Max Verstappen now appears on the verge of winning his fourth straight Drivers’ Championship, and we have been calculating this alternative table all season long just in case.

With Verstappen having won 19 of the 22 races last season, our calculations last season led to a world in which a thrilling title fight would have taken place elsewhere.

Calculating the World Championship standings without Max Verstappen

Calculating these standings is simple, in that any result Verstappen achieves is taken out of the equation and wherever he finished, every driver below moves up a place, and in the cases where he earned a point for fastest lap, the point gets redistributed to the next-fastest driver on the list.

As this applied at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc clocked the second-quickest lap of the race, so an extra point went to him in this instance. He didn’t need any help for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix however, taking the fastest lap bonus point all on his own merit on the final lap of the race.

In Japan, it was Carlos Sainz who inherited the fastest lap point with his 1:33.841 a tenth down on Verstappen’s 1:33.706.

Given the seven-point difference between first and second (where Verstappen finished almost every time), the differences gained by the drivers behind led to changes in the World Championship standings that, had both Red Bull drivers not been involved last season, Lewis Hamilton would have edged away from Fernando Alonso as a hypothetical World Champion.

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So where Charles Leclerc overtook Sergio Perez in the real-life championship at Imola, in these standings for now, his P2 finishes earlier in the season would have kept him top of the standings without his team-mate – but that turned around in Monaco when Leclerc took an emotional home win, where Perez crashed out on the first lap after a tangle with Kevin Magnussen.

But with Leclerc and Perez out of the race in Canada and a P2 for Norris in real life, which would have been promoted to victory, he would take the lead in these alternative standings by just three points – which would have extended further in Spain.

Of course, this is all just for fun, so you don’t have to take it too seriously, but we thought it might be interesting to take a look at an alternative universe nonetheless!

At the summer break stage, Lando Norris would have held a healthy lead over a congested chasing pack of Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri, Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton, with George Russell hanging on in there.

Verstappen’s first win in 10 would have left an Alpine 1-2 in Brazil, with both Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon jumping right up the standings, and plenty of other movement elsewhere.

Alternative 2024 Drivers’ Championship standings without Max Verstappen

[Correct as of 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix]

1: Lando Norris – 389
2: Charles Leclerc – 337
3: Oscar Piastri – 296
4: Carlos Sainz – 274
5: George Russell – 228
6: Lewis Hamilton – 220
7: Sergio Perez – 205
8: Fernando Alonso – 86
9: Nico Hulkenberg – 52
10: Pierre Gasly – 40
11: Yuki Tsunoda – 40
12: Esteban Ocon – 36
13: Lance Stroll – 34
14: Kevin Magnussen – 22
15: Alex Albon – 21
16: Daniel Ricciardo – 18
17: Oliver Bearman – 10
18: Franco Colapinto – 9
19: Liam Lawson – 9
20: Zhou Guanyu – 2
21: Logan Sargeant – 1
22: Valtteri Bottas – 0

Read next: F1 points all-time rankings: Where do Hamilton, Verstappen and Alonso feature?