Adding up a driver's race points is not always the same operation as reading their championship total. In 1988, Alain Prost's race-by-race entries add to 105, while Ayrton Senna's add to 94. Yet the official final standings put Senna first with 90 and Prost second with 87.
The distinction is the counting rule. F1's retrospective on its McLaren champions confirms that only each driver's best eleven results counted. A database that silently substitutes an all-race sum for the championship column changes the meaning of the record.
Reconcile the two totals
The inputs below are the points shown in F1's individual Prost and Senna race tables. The totals and differences are our arithmetic.
| Driver | Sum of race-point entries | Points excluded by the best-eleven calculation | Counted championship points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prost | 105 | 18 | 87 |
| Senna | 94 | 4 | 90 |
Prost's seven wins supplied 7 × 9 = 63 points. His seven second places supplied another 7 × 6 = 42. To retain eleven results, keep the seven wins and four of the six-point finishes: 63 + 24 = 87. The other three six-point results account for the 18-point difference.
Senna's eight wins supplied 8 × 9 = 72. Three second places added 18, giving eleven results and 90 points. The remaining scoring entries were one point in Portugal and three in Spain. Adding those explains the all-race total of 94, but they do not increase his counted championship score.
What was discarded — and what was not
A discarded score is not the same thing as deleting the underlying race result. Prost's individual race table still records all seven second places. The counting rule determines which scores contribute to the season total.
Because those second places each awarded six points, highlighting one set of three rather than another in a numerical reconciliation does not change the deduction. Do not invent a further sporting penalty merely to explain the difference between 105 and 87.
Likewise, zero-point entries do not create a further loss when summed. This calculation does not establish why a driver scored zero at any particular event; that requires the event's classification and, where relevant, the decisions behind it.
Why the order reverses
Before applying the counting rule, Prost leads by 105 − 94 = 11 points. His excluded scores exceed Senna's by 18 − 4 = 14. Apply that difference and the counted result becomes a three-point advantage to Senna.
That is a reconciliation of recorded outcomes, not a claim about which driver was intrinsically better or which system was fairer. Nor can an alternative scoring calculation establish what the drivers would have done under different incentives.
A useful archive habit
Keep the race-level points and the championship total as separate fields, with the season and counting basis attached. When they differ, investigate the applicable rules before assuming a transcription error.
For this example, the calculation can be reproduced by collecting each driver's sixteen point entries, sorting them from highest to lowest and summing the first eleven. The output should match the published 90 and 87. Do not carry that counting method into another season without checking its rules.