Who Is the 2014 European F1 Champion? Reviewing Points from Europe's Races
Although only a fraction of the 19 grands prix in the 2014 Formula One season have taken place in Europe, those eight races are arguably the most crucial on the calendar.
The European season, as it is often referred to—which tells you all you need to know about its importance—makes up the core of a given world championship campaign, usually lasting from mid-May until the beginning of September.
With each of the sport's 11 teams—from the all-conquering Mercedes outfit to perennial backmarkers Caterham—based on the continent, F1's return to Europe after the opening handful of "flyaway" races often leads to a season settling down into a rhythm, with the emergence of a natural competitive order as the cream rises to the top.
As such, when the paddock travels to Asia and the Americas for the final selection of grands prix around four months later, some teams and drivers will have already begun their winter break, while others will still have everything to play for, everything to lose and everything to gain.
There is no question that Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, the Mercedes drivers at the head of the world championship standings, have the most to gain in the remaining six races of 2014—but which of them extracted the most from F1's European adventure?
And just how close to the Silver Arrows pair did the chasing pack, including Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo, come to spoiling Mercedes' party?
Here's how both the constructors' and drivers' standings would look if only the points from the European grands prix counted toward the championship.
Constructors' Championship
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Original Top Three: 1. Mercedes 454; 2. Red Bull 272; 3. Williams 177
B/R's F1 European Championship Top Three: 1. Mercedes 282; 2. Red Bull 175; 3. Williams 135
Mercedes won all but two of the eight races in Europe, recording four one-two finishes in Spain, Monaco, Austria and Italy.
And the German outfit might consider themselves unfortunate not to have claimed more, with reliability problems slowing them down in Britain and Germany and you-know-what preventing their domination of the Belgian Grand Prix.
The Silver Arrows were only out-scored by Red Bull, their closest rivals, on two occasions—in Hungary and Belgium—with the four-time world champions recording the same amount of points as Mercedes at Silverstone.
Williams' healthy points total in Europe, meanwhile, highlights just how much the former world champions underachieved in the early stages of the season, with the team registering just 42 points in the non-European grands prix.
A run of five podium finishes in six races between the Austrian and Italian grands prix, however, has cast their campaign in a much brighter light.
5. Fernando Alonso
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B/R F1 European Championship Statistics
Points: 72
Wins: None
Podiums: One
2014 Position: Fifth
Just one podium place in eight races marks Fernando Alonso's worst run in Europe since the 2009 season, when he failed to finish within the top three in nine grands prix.
And the Spaniard, if anything, has slightly overachieved by making our top five when you consider the machinery at his disposal.
Spirited drives to sixth and fifth at Silverstone and Hockenheim, respectively, were among the highlights, although no result can compare to his second place in Hungary, where he came within three laps of claiming a trademark win.
That surprise result at the Hungaroring, though, did little to disguise a European championship which, after an Italian Grand Prix retirement, ended with Alonso 20 points adrift of fourth and 14 points ahead of sixth-placed Sebastian Vettel—proof, perhaps, that the double world champion operates in a class of his own.
4. Valtteri Bottas
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B/R F1 European Championship Statistics
Points: 92
Wins: None
Podiums: Four
2014 Position: Fourth
Valtteri Bottas was lagging behind on 10 points after the opening two rounds of the European season, having followed up a fifth-place finish in Spain with his only retirement of the year from eighth in Monaco.
A career-best run of three consecutive podiums on F1's return to the continent after a brief stop in Canada saw the Finnish driver surge into contention, with Bottas adding a total of 51 points to his tally between the Austrian and German rounds.
And after the race at Hockenheim, the Williams driver found himself leading Daniel Ricciardo by four points in the race for third in the European standings.
Bottas' podium streak—and with it, his points advantage over his Red Bull rival—came to an abrupt end at the following round in Hungary, however, where the safety car dropped him from a promising second to the fringes of the top 10.
Ricciardo's second consecutive win at Spa, on a day when Bottas took third, took the Australian out of sight, although the Finn had the last laugh by finishing one place ahead of his fellow future star at Monza.
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3. Daniel Ricciardo
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B/R F1 European Championship Statistics
Points: 117
Wins: Two
Podiums: Five
2014 Position: Third
Daniel Ricciardo was the only driver to score points in every single round and the Australian has been rewarded for his consistency—which led to two wins at the Hungaroring and Spa—with a comfortable third place in our European standings.
Ricciardo's form on the continent was so impressive, in fact, that after his Belgian Grand Prix victory, the Red Bull driver sat only nine points behind Lewis Hamilton, driving the supposedly dominant Mercedes car.
And if you were to count only the points amassed in his five podium finishes in Spain, Monaco, Silverstone, Hungary and Belgium, he would still have finished third with three points more than Valtteri Bottas.
2. Nico Rosberg
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B/R F1 European Championship Statistics
Points: 141
Wins: Three
Podiums: Six
2014 Position: First
After just missing out on opening the European season with a win, Nico Rosberg took the lead of our alternative standings with consecutive victories in Monaco—his second triumph at the principality in as many years—and Austria.
His advantage, however, was short-lived, with a retirement in the next round at Silverstone seeing him fall 18 points behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
Rosberg immediately hit back and closed the gap to just eight points with a convincing win in his home race at Hockenheim, although he lost yet more ground in Hungary, where the German failed to make the podium in a race he had finished for the first time in 2014.
A twist in the tale occurred at Spa, where Rosberg returned to the top of the standings with a seven-point advantage after Hamilton's only DNF of the European season.
His mistake in the Italian Grand Prix, though, gifted the race and European championship victory to his team-mate.
Rosberg, however, does have the consolation of winning the European pole trophy thanks to his five pole positions, including four consecutive starts from the front of the grid between Britain and Belgium.
1. Lewis Hamilton
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B/R F1 European Championship Statistics
Points: 141
Wins: Three
Podiums: Seven
2014 Position: Second
Lewis Hamilton scored the same amount of points as Nico Rosberg over the course of the eight races in Europe. And with victories in Spain, Britain and Italy, he equaled his team-mate's tally of wins, too.
But it is his superior number of podium finishes—seven to Rosberg's six—which were decisive in Hamilton's conquering of the German here.
The 2008 world champion, who book-ended the European season with wins, refused to follow the request of Mercedes to allow Rosberg through during the Hungarian Grand Prix—and that stubbornness, which led to Hamilton finishing third at the Hungaroring, has allowed the British driver to clinch the European crown.
His feat is all the more sensational given that his European season has been riddled with bad luck, with reliability problems in qualifying in Germany and Hungary preventing Hamilton from having a tighter grip on both the European championship and overall championship.
In Europe, Hamilton, as ever, did it the hard way—but got the job done in the end.
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