-MCLAREN DRIVERS ESTIMATED POINT LOSS DUE TO BAD LUCK IN 2012-
-JENSON BUTTON-
1) Italy: Retires with a gearbox problem while running second (at the time he was over 7 seconds behind Hamilton in first but over 5 seconds ahead of Massa in third). ESTIMATED POINT LOSS: 18

2) Japan: Receives a 5-place grid penalty for a gearbox change, demoting him from third to eighth on the grid. Finishes fourth. Without the penalty he had the pace to finish second. ESTIMATED POINT LOSS: 6

3) Korea: Taken out by Kobayashi at the first corner after qualifying eleventh. Makes it very difficult to estimate a points loss. Normally I would just do a conservative estimate and say he finished where he qualified, but I won’t because that would give him no points, and it is likely he would've made up positions in the race. Probably would have finished between eighth and sixth at maximum, as Raikkonen (who qualified and finished fifth) qualified far ahead of Button and had good pace. ESTIMATED POINT LOSS: 4-8

TOTAL ESTIMATED POINT LOSS: 28-32 points

-LEWIS HAMILTON-
1) China: Qualifies second, but starts seventh after receiving a five-place grid penalty incurred from the team changing his gearbox. Finishes third. ESTIMATED POINT LOSS: 3

2) Malaysia: Could have challenged for victory had the team not struggled with fitting the tyres in two separate pit stops. Finishes third. ESTIMATED POINT LOSS: 3-10

3) Bahrain: After running in the podium positions early on, finishes eighth after losing around 15 seconds in total after two more pit stop errors. ESTIMATED POINT LOSS: 8-10

4) Spain: The team make an error and do not put enough fuel in his car for qualifying, resulting in him being demoted from a dominant pole to last on the grid. Finishes eighth, ahead of his teammate who started tenth and finished ninth. ESTIMATED POINT LOSS: 21

5) Monaco: Suffers yet another slow pit stop, dropping him from third to fifth, the position where he ultimately finishes. ESTIMATED POINT LOSS: 2-5

6) Valencia: More pit stop problems drop him from third to sixth (and behind eventual race-winner Alonso). After making his way back up to third, he retires when he is taken out by Pastor Maldonado on the penultimate lap. ESTIMATED POINT LOSS: 15-18 (assumes no slow pit stop so he would not have been near to Maldonado in the closing stages anyway)

7) Germany: Retires with rear floor damage following a puncture sustained from some car debris on the track. ESTIMATED POINT LOSS: ? (Qualified 8th, so conservative estimate of 4 points)

8) Belgium: Taken out at the first corner by Romain Grosjean. ESTIMATED POINT LOSS: ? (Qualified 8th, so conservative estimate of 4 points)

9) Singapore: A broken gearbox sees him retire while leading the race. ESTIMATED POINT LOSS: 25

10) Japan: A failure on part of the rear suspension before qualifying (which McLaren were unaware of until after the race) creates a lot of understeer which hampers his weekend. This results in him qualifying ninth and struggling for pace in the early parts of the race, but around 20 laps into the race (after a ‘thud’ at the rear of the car around turn 14) the problem fixes itself and Hamilton manages to salvage fifth after his pace greatly improves as a result. ESTIMATED POINT LOSS: ? (Impossible to quantify so no estimate made)

11) Korea: Rear anti-roll bar failure during the race results in drastic amounts of tyre wear. Drops down the order from fourth to tenth. ESTIMATED POINT LOSS: 11

12) Abu Dhabi: Comfortably leading the race before a fuel pump problem forces him to retire. ESTIMATED POINT LOSS: 25

13) Brazil: Taken out in the later stages of the race by Nico Hulkenberg while leading. ESTIMATED POINT LOSS: 18-25

TOTAL ESTIMATED POINT LOSS: 139-161 points

-SUMMARY-
Hamilton lost points from issues outside of his control in 13 out of 20 races (65% of them).

At the end of 2012 Hamilton was 91 points behind Vettel in the driver’s championship, and McLaren were 82 points behind Red Bull in the constructor’s championship.

Without all the unreliability, pit crew problems and frequent bad luck, Hamilton and McLaren could have easily been champions in 2012. It was definitely a missed opportunity by McLaren.

-POINTS ADJUSTED FOR BAD LUCK-
Hamilton: 329-351
Button: 216-220

NOTE: Of the three times Hamilton was taken out of a race by another driver (Pastor Maldonado in Valencia, Romain Grosjean in Belgium and Nico Hulkenberg in Brazil), each time Hamilton was judged to have done nothing wrong and the other driver was given a penalty for their role in causing the collision (Pastor Maldonado received a 20 second post-race penalty, Romain Grosjean received a 1-race ban, Nico Hulkenberg received a drive-through penalty).

Overall, Hamilton made no major mistakes all year (the worst thing he did all year was probably being too aggressive in his defending against Maldonado in Valencia, though it was still within the rules). When Hamilton wasn’t compromised by bad luck/mechanical failures (etc.), the only time he finished below fourth was in Silverstone (finishing eighth).