What If Simulator
Pick an era. Swap any driver into any seat. Run the simulation. See who wins.
Turbo Era
Can anyone stop the McLaren?
The most dominant car in F1 history. Senna and Prost combined for 15 wins out of 16 races. Put anyone else in that McLaren: or take the wheel yourself.
NA Era
The last great Schumacher battle.
Three drivers went to the final race mathematically alive. Schumacher, Räikkönen, Montoya: the most contested season of the V10 era. Can you change the outcome?
V8 Era
Five drivers. One race. Anyone's title.
Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso, Button, Webber: five genuine champions in their prime. The last race of 2010 could have crowned any of them. Rewrite it.
Hybrid Era
The most controversial finale in history.
Hamilton vs Verstappen. Equal on points going into Abu Dhabi. The last lap that split the F1 world. Who wins when you rewrite the grid?
Ground Effect Era
McLaren's comeback. Red Bull's last stand.
Four different race winners, three teams fighting for the WCC until the final round. The most competitive Ground Effect season yet: now with any driver you choose.
What is the F1 What If Simulator?
The What If Simulator is an F1 alternate-history tool. You pick a famous F1 era, like the 1988 Turbo era or the 2021 Hybrid showdown, swap any drivers between seats, and run a Monte Carlo simulation to see who would win the championship.
How does the F1 driver swap simulation work?
Each driver is rated by their peak era-adjusted Elo rating. When you put a driver into a different seat, the simulation uses their peak skill rating combined with the car's historical performance. It then simulates 5,000 full championship seasons using real race data from that era.
What F1 eras are available?
Five eras: the Turbo Era (1977-1988, featuring the dominant 1988 McLaren), the NA Era (1989-2005, Schumacher vs Räikkönen vs Montoya in 2003), the V8 Era (2006-2013, the five-way 2010 title fight), the Hybrid Era (2014-2021, Hamilton vs Verstappen in Abu Dhabi), and the Ground Effect Era (2022-2026, McLaren's comeback).
Can I put a modern driver like Verstappen into a historic era?
Yes: that's the point. You can put Max Verstappen in the 1988 McLaren, put Lewis Hamilton against Senna, or put Ayrton Senna in the 2021 Red Bull. The simulation adjusts for peak performance ratings to make cross-era comparisons fair.
How many swaps can I make?
You can swap up to 5 drivers per simulation run. Each swap replaces a driver in their historical seat with any driver from across F1 history, rated by their career peak Elo.