[Jameison]

" seem to remember that back in 1976 no one gave James Hunt a chance of beating Lauda for the championship."

True.
But I don't see it happening this year.
Alonso won 4 straight races between Barcelona and Montreal, and currently leads Schumacher by 19 points, with 8 races to go.
And Alonso has finished every single race this year, and scored 10 or 8 points in every race (first or second) apart from Indianapolis when he scored 4 points.

[Bender]

I grant you that the odds of taking the championship from Alonso is small, my only point is they are not zero, and sometimes a driver that is given no chance to win does.

But if i were a betting man I would bet the same way as you.