The F1 season we could be watching

What you are about to read is an alternative version of the 2016 Formula 1 season. It might sound fictional, but it's based more in reality than you'd first think.

The championship positions are unchanged, so it's still Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at the head of the field. But the top two have won only six of the 14 races so far, rather than the 13/14 record we've seen in F1 this season.

And while 107 points cover the top four in the standings this year, in our alternative championship - using the same points system - that gap is 51. Instead of three race winners and polesitters so far, those numbers are nine and 10. Instead of nine drivers taking a podium finish, we have 16. Sound interesting?

Let's get started. The season opens in style, with six winners from the first six races: Rosberg, Kimi Raikkonen, Hamilton, Carlos Sainz Jr (yes, really), Kevin Magnussen, (again, really), and Fernando Alonso (we don't need to say it again, do we?). During that period, Rosberg, Raikkonen and Hamilton take turns leading the standings, but by round six it's Daniel Ricciardo - yet to win a race - heading the championship.

Hamilton's season starts slowly. After two rounds he languishes 12th in the standings with just four points. His campaign has already featured a controversial collision, with him blaming Jenson Button for damaging his car and costing him points in the season opener.

STANDINGS AFTER TWO RACES
1 Raikkonen 37
2 Ricciardo 28
3 Rosberg 25
4 Perez 21
5 Hulkenberg 19
6 Kvyat 18

Things turn around for him with a win in round three in China, and a consistent run of scoring after that gives him a brief stint at the top of the standings after round five in Spain before he falls behind Ricciardo.

In what will become a familiar theme, Ricciardo's season is not without incident in the early rounds. In Russia he less than amused to pick up a drivethrough penalty for a collision with Sergio Perez that he believes the Mexican was at fault for. Consistency gets him into the championship lead, however Rosberg is the first driver to win twice, moving to the front seven rounds in after the Canadian Grand Prix.

But there is controversy that weekend in Montreal, with Valtteri Bottas coming under fire for wiping out Button and Ricciardo while fighting for the lead, costing the latter crucial ground in this super-tight title race and robbing him of a chance of a first win of the season. Bottas takes pole next time out in Baku, but his deserved grid penalty elevates Max Verstappen to the front of the grid.

Sergio Perez defeats Verstappen to become the seventh winner of the season in Baku, and in the title race Hamilton moves back ahead of Rosberg with a sixth place. Ricciardo finally gets off the mark with a victory next time out in Austria, splitting Hamilton and Rosberg in the standings in the process.

There is controversy in the title battle though, as Rosberg is penalised with a drivethrough penalty for speeding under virtual safety car conditions, which race officials later admit is "probably" a mistake. But it can't give him back the points he lost - and he was running sixth at the time.

STANDINGS AFTER NINE RACES
1 Hamilton 93
2 Ricciardo 83
3 Rosberg 73
4 Vettel 73
5 Raikkonen 70
6 Hulkenberg 63

The drama continues next time out at Silverstone for round 10, where Sebastian Vettel finally gets his first win of the year, immediately climbing to second in the championship as a result. His cause is helped slightly by Ricciardo suffering a late-race tyre failure while running second, with Button falling out of contention for the same reason while fourth.

Ricciardo bounces back next time out with a dominant win in the rain in Hungary, passing polesitter Massa after a safety-car start and retaking the lead in the standings thanks to Hamilton having a day to forget and coming home 19th. The championship is so competitive that on an off-day that's how bad things can turn for even the frontrunners.

But the world champion responds in style at the German GP, winning from pole position in Mercedes' home race. He heads into the summer break 12 points clear of Ricciardo, with Vettel, Rosberg and Raikkonen giving chase.

Ricciardo's title hopes suffer another blow here when he is forced to wrestle home an ailing car. He drops back from third place when a steering problem develops, and his day is made even more difficult with a slow pitstop. The drama doesn't finish there as he ends up clashing with the yet-to-pit Jolyon Palmer, and after limping home fifth he hits out at the Renault driver after the race.

HEADING INTO THE SUMMER BREAK
1 Hamilton 130
2 Ricciardo 118
3 Vettel 104
4 Rosberg 100
5 Raikkonen 92
6 Verstappen 71

Hamilton maintains his momentum when the season resumes at Spa, becoming the first driver to win back-to-back races (a feat Rosberg had achieved by round two in the real world). Verstappen continues to go about his business quietly, picking up a fourth second place of the season, while Ricciardo again loses crucial ground as he's only able to manage ninth place on merit. Hamilton's lead is up to 35 points - the biggest margin anyone has enjoyed all season.

That lead is trimmed ever-so-slightly at Monza as Rosberg wins for the third time this season. Hamilton limits the damage with third place, while polesitter Alonso returns to the podium for the first time since his win in Monaco with second. The Spaniard was also fastest in qualifying at Spa, but he had to serve a grid penalty for picking up his third driving-standards warning of the season last time out.

So how do things stand heading into this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix? Here are the points, with the real 2016 totals as they stand in brackets:

1 Hamilton 170 (250)
2 Rosberg 137 (248)
3 Ricciardo 120 (161)
4 Vettel 119 (143)
5 Raikkonen 100 (136)
6 Verstappen 93 (121)

As eventful as our alternative season has been, the gap at the top is actually bigger. But it's fair to say the journey to get to this point has been more entertaining, and there's a very strong argument that the majority of fans would rather have the alternative season than a title race that's close in points between the top two but hasn't involved much direct action between them - or any other drivers realistically in the mix.

If it wasn't for the clashes in Spain and Austria between the Mercedes drivers, would anything that exciting have happened in the championship chase so far this year?

Also, while Hamilton has stretched his lead in the alternative standings to 33 points, the nature of the season has shown that anything can happen, so the drivers giving chase - including those behind Rosberg - can still harbour hopes of getting back on terms before the year is out.

In the real F1 points, third-place Ricciardo is 89 points adrift, driving a car that only won (in the hands of Verstappen) when Hamilton and Rosberg crashed out on the first lap of the Spanish GP.

What you have read so far might sound like fantasy, but we promised it was based loosely in reality. So how did we work this out? Some of you have probably spotted the clues already, but what you've actually just read is the story of the 2016 DTM season so far, with drivers' names changed to represent those in the same position in the F1 standings.

The DTM struggles for profile outside of its homeland in Germany, but it boasts a full grid of factory drivers representing three manufacturers.

It certainly has its downsides - 24 cars effectively controlled by three entities can lead to all kinds of team tactics, some of which are less sporting than others, and we're certainly not advocating its sometimes confusing success ballast system that generally includes every car from the polesitting manufacturer adding weight after qualifying.

But since BMW joined Audi and Mercedes on the grid in 2012 the races have become less managed from the pitwall, because the chances of drivers battling with cars from a rival manufacturer have increased and the number of incidents has certainly gone up.

That's not always a good thing, as driving standards sometimes suffer, and some of the championship's veteran drivers are growing tired of the number of needless collisions taking place in the middle of the field. But part of that is the nature of tin-top racing, even if it would be a stretch to call these 'touring cars'.

This is not a declaration that the DTM is some sort of perfect world that F1 should aspire to copy. This test is more about shining some light on the nature of the series in its modern guise rather than lazily taking shots at F1 for being too boring.

But there could be lessons to learn. The DTM has not been afraid to mix up its format in recent years to give fans more of what they want. It switched to two races per weekend from 2015 to make Saturdays more interesting, and in terms of TV viewers in Germany and trackside attendance, it worked.

It also takes a different approach to the implementation of DRS, with drivers free to use it anywhere on the lap providing they cross the start/finish line within one second of the car in front - with total use during a race limited based on circuit distance.

Arguably, this is better than having one or two designated long straights where drivers have to wait until launching an attack, sometimes making overtaking in F1 too predictable.

F1 is potentially on the verge of an influx of new ideas flowing from new owners Liberty Media, which will surely want to increase the appeal of the championship to fans. It should cast the net far and wide for suggestions and, as this comparison suggests, taking a few of the good pages from the DTM's book would be very worthwhile.