How Formula 1 points have changed since 1950

Published Invalid Date · figures as of the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix, round 17.

A win has been worth 8, 9, 10, 25, 26 and, once, 50 points. The number of drivers who score has gone from five to ten. Comparing points totals across eras is therefore not a fair comparison of drivers, and this site’s record tables say so wherever points are counted.

The systems, as the results show them

Years	Win	Scoring places	Notes
1950 to 1959	8	top 5, plus 1 point for the fastest lap	Shared drives split the points; only the best results of a season counted
1960	8	top 6	Fastest-lap point dropped
1961 to 1990	9	top 6 (9, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1)	The longest-lived system: 30 seasons
1991 to 2002	10	top 6 (10, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1)
2003 to 2009	10	top 8 (10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1)	The gap from first to second cut from 4 points to 2
2010 on	25	top 10 (25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1)
2014	50 at the final race	top 10	Double points at Abu Dhabi, used once
2019 to 2024	25 + 1	top 10	One point for the fastest lap, only for a driver finishing in the top ten
2021 on	25	top 10, plus sprints	Sprint races score separately: 3, 2, 1 in 2021; 8 to 1 for the top eight from 2022

Half points are given when a race is stopped before three quarters of the distance: the data shows a 4.5-point win in 1975 (Spain) and 1984 (Monaco), a 5-point win in 1991 (Australia), and a 12.5-point win in 2021 (Belgium, two laps behind the safety car). From 2022 the rule gives reduced points on a sliding scale by distance completed.

Why it matters for the records

Most career points is dominated by current drivers because a season now offers about four times the points of a season in the 1980s. Lewis Hamilton’s 5,247.5 points come from 397 starts; Alain Prost’s 798.5 came from 198 starts under systems that paid 9 or 10 for a win.
Most points in a season is a record only drivers since 2010 can realistically hold.
Points per start flattens the eras somewhat, but the number of scoring places has also grown from five to ten, so a midfield driver today scores where a midfield driver of 1975 did not.

The site therefore keeps separate records for wins, podiums, poles and fastest laps, which mean the same thing in every era, and shows points records with the season or era alongside each figure.

The dropped-scores rule

From 1950 to 1990 only a driver’s best results counted: the best 4 of 7 in 1950, the best 11 of 16 by the late 1980s. In 1988 Alain Prost scored 105 points to Ayrton Senna’s 94, but Senna was champion on counted scores, 90 to 87. The standings on this site show the points as counted for the championship, so the 1988 table reads Senna 90, Prost 87.