My latest issue of F1 Racing dropped through my letterbox just the other day and I’ve started leafing through it to try get through as much of their pre-season guide as possible given that one race has already taken place. Living in Canada means the magazine reaches me from the UK a little later than I’d prefer and so some stories are a little out of date sometimes. Anyway, one short story that jumped out at me was with regards to the new points scoring system and I was amazed at how many times the outcome of past World Championships would have changed under the new system.

Eddie Irvine would have been 1999 world champion under the 2010 points system and if the new 25-18-15-12-8-6-4-2-1 scoring system had been in place since 1950, Alain Prost would have won seven world titles, Michael Schumacher only six and James Hunt wouldn’t have been champion at all.

— F1 Racing, March 2010

Take a look:

1964: Graham Hill champion, not John Surtees

1965: Graham Hill champion, not Jim Clark

1976: Niki Lauda champion, not James Hunt

1981: Carlos Reutemann champion, not Nelson Piquet

1983: Alain Prost champion, not Nelson Piquet

1984: Alain Prost champion, not Niki Lauda

1988: Alain Prost champion, not Ayrton Senna

1994: Damon Hill champion, not Michael Schumacher

1999: Eddie Irvine champion, not Mika Hakkinen

Now I’m sure Alain Prost is sitting at home thinking “what if,” while Nelson Piquet would likely be against these current changes due to what it would have done to his career!

For the first time in the 60 year history of Formula One two drivers will drive for the same team as back-to-back World Champions with Jenson Button the 2009 World Champion joining countryman Lewis Hamilton the 2008 World Champion at McLaren for the 2010 season.

It is also the first time there have been back-to-back British World Champions since Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart in 1968 and 1969 respectively, and you have to go all the way back twenty years to 1989 to find the last time two World Champions drove for the same team with Senna winning it in 1988 and Prost having won it in 1985 and 1986.

The fact no World Champions have ever drove for the same team having won the title each in the two years previous says a lot about the mentality of a racing driver and a World Champion and his wish to be the main man at his team. Be it two drivers from the same team sharing titles over a two year period or another driver coming to join the previous years champion and taking the number 1 car. It hasn’t happened.

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