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Formula one Scores and Scoring


The Driver’s and Constructor’s Championships are decided according to the greatest number of pointsawarded according to the place in which a driver classifies at each grand prix.

To receive points a driver must finish in the top 10 positions and need not finish the race, but must have covered at least 90% of the race distance.

It is also possible for the lower points not to be awarded (as at the 2005 United States Grand Prix) because insufficient drivers completed 90% of the winner’s distance.

The system was revised in 2003 and was later revised for the 2010 season because of the 4 new teams entering the sport. The 2010 scoring system is :

Drivers completed 90%

  • 1st place 25 points
  • 2nd place 18 points
  • 3rd place 15 points
  • 4th place 12 points
  • 5th place 10 points
  • 6th place 8 points
  • 7th place 6 points
  • 8th place 4 points
  • 9th place 2 points
  • 10th place 1 point

Drivers finishing below 10th place do not receive any points.

  • If a race is abandoned before 75% of the planned distance can be reached then the points awarded are halved: 12.5, 9, 7.5, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0.5.
  • Points are awarded equally to the driver and his constructor; for example, if a driver for one team comes second, eighteen points are added to his season total; if his teammate finished third in the same race, he adds fifteen to his total and the team adds 33 (the sum of the drivers’ points) to its total.
  • The championships are awarded to whichever driver and constructor have the most points at the end of the season.
  • In case of a tie, the FIA compares the number of times each driver has finished in each position. The championship goes to whichever had the greater number of wins; if they have the same number of wins, it goes to the driver with the greater number of second places, and so on. For example, if Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost are tied at the end of a season, and Prost had six wins and three second place finishes, but Senna had six wins and four second place finishes (even if he had fewer third places than Prost, etc.), Senna would be champion.