Apparently I've surprised some friends during the past year by outing myself as a Formula 1 fan on Facebook. Well, it ended up that three quarters of the get-togethers we had with other friends were to watch F1 all over the world, so I eventually decided I should just learn to like it.

Of course, Lewis Hamilton made it pretty easy to like.

Now we're down to one race left in the season, and Hamilton is hanging on to the world championship by a nail... 107 points to Fernando Alonso's 103 and Kimi Raikkonen's 100.

I knew that whoever had the most points at the end of the year won, and I knew if the points were tied (as they easily could be in a situation like this), it went to the number of first place finishes, but what happens when that's tied (as Alonso and Lewis currently are)? I looked up the F1 regulations and they say:

7.2 If two or more constructors or drivers finish the season with the same number of points, the higher place in the Championship (in either case) shall be awarded to : a) the holder of the greatest number of first places, b) if the number of first places is the same, the holder of the greatest number of second places, c) if the number of second places is the same, the holder of the greatest number of third places and so on until a winner emerges.

Being the obsessive type that I am, I looked up Lewis's, Kimi's, and Alonso's past results. Kimi has the edge on first place finishes, but that only matters if he comes up with the points. Lewis has the edge on second places, but what if Alonso came in second? They'd be tied. In fact, Lewis and Alonso are tied pretty far down...they have the same number of thirds, fourths, fifths, and sixths, and the tie is broken at seventh place finishes (Alonso has 2, Lewis 0). Not that that matters, unless Alonso gets second, but then Lewis needs fifth place to tie him in points and would win on fifth place finishes. Geek that I am, I kept going through every different scenario I could think of... What if Kimi does this? What if that happens to Alonso?

So I made a chart. Voila.

Along the top axis, Alonso's finish. Along the side, Kimi's spot. The number refers to the lowest place Lewis Hamilton can finish and still win the world championship (note that "9" really means "9th or worse" as it's all the same points below 9th). The "A" means Alonso wins in that situation regardless of what Lewis does (thank goodness it's only one spot in the chart). If Lewis fails to reach the result in the chart, the blue squares mean Alonso wins and the red squares means Kimi wins.

Not that that's going to happen. I just like to be complete.