Championship comparison

Sixteen races of 38 have unfolded in 2014, with Ford's Mark Winterbottom leading the V8 Supercars Championship.

Interestingly, at this point last year - after the Circuit of the Americas event in Austin, where races 13 to 16 played out - Winterbottom sat eighth in the Championship and was yet to take his first race win for the season, which came at the following event in Darwin.

The Red Bulls led the way back then - Jamie Whincup ahead of Craig Lowndes. Will Davison at Pepsi Max Crew FPR was third, with BJR teammates Fabian Coulthard and Jason Bright completing the top five.

Once again those three teams are battling at the top. Davison's replacement Chaz Mostert hit his straps in Perth with a race victory, while the other five drivers from those three teams were the top six finishers.

Red Bull currently leads FPR and BJR in the teams' Championship - whereas last year the order of second and third was reversed.

We are approaching the halfway point of the Championship - so, how do this year's numbers stack up compared to 2013? Who's better positioned, and who has a struggle ahead of them?

V8supercars.com.au crunched the numbers.

The big movers

Relative to this time last year, some drivers have made big improvements.

Some are difficult to compare because of team movements and circumstance - for example, Mostert was 27th this time last year after completing just two rounds, and is now eighth - and because there were three additional cars on the grid accumulating points.

But for those in the same driver's seat, there are some clear turnarounds.

Norton Nissan driver Michael Caruso, and Mercedes Benz Erebus man Lee Holdsworth have both improved nine positions on last year's Championship spot, 13th and 11th respectively this year.

But with Winterbottom seven positions better off, he is certainly the key mover, leading the way in the points and heading to a round where he was victorious last year.

Same old

Three drivers sit in exactly the same position.

Craig Lowndes is second in the Championship, but this time his deficit is less - 101 points separate he and Winterbottom, while last year he trailed teammate Whincup by 142.

TEKNO's Shane van Gisbergen sits sixth once again, though his aim is to finish in the top five.

And interestingly, Russell Ingall remains in 17th despite switching from the Supercheap Auto Racing Walkinshaw seat to Lucas Dumbrell Racing.

Ingall has shown strong form, particularly in qualifying this year, with fans predicting he is not far from a race victory. LDM's two cars were 18th and 25th in the points at this stage of last year's Championship.

Tim Slade, who has taken over the SCAR Commodore, is 16th, just one position higher.

Downward spiral

The biggest drop for a driver in the same seat is 2007 Champion Garth Tander, who is down in 15th after running seventh at this stage in 2013 in the Holden Racing Team Commodore.

Following is his former teammate and '06 Champ Rick Kelly, down six in 18th in his Jack Daniel's Nissan.

Team BOC's Jason Bright has fallen five spots, taking him out of the top five and further from the Championship he is chasing. After the monumental rollover at season opener Clipsal 500 Adelaide, Bright is 10th, though he has collected one race win.

Three rising stars

There are three new names in the top 10 compared to last year, with Scott McLaughlin, Chaz Mostert and David Reynolds featuring from seventh to ninth.

Both sophomore drivers have already recorded wins this season, with Reynolds itching to finish on the podium, fourth in New Zealand his best race result.

McLaughlin is up four spots in the points, Reynolds five.

Mostert had only completed two rounds this time last year - but compared to Will Davison, who drove #6 last year, he's down five spots with his predecessor third at this time.

Davison, Tander and the sidelined Jonathon Webb - who will reappear behind the wheel for the Pirtek Enduro Cup - do not feature in the 10 this time around.

Of the six drivers not returning full-time in 2014, Webb was the highest placed in the Championship, 10th this time last year and 12th at the end of the season, just one position ahead of Alex Davison.

New drivers, old numbers

Whether a driver switching teams or rookie to the series, it's inevitable comparisons will be made with predecessors.

Racing the #9 REC this season, Davison has made huge progress compared to German Maro Engel who was a rookie in the Erebus machine last year - Davison is 12th, while Engel was 28th after the 2013 Perth round, but had never driven the circuits or a V8 Supercar before.

Scott Pye in 19th has slightly improved - no matter how you look at it - given he was 25th in his Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport Commodore this time last year, and the #16 (driven by Tim Blanchard) was 23rd.

Even considering the three additional cars no longer on the grid - which were 10th (Webb), 18th (Dean Fiore) and 19th (Tony D'Alberto) he is still marginally better off.

However, as they still come to grips with their V8 Supercars, most replacement drivers have gone the other way.

Jack Perkins sits 21st while Alex Davison in the Jeld-Wen Falcon was 15th.

Dale Wood is 23rd in the third BJR car last year steered by David Wall, which was 21st in the standings.

And Robert Dahlgren - the Volvo S60 driver who has not competed in the category before - is 25th compared to Alex Premat in the Commodore, who was 16th. Funnily enough, given GRM has not announced its co-driver pairings, these two could be racing together in #34 at the enduros!

Oddballs

A couple just can't be compared, no matter how you look at it!

David Wall, in DJR #17 is 20th, compared to 27th, where the car was last year. It had been driven by Jonny Reid for the first few events, with Chaz Mostert replacing him in Perth and nabbing a top 10 finish at his first main game V8 Supercars meet.

Mostert is a formidable comparison, having taken a race win that first year - but at this stage of the season it's not a fair comparison for him or Wall.

But the most difficult to analyse is the James Rosenberg Racing REC.

Rosenberg shifted his licence from Erebus Motorsport, with Slade behind the wheel, to Walkinshaw Racing. A new team and different make practically deem it incomparable - then you add a rookie driver, who happened to win the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 on main game debut in Nick Percat - and the mind boggles!

What about J-Dub?

The big question is, where does all of this leave defending Champion Jamie Whincup, who will earn the 'greatest of all time' tag if he wins his sixth title?

Down three positions is a significant shift in what is a fairly stable top 10.

Last year had the highest number of different winners in V8 Supercars, 13 full-time drivers. At this stage there had only been seven, while 2014 has 10 already.

Whincup has never been this far behind the points leader when defending the title, his biggest gap a 179-point deficit in September 2010. He eventually lost that year to Courtney, the only chink in his armour for the past six years.

The HRT star is another one to watch, up four positions on last year to sit fifth, 58 behind Whincup.

So, which is the more important number - the 231 that separates Whincup from Winterbottom, or the 5-0 indicating how many titles each have converted?

'Frosty' ticked over to 4-1 in the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 tally last year, holding off Whincup - can he do it again, this time in the Championship race?

The only way to find out is to stay tuned to V8 Supercars - the explosive next event, the SKYCITY Triple Crown, runs in Darwin from June 20-22.