Had a bit of a reflect on the season just gone, which I really enjoyed. Such a contrast after that dire Bahrain beginning!
Here in 2010 we had a team with an almost dominant car and 2 race winning drivers. Should have been a Ferrari-like cakewalk. But through some bad management, bad driving (at times), bad decision-making and bad luck, it kept all the others in the hunt.
I mean I just saw a ‘Motorsport’ headline post the British Grand prix where Webber was demanding he be designated No. 1 and Vettel should support his title bid against…………..Hamilton!!
So in July it was all pretty clear how it should be and yet Vettel wins it at the last race from………..Alonso?
Overall then, despite having the fastest car, sometimes, the others all kept them honest and fate did the rest. Bridgestone played their part as well, providing compounds that were not always ‘optimal’ and rightly so. It kept the teams guessing and constantly developing meaning the result could always be in doubt. They’ll be missed next year but F1 has done wonders for their profile. I mean 10 years ago (is it already more?) they were not a global brand. Now look.
Pirelli are an established name already but what an imponderable they will be for next season. Initially conservative probably. Soft compounds wearing out too quick and hards just, well, too hard probably. Tough! Just get on with it.
As for the drivers. Well Vettel has the big kudos for sure. Alonso has only underscored his relentless ambition. Webber, ever the bridesmaid, now No.2 (in all but name), has the chance finally gone? He and Massa might be swapping hard luck stories next year.
Hamilton, did what he could, when he could but the car wasn’t just good enough all the time. I’m pleased for Jenson. His decision to go to McLaren thoroughly vindicated. Yeah, sure, Lewis had the edge here and there, but Button won races and was always in with a shout. Would he have had that at Mercedes this year? Definitely not!
What of Merc then? Mercedes, nee Brawn, paid for that championship year in ’09 this season. Understaffed from the Honda pull out in’09 there were no resources to do a decent job on the ’10 car. Funnily enough it seems to have suited Michael more since they stopped developing it after Monza! So has Schuey still got it? Does the fire still burn? I think so. Nico has done him up this year and he won’t have liked that. Oh no. But he has kept to the party line. Everything now depends on the roll out of the ’11 car in February. If when he drives it then and he can’t get it turned in like HE likes it, he could well walk away. Another season of squabbling for points in the pack and having Luizzi parking on your head won’t be his idea of fun.
But if they can turn it around then top 10 Q3 is pretty much already settled. It means that Renault and the others are fighting for the last 2 spots every 2 weeks or so. Might it all come down to KERS? Is that really coming back as well? If it does then Force India could be well placed. They, McLaren and Merc run the Merc system which was by far the best. Ferrari was well advanced, but Red Bull never ran one. So do they now get the unproven and unreliable Renault system? Already, there are wheel within wheels (literally). It’s why I love this sport.
Sir Frank is at it again as well. When money talks, Williams driver’s walk. How embarrassing for Williams. The deal is done for the Maldano cash and the Hulkenburg sticks the thing on pole by a second. So another driver slips through their fingers. After Abu Dhabi Frank criticizes Nico’s performance for only coming home 16th. Er, hello, Rubinho only brought his car home 12th. They both raced their hearts out. You can’t pass there. Ask Fernando.
So whither now Nico. No worries Willi Weber is his manager. He’ll be sorted. Lotus, or whatever they are would be a good bet, especially if they get the Renault motor. But if not. He knows the Cosworth and it was second better than anyone else in Brazil so it can’t be all bad.
And what of the new teams. It will be better. They have already found a mammoth amount of lap time since the start of the year. Of course, it now becomes incrementally harder to find but that won’t stop them. Now it’s all about tie ups. Virgin is tying up with the Russians, HRT were tying up with Toyota but that’s now over so they will tie up with someone else and Lotus are tying up with Renault but there is a clause in the deal that says they can’t be called Lotus because Renault are tying up with……………..Lotus!
You couldn’t make it up, but that is F1. I love this story. Tony Fernandes is a bright lad, and a West Ham fan, which make him at worst, like me, an honest fool. But it seems some sharp suit at Lotus is going to deprive him of the Lotus name, after he spent a season reviving it and Tony is going to have to swallow it if he wants the Renault engines. But I have an answer for him which I think will get him the last laugh and secure the moral high ground.
Some years ago a mate told me story he got from a soldier friend. Apparently when stationed in the Falklands the soldiers rather disparagingly referred to the local populace as ‘Bennies’. This was after a character from a long running British TV soap opera, called Benny, who was, shall we say, mentally challenged.
Top brass got alarmed and sent out an edict that use of this name for the locals was to desist immediately. So it was. Some time later though, senior offices became aware that the soldiers now referred to the local population as ‘stills’. Subsequent investigation discovered that the soldiers used the term because, in their eyes the locals were, ‘still’ Bennies.
Now I don’t know if any of that is true, but I like it and I would love to see Tony Fernandes’ Air Asia Cosworth powered STILL Formula 1 team take the grid next year. It would make Renault the butt of all the jokes.
Roll on Bahrain. It is 116 days apparently. I can’t wait, but it is such a daft sport there will still be loads to talk about over the winter.
No Hits, No Hype.......................Classic Rock Jan 2012
...and congratulations to him... well done... 
So much money spent on something that in relative terms is so unimportant. I fear that the premier class of bike racing, MotoGP is going the same way with only 16 bikes on the grid this year. 
