The difference between 62 and 43 is exponentially more than 19.
Lewis Hamilton trailed Nico Rosberg by 43 points, or almost two outright race wins, after five rounds of the championship.
The German derived his lead from four hard-earnt victories while his teammate toiled with a combination of poor form and unreliability. It was the championship-winning arrival so many had hoped Rosberg would present, and, even if it was a touch opportunistic, it threatened to permanently break Hamilton’s two-season run of irresistible form.
But time moves quickly in the world’s fastest sport – the turnaround since May has been a staggering 62-point swing to the reigning world champion and an unrecognisable reconfiguration of the title fight on its adjournment for the European summer.
The points reversal, winning Hamilton almost an outright victory’s advantage, has been delivered by six wins in the last seven races, a record blighted only by his qualifying mistake at the European Grand Prix.
The rewriting of the 2016 script is as interesting as it is brutal. Rosberg’s wins at the beginning of the season were borne of genuine fine form while Hamilton’s toil was down to real struggle rather than mere misfortune.
But Rosberg had always been more delicately poised in his own performance window than Hamilton, and with hindsight the pair’s first-lap crash in Barcelona was what knocked him from his zone – and let Hamilton back into his.
It should have been the defining moment in Rosberg’s application for his first champion’s trophy – a refusal to give his teammate and only credible title rival and easy pass, instead forcing him to opt out of a guaranteed crash – but the opposite is proving true.
“I think Spain was definitely a turning point,” he reflected. “It was rock bottom, basically – but the only way was up. I managed to get my head together and get on with it. Since then we’ve pulled together.”
The crash woke Hamilton from his post-championship hangover. He became alive to the fact that he’d lost seven – yes, *seven* – races in succession to his teammate because the coast mode he’d been able to employ to beat the submissive Rosberg the previous season was no longer effective.
The races since have been a matter of systematically dismantling Nico Rosberg’s advantage, eventually culminating in the collapse of his points lead.
It began with Hamilton dominating his hapless teammate in Monte Carlo and it continued with the recovery of his qualifying form, his race start technique, and his confidence wheel-to-wheel against Rosberg on the track. It concluded with psychological domination.
“When you go from one strength to another is an incredibly empowering feeling, motivating and inspiring,” he said after resuming the championship lead in Hungary.
One by one each of the skills Rosberg thought he had tuned to be beyond Hamilton’s reach were washed away until in Budapest he was forced to use his slim one-point title margin as his psychological prop.
“We can all agree on the fact that so far up to now I’ve had the best season of all drivers. That’s the fact for me,” he said, barely convincingly.
But that same weekend, with blood in the water, Hamilton ensured Rosberg couldn’t rely on that, either.
The Briton gambled on playing politics, not traditionally a strong suit. He ran to race control after Rosberg controversially snatched pole from under him in yellow flag conditions, eventually forcing the stewards to reconsider the matter in light of ‘new evidence’.
Even without a penalty Hamilton’s behaviour sufficiently stirred the pot in his favour – paddock talk suggests the Mercedes hierarchy is far from pleased with is star driver choosing to take in-house matters out of the motorhome – giving Rosberg another front on which to fight the championship fire.
The only thing left working for Rosberg’s title bid is that Hamilton will need to start from the back of the grid at least once in the second half of the year to install a new power unit after early season unreliability. However, with Hamilton’s advantage approaching the 25 points earned for a race win, even this is of little comfort to the former championship leader.
Hamilton leading the championship standings by 19 points isn’t impressive because of the size of the turnaround; the demolition of Rosberg’s championship platform is what defines the Briton’s comeback.
This is why Rosberg is almost certain to finish runner-up. It is simply because there’s no compelling reason for him to win the championship. Whether it is his speed in qualifying or in the race or his race starts or racecraft, Rosberg lacks, even if only by small percentages, when compared to a returned-to-form Hamilton.
If it’s the best man who wins, Rosberg’s out of luck.
Follow @MichaelLamonato on Twitter
Since the Aussie's last victory, he has claimed seven second-placed finishes after being unable to catch Alex Palou.
Theo Pourchaire replaces David Malukas, who got injured and then fired before he could even sit in the car.
The third ever Miami Grand Prix is in the history books and finally Lando Norris has tasted the victory champagne. That is one of…
The Australian finished second but had to work for it, as he fought off food poisoning, a race day engine change, and his own overheating body.
Nico Hulkenberg's move to a German team will hopefully bring back some of the German flare Formula 1 had just seven years ago.
Given how exclusive and precious a commodity scoring an F1 point is, why is it that mediocrity should be rewarded?
