This is a new era for Formula One. - - - - - - - - - -
Lockdown has hit HARD. I'm hoping to get through roughly one of these per day until I'm allowed to go outside again, or until we finish 2019.
Regular Season
- United States Grand Prix West - Alan Jones
- Brazilian Grand Prix - Carlos Reutemann
- Argentine Grand Prix - Nelson Piquet
- San Marino Grand Prix - Nelson Piquet
- Belgian Grand Prix - Carlos Reutemann
- Monaco Grand Prix - Gilles Villeneuve
- Spanish Grand Prix - Gilles Villeneuve
- French Grand Prix - Alain Prost
Standings
Carlos Reutemann - 125 points (2 wins)
Alan Jones - 91 points (1 win)
Nelson Piquet - 86 points (2 wins)
Gilles Villeneuve - 72 points (2 wins)
Jacques Laffite - 66 points
John Watson - 59 points
Elio de Angelis - 53 points
Riccardo Patrese - 47 points
Rene Arnoux - 47 points
Didier Pironi - 44 points
Mario Andretti - 43 points
Alain Prost - 41 points (1 win)
Nigel Mansell - 40 points
Marc Surer - 39 points
Eddie Cheever - 35 points
Patrick Tambay - 33 points
Hector Rebaque - 20 points
Patrick Tambay - 20 points
Bruno Giacomelli - 20 points
Chico Serra - 14 points
Keke Rosberg - 11 points
Jean-Pierre Jarier - 9 points
Siegfried Stohr - 7 points
Ricardo Zunino - 6 points
Michele Alboreto - 4 points
Jan Lammers - 4 points
Slim Borgudd - 3 points
Piercarlo Ghinzani - 3 points
Eliseo Salazar - 2 points
REST - 0 points
Doesn't this just show the magic of the "Win-And-You're-In" format? Going into the final race of the Regular Season, Renault's Alain Prost was stuck all the way down in 17th. He was one of the many drivers with only one route into the playoffs: to win the French Grand Prix. But, like an absolute mad lad, he did exactly that. His regular season - only two finishes, a 1st and a 3rd - was the absolute opposite of his Renault teammate Rene Arnoux - five finishes, none of them on the podium; but they both scraped into the playoffs.
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Playoffs
Round of 10
- British Grand Prix - John Watson
- German Grand Prix - Nelson Piquet
Standings
John Watson - 35 points (1 win)
Jacques Laffite - 32 points
Nelson Piquet - 25 points (1 win)
Carlos Reutemann - 20 points (Total: 145)
Alain Prost - 20 points (Total: 61)
Rene Arnoux - 10 points
Elio de Angelis - 9 points
Gilles Villeneuve - 6 points (Total : 78)
Riccardo Patrese - 6 points (Total: 53)
Alan Jones - 5 points
And doesn't this just go to show how quickly things can change? Alan Jones, one of the very top drivers in the Regular Season, has fallen at the first hurdle in the Playoffs. Gilles Villeneuve survives by the skin of his teeth thanks to total points across the season being used as a tie-breaker, bur he'd certainly prefer to be a little bit safer in the next round.
Round of 8
- Austrian Grand Prix - Jacques Laffite
- Dutch Grand Prix - Alain Prost
Standings
Nelson Piquet - 36 points
Jacques Laffite - 25 points (1 win, Total: 123)
Alain Prost - 25 points (1 win, Total: 86)
Elio de Angelis - 20 points (Total: 82)
Rene Arnoux - 20 points (Total: 77)
Carlos Reutemann - 11 points
John Watson - 10 points
Gilles Villeneuve - 0 points
Just like that, Ferrari's Gilles Villeneuve and McLaren's John Watson fall out of Championship contention. This really does go to show the danger of poor reliability coming at the wrong time; even if you dominate the Regular Season, a double-DNF in a playoff round will likely be terminal.
Round of 6
- Italian Grand Prix - Alain Prost
- Canadian Grand Prix - Jacques Laffite
Standings
Jacques Laffite - 25 points (1 win, Total: 148)
Alain Prost - 25 points (1 win, Total: 111)
Elio de Angelis - 23 points
Carlos Reutemann - 22 points
Nelson Piquet - 21 points
Rene Arnoux - 0 points
It doesn't get much closer than that! The 1981 Canadian Grand Prix became one of the most dramatic the sport has ever seen, thanks almost entirely to the drama unfolding in the Playoff race. At the front of the field, Jacques Laffite led the way, but if the rapidly advancing John Watson was able to catch and pass him, then he'd fall out of the Championship Four. Then further back was a three-way joust for the last two spots: de Angelis, in sixth, had to keep Mario Andretti behind him. Piquet, in fifth, needed to catch and pass Bruno Giacomelli's Alfa. And Carlos Reutemann had a big scare when his Williams bit the dust a few laps from the end - but he only dropped as far as tenth.
But now we know our Championship Four:
Elio de Angelis (Lotus)
Jacques Laffite (Ligier)
Alain Prost (Prost)
Carlos Reutemann (Williams)
Championship Final
- Caesars Palace Grand Prix - Alan Jones
Standings
Alain Prost - 20 points
Jacques Laffite - 10 points
Carlos Reutemann - 8 points
Elio de Angelis - 0 points
With the Championship Four's points tallies all reset to 500, the race for the Championship was completely even at the start of the decider in Las Vegas. So, did the first ever four-way shootout for a World Championship have all the drama we might have hoped? Well not exactly, as Prost ended up more than a minute ahead of his nearest Championship challenger. That said, there was still the constant jeopardy of reliability: by the end of the race, Prost had eased off so far that he'd been caught and almost past by Giacomelli. Just imagine how that might have played out if they had tangled?
And it's worth remembering the fairy tale nature of this Championship win: with only one race left of the regular season, Prost had been rooted all the way down in 17th place. Eight races later, he returned to the Renault garage in Las Vegas as a World Champion.
What a strange and tragic Regular Season; while the whole Formula One paddock mourns the loss of Gilles Villeneuve and salutes the retirement of Carlos Reutemann, the old adage that the show must go on certainly applies. It wasn't just Reutemann who went missing out of the previous year's Championship Four - Jacques Laffite had a horrendous Regular Season in which he only saw the chequered flag twice, and never in a better finishing position than sixth. He would not be making it to the Playoffs.
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Playoffs
Round of 10
- British Grand Prix - Niki Lauda
- French Grand Prix - Rene Arnoux
Standings
Didier Pironi - 36 points
Niki Lauda - 33 points (1 win)
Alain Prost - 30 points
Derek Daly - 20 points
Elio de Angelis - 13 points
Keke Rosberg - 11 points
Michele Alboreto - 10 points
John Watson - 0 points (Total: 113)
Riccardo Patrese - 0 points (Total: 62)
Nelson Piquet - 0 points (Total: 56)
That was an exceptionally strange round of playoff races where, as it turned out, even a single point would have been enough to avert disaster. Some truly shocking reliability saw three of the ten drivers fail to finish either race, with the resulting elimination battle coming down to who had scored fewest points across the entire season.
Round of 8
- German Grand Prix - Patrick Tambay
- Austrian Grand Prix - Elio de Angelis
Standings
Keke Rosberg - 36 points
Elio de Angelis - 25 points (1 win)
Michele Alboreto - 13 points
Niki Lauda - 11 points
Alain Prost - 8 points
John Watson - 7 points
Derek Daly - 0 points
Didier Pironi - 0 points
Another bizarre playoff round, seemingly characterised by the race to be least bad. In the end, it was Derek Daly who lost that race. While all that was going on, the Formula One community again had its thoughts with Didier Pironi, who suffered a horrific injury at the German Grand Prix.
Round of 6
- Swiss Grand Prix - Keke Rosberg
- Italian Grand Prix - Rene Arnoux
Standings
Keke Rosberg - 33 points (1 win)
Alain Prost - 20 points
Michele Alboreto - 20 points
John Watson - 16 points (Total: 136)
Niki Lauda - 16 points (Total: 111)
Elio de Angelis - 10 points
Finally the Playoff race got into full swing and once again the final race of the Round of 6 was a thriller: this time, the person on the cusp was John Watson, who needed to hold off a charging Michele Alboreto to stay in contention. As it turned out, he managed that and squeaked through on the total points rule, which will have riled Niki Lauda somewhat.
But we now know out Championship Four:
Michele Alboreto (Tyrrell)
Alain Prost (Renault)
Keke Rosberg (Williams)
John Watson (McLaren)
Championship Final
- Caesars Palace Grand Prix - Michele Alboreto
Standings
Michele Alboreto - 25 points
John Watson - 20 points
Alain Prost - 13 points
Keke Rosberg - 11 points
And the absolute underdog wins it! I don't think anyone can have gone into the race weekend thinking that Michele Alboreto was about to become a World Champion, but that's exactly what happened. When Alain Prost took pole position it looked as though it would be back-to-back titles for the Frenchman, but his nearest challenger on the grid was Alboreto. However, the Italian got himself clear of the field and build a near 30-second lead that he carried all the way to the finish line and an unlikely World Championship.