Here's the list of past champions, note that *almost* every champion was decided in the last 2 races...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Formula_One_World_Drivers'_Champions#By_se ason

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that's why i watch motogp HEHE

its still hard to tell from those stats if the driver who won the championship won the most races. i'm gonna dig into this a bit as i am curious. i can tell from the stats, that yes, the are alot of cases when the champion won 3 of 7 races, or 6 of 8 and so on. i do see one there that says the champ won with only 1 race win in 1958 out of 11, and antoher driver won 3 races. this new rule would have changed the champion. but with this rule in place he may have pushed the car a bit harder to get on top as opposed to 2nd / third place over a half the races.

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Well, since you bring up 1958....

I had to look it up since Stirling Moss was very close to winning that year (see my avatar picture, that's him at Goodwood recently). Hawthorne came second in the final race, and that gave him enough points to win the championship (he was a consistent podium finisher the entire season). However, he pushed his car at one point on the track, so he was disqualified. Stirling Moss interceded on his behalf, and because of that, the ruling was overturned. Hawthorne therefore won the championship. What about Stirling Moss? He was the one who won the final race, and because of the ruling he lost the world championship by one point that season. He argued for them to take away his title, to be fair to Hawthorne. Truly a different era, one of gentlemen racers. Can anyone imagine Schumacher in this position?

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To be fair, he's not the only one you could ask that about.

Absolutely true, but when I think of classless F1 champions, somehow he just comes to mind first. My bad.

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how was he disqualified by "pushing" his car. i meant pushing his car to the limit. all or none, his own car. run it hot. not push into a wall or smash into someone else. push the car to its full capabilities.

anyhow, the rules were different then too, a point was given for fastest lap, only the top 6 scores were take. moss only finished 5 races.

and im not sure if i follow you here:
He argued for them to take away his title, to be fair to Hawthorne.

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Yep, know that. But I am no fan of Hamilton or McLaren (I refused to buy a MacLaren pushchair for my Daughter when she was born, even though the two companies are not related!) - the only upside to Hamilton winning last year was that Ferrari lost! Although they did win the constructors championship (booo!).

As to other examples (apart from 1958 above) which would've changed the outcome:

Jim Clark in 64 and 67 rather than Surtees and Denny Hulme
Mario Andretti in 77 rather than Niki Lauda
Alan Jones in 79 rather than Jody Scheckter
Alain Prost in 81, 83 and 84 rather than Piquet, Piquet and Lauda
Didier Pironi in 82 rather than Keke Rosberg
Nigel Mansell in 86 and 87 rather than Prost and Piquet
Senna in 89 rather than Prost
Massa in 08 rather than Hamilton.

Thumbups for either Scottish or WilliamsF1 victories! (although admittedly 82 would've lost Williams a championship and 87 was neutral). 2009 is my 30th season of supporting Williams!

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I also heard that a new F1 rule is, passing will only be allowed with a point by. Lead position driver must raise his hand out of the vehicle and signal to the overpassing driver which side of the car he wants the overtaking vehicle to pass by. It can only be done on the straights. No passing in the turns. And the overtaking driver must come offline to complete the pass while allowing the overtaken driver to stay on the fast line.

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