Let’s imagine F1’s 2023 season under NASCAR’s playoff system: Prime Tire

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Welcome back to Prime Tire, where we’re wondering if I missed anything while on vacation last week? Anything controversial? Nothing? Great!

Surely, things will be quieter this week as Formula One finally curls up in its cave to hibernate. Surely! I’m Patrick, and Luke Smith will be along shortly. Let’s dive in.

A thought exercise

While I was on a beach somewhere my couch, I started imagining what the Formula One season would look like if the sport adopted NASCAR’s playoff system.

For the uninitiated: The NASCAR playoffs consist of a 10-race series at the end of the season. Sixteen drivers qualify based on regular season points and wins. After each round, the lowest-scoring drivers are eliminated, with the final race determining the champion among the remaining four contenders.

So, let’s drop that system onto F1’s calendar. We’ll take the top 16 drivers with 10 races to go (so, after Spa). In this parallel universe, the end of F1’s summer break heralds the Round of 16: the Dutch GP, the Italian GP and the Singapore GP. Here’s how the round shakes out:

No real shocks here other than Lance Stroll, whose miserable September form really costs him in this playoff scenario. Esteban Ocon squeaks through on a tiebreaker (more podiums than Valtteri Bottas). Onto the Round of 12: Japanese GP, the Qatar GP and the U.S. GP.

Now we’re cooking. The upside to Max Verstappen winning from here on out is that everyone else is left scrambling for points to advance. And it gets hairy at the cut-off:

Onto the Round of 8: Mexico City, São Paulo and Las Vegas.

Very tight. And, again, not without controversy: Carlos Sainz might’ve podiumed in Las…