Re-Scoring St. Pete

Hello Internet! Scoring Indy comes back at you this week the first official look at the new formula. During May, leading up to the 500, we will be rolling out what the Race Scores would have looked like if we had used the New Formula way back when. So, we begin at the beginning: with St. Pete.

You can go and check out the post, where the New Formula was first previewed here. There you'll see the explanation of what the New Formula does (It's called "Formula A" there). Basically, it adds average running position (scaled based on percentage of race finished) as a factor together with race finish and positions gained.

On to the data!!!

Then

First, here's what we had before:

Race Finish	Driver	Grid	Laps Led	Laps Completed	Race Score
1	Hinchcliffe	4	26	110	67.82
2	Castroneves	5	42	110	73.09
3	Andretti	7	0	110	54.00
4	Kanaan	11	0	110	58.00
5	Dixon	20	0	110	72.00
6	de Silvestro	3	0	110	34.00
7	Viso	22	0	110	68.00
8	Sato	2	0	110	24.00
9	Wilson	13	0	110	42.00
10	Tagliani	17	0	110	46.00
11	Bourdais	21	0	110	50.00
12	Kimball	14	0	110	32.00
13	Rahal	15	0	110	30.00
14	Carpenter	23	0	110	42.00
15	Jakes	18	0	110	28.00
16	Power	1	26	107	2.31
17	Servia	12	16	104	15.42
18	Hunter-Reay	8	0	79	1.64
19	Hildebrand	24	0	78	21.09
20	Saavedra	9	0	72	-2.40
21	Vautier	6	0	69	-8.82
22	Beatriz	25	0	55	11.00
23	Newgarden	16	0	50	-0.36
24	Pagenaud	19	0	26	1.64
25	Franchitti	10	0	18	-2.91

- So, that means that the Top Ten Race Scores were (in order): Castroneves, Dixon, Viso, Hinchcliffe, Kanaan, Andretti, Bourdais, Tagliani, Willson, Carpenter.

- My gripes, based on seeing the race, are that Hinch got robbed of the Race Score Podium and that Simona scored zero Race Score World Championship points.

- The gripes are based on "Eyeball Testing" the race. I thought that Hinchcliffe just had a better run than Viso did. Now, Viso gained BIG TIME positions. This IS to be rewarded. The reason that Scoring Indy exists is my insatiable urge to determine who had the best race. I think Viso's race was very good, better than his finish indicated for sure. I just wasn't sure it was the third best.

Now

Here's how the new formula shook things up:

Race Finish	Driver	Grid	Led	Completed	Race Score	R.S. Standings
1	Hinchcliffe	4	26	110	76.73	2
2	Castroneves	5	42	110	80.82	1
3	Andretti	7	0	110	61.28	6
4	Kanaan	11	0	110	64.92	4
5	Dixon	20	0	110	69.73	3
6	de Silvestro	3	0	110	51.54	7
7	Viso	22	0	110	61.64	5
8	Sato	2	0	110	39.92	12
9	Wilson	13	0	110	49.20	8
10	Tagliani	17	0	110	47.01	10
11	Bourdais	21	0	110	47.94	9
12	Kimball	14	0	110	35.24	13
13	Rahal	15	0	110	34.10	14
14	Carpenter	23	0	110	39.98	11
15	Jakes	18	0	110	33.01	15
16	Power	1	26	107	28.55	16
17	Servia	12	16	104	24.92	17
18	Hunter-Reay	8	0	79	14.16	19
19	Hildebrand	24	0	78	19.09	18
20	Saavedra	9	0	72	8.21	22
21	Vautier	6	0	69	10.93	20
22	Beatriz	25	0	55	8.92	21
23	Newgarden	16	0	50	7.75	23
24	Pagenaud	19	0	26	2.74	24
25	Franchitti	10	0	18	1.27	25

- Based on the jumbled up Race Score Standings on the right, you can see that the Top Ten Race Scores were (in order): Castroneves, Hinchcliffe, Dixon, Kanaan, Viso, Andretti, de Silvestro, Wilson, Bourdais, and Tagliani.

- If you compare the two Top Tens, you see that this is really just a re-shuffle (with the exception of Simona de Silvestro replacing Ed Carpenter on the list.)

- But, what a re-shuffle it is! The addition of average running position knocks Viso down to a well-deserved fifth, which I think is the sweet spot for the run that he had. Simona jumps from eleventh to seventh. That's perfect, because he run was superb. Hinchcliffe jumps from fourth to second, which is more like it as well.

- Note also, the benchmark of "35 is good" will need to be changed. I think will wind up being something like "45 is good" but I'm willing to adjust that as we go forward and re-score the whole season up to now.

Well, that's all I've got for today. Hope you enjoyed the look at what would have been (and what will be going forward)!

-- Guido