This is a
list of points scoring systems used to determine the outcome of the FIA World
Drivers' Championships since 1950 and
Constructors' Championships since
1958 (when the Constructors Cup was inaugurated). The Championships are awarded each year to the driver and constructor who accumulate the most championship points over the course of the Championship season.
In some seasons, only a certain number of a driver's best results were counted towards the World Championship. This was most significant in
1988, when
McLaren drivers
Alain Prost and
Ayrton Senna were dominant. Prost finished 14 races in either first or second, retiring from the other two, while Senna won 8 races to Prost's 7, meaning that he only needed 3 further 2nd places to secure the championship irrespective of Prost's other results. This resulted in the anomaly that Prost took a record number of points, yet was not champion. A new system counting the points from all races was introduced in , together with an additional point awarded to the winner.
The current system was introduced for the
2010 season, and was designed to allow more teams and drivers to score points regularly, whilst the reduced gap in points between the positions means that reliability and consistency are usually more important than the final position.
The most dominant Drivers' Champion in terms of points scored is
Jim Clark, who scored the maximum of 54 points (6 wins) in both
1963 and
1965. In recent times,
Michael Schumacher finished on...
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