What impact would a canceled Bahrain GP have?

During the course of the last week or two, much of the discussion here at F1B has been focused on Bahrain. Will they or won’t they? Did they wait to long? Who’s to blame and who should pay? Today’s piece by SJ Skid as to where, if at all, a rescheduled Bahrain GP should be placed on the already packed 2011 calendar got me to thinking: what difference does a single race really make in a season long championship?

My exact thoughts reverted to the 2010 season. Sure, after last year’s Bahrain race, a lot of us were just kind of wishing it had not happened to begin with. We could have used that lost time for a nice long nap, paying bills, rubbing Tony George’s mother’s feet or any number of things that would have been more exciting. But seriously, and hypothetically, what if that particular race had, in fact, never occurred?

Now let’s assume that the remainder of the races on the 2010 F1 schedule would have gone on to finish with the exact results that they actually did. How much of a difference in the final points standings would the lack of last year’s season opener have made? For World Champion Sebastien Vettel, a cancelled 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix would not have changed the fact that he would go on to take the driver’s title. In fact, his gap over 2nd in the standings would have grown by two points.

For seven of the next ten drivers, however, the standings would have indeed changed.

Webber would jump from 3rd into 2nd behind his teammate. Alonso, last year’s Bahrain winner, would lose the maximum amount of points, 25, and drop to 3rd behind the Australian. The McLaren duo of Hamilton and Button would remain static in 4th and 5th respectively before the biggest jumble comes.

Robert Kubica would go from 8th up to 6th, Rosberg would stay in 7th and Massa would fall to Bobby K’s original slot. Michael Schumacher would remain in 9th, while Sutil would move ahead of Rubens into the top ten, dropping the Brazilian to 11th. The only other change in points would be for Liuzzi, but his two point loss would not change his 15th place finish in the standings.

For the teams, the final standings would not have changed at all. So in terms of specific monies based on placings at year’s end, I don’t know if one race would have made a difference or not. Maybe Kubica would feel better saying that he finished in 6th as opposed to 8th? I doubt it. And I can’t speak for Webber or Alonso, but I’d bet that neither one of them would give a toss about 2nd or 3rd or any other championship position that doesn’t come with the title “World Champion”.

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