Two Races In - What Have We Learned?

We're officially into F1 2012. Having broken the skin with an exciting Australian Grand Prix, we pushed deeper into the veins of the season with last weekend's dramatic race in Malaysia. With a surreptitious and unrevealing testing period giving us little to go on, a lot has been revealed in the last two races. Here's what we have learned so far...


The McLarens have a headstart on the rest of the pack



There was a collective anxious sigh from the McLaren fanbase when the MP4-27 was unveiled and seemed very different to its competitors. The front noses of all the other cars included an aesthetically offensive crumpled feature, and there was fear that McLaren had missed a trick on this and were going to be left trailing in the first few races. Thankfully, this has clearly not been the case.


Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton have locked out the front row of the grid in two successive races, and though their races have been peppered with mistakes the two Brits seem to have the paciest cars on race day as well. Certainly in Australia the McLaren seemed to be in its element, with only a badly-timed safety car preventing the first 1-2 for Hamilton and Button since Canada 2010. The car looked to be perhaps more of a struggler in the difficult conditions of Malaysia, but any troubles were heavily exacerbated by collisions, bad pit-stops and tyre issues.

McLaren, without a doubt, have the advantage in terms of the package they have brought to this season. It's a shame they haven't capitalised upon this quite as much as they could have done, but if they can maintain their dominance on the field for the majority of this season it will be a very fruitful year for the Woking-based team. Given the natural determination of Ferrari and Red Bull though, it's hard not to imagine that this gap will close quickly.

Ferrari know how to make the best of a bad car


From the moment teams arrived in Melbourne for the opening Grand Prix, it was clear something was very wrong at Ferrari. Engineers and drivers were openly talking about the damage limitation approach they needed to take as the car wasn't fit to win races. There was an unnerving air of pessimism all over Scuderia, and it became apparent that this was founded in reality as their two cars were knocked out of Qualifying in Q2, with barely a whimper.

However, a driver with the calibre of Fernando Alonso refuses to let pesky machinery get in his way. A solid and complete performance from the Spaniard saw him shimmy his way into a respectable fifth place, picking up 10 vital points. More was to come the following weekend with Fernando Alonso holding firm in the changeable conditions. Combined with some excellent pitwork from the Ferrari mechanics and a bit of luck regarding Perez's late off, Alonso was able to send the Tifosi into raptures with a truly unexpected race victory. Damage limitation? Perhaps damage denial would be more befitting.

The downside for Ferrari is that Felipe Massa has been poor. Finishes in 15th a 16th could either show that Massa isn't skilful enough to make the car work, or that he truly has lost the motivation to drive for Ferrari. In either case, his prospects for staying in the team beyond 2012 look dim.

Red Bull won't dominate


Given Vettel's outright monopolization of the 2011 Grand Prix calender, arguably one of the worst things that could have happened this year is a repeat of last season's form for Red Bull. The term "Schumacher years" reverberated eerily amongst discussion of racing fans as Vettel geared up to his campaign for a third consecutive title.


However, the Red Bull car has not only lost it's massive lead on the rest of the pack, it has positively fallen behind. Both Mercedes and Lotus have managed to get cars in front of Red Bulls during qualifying, as well as the aforementioned front-row lockouts from the McLarens. In the race as well, we have seen that the Red Bull is nothing spectacular, and although Sebastian Vettel enjoyed a podium in Australia, it appears that Adrian Newey and Christian Horner have some work to do.

Given that Red Bull probably has the best development team in the sport, it is unlikely that Red Bull will struggle to win races throughout the season. That said, it is hard to see them finding a way to establish the command they had on the track in 2011, and that should be of massive benefit to the sport.

The Saubers look tasty... as does a lot of the midfield


I was absolutely gutted for Sergio Perez on Sunday. I genuinely felt like he was about to pull off a famous move on Alonso that would give him an absolutely amazing victory, but a mistake manufactured by the spoiling hands of pressure destroyed the potential triumph.


It is still remarkable that we almost saw a Sauber take victory though. From untroubling midfield grid-fillers, the team have clearly had an excellent Winter with all the progression necessary to give them a hatful of points this season. Perez was quicker than Alonso throughout the last half of the Malaysian Grand Prix, with a mis-timed pit-stop and a mistake meaning he managed to catch back up with Fernando twice. That aside, both Perez and Kobayashi scored decent points in the Australian Grand Prix. Sauber is definitely a team to watch this season.

In fact, the rest of the midfield looks pretty good this year, and the result of it is some very close racing. Force India, Mercedes, Toro Rosso, Lotus and Williams have all scored points in those first two races, meaning that only those three perennial backmarkers remain stuck on their marks (although I'm fairly sure - and I might have been dreaming here - that a HRT was in 10th at one stage). Everyone is perusing the points closely, and it means we are in for some really intriguing battles across the track.

This is all bloody exciting, isn't it?


One theme running through all of this the potential for great racing. I truly think we're in for one of the best F1 seasons in living memory. The action on the track has been very enjoyable so far, and though it's very early to comment upon the title race, there are early signs that this could be a close one.


Last season I though the racing was fantastic. The controversial new elements of KERS and DRS did, if nothing else, spice the game up a bit and it made for some absolutely tremendous Grands Prix. However, 2011 was ruined by a yawn-inducing Championship fight between Sebastian Vettel and Sebastian Vettel. Before that we had what was arguably the opposite - a spectacular title-battle between five drivers that came down to the final race. Despite this, the racing in 2010 was appalling, with overtaking a rare and treasured animal. But in 2012, I'm starting to think that we could get the best of both worlds.

Maybe I'm just an eternal optimist, but I can truly see this year being special. The pack is closer than ever, the amount of rivalries developing is phenomenal, and we've had two very entertaining races already. If there's one thing that we have learned so far, it is that all our excitement and hype in the build-up to F1 2012 is well and truly justifiable.

F1 2012 – What will definitely without a doubt most certainly happen - Part 1

So the F1 season is just a few days away. This is the end of that dry spell we F1 fans have to endure; to suffer. It’s like that Proclaimers song. They walked 500 miles – well, this is our 500 miles. It’s what we go through to make what we love so much more exciting.

Anyway, to fill the gap a little bit I’ve done a prediction about what’s going to happen during the Formula One season. I’ve worked with scientists, philosophers, physicists, engineers and Paul Ross, and we’ve come up with a practically impenetrable solution as to what will occur during the 2012 F1 season. It starts in Australia...

Australia

Before the start of the weekend, Bernie Ecclestone announces that the race has been moved forward three hours to ‘boost European audiences’. As the teams arrive in the glistening Ozzie sun, panic ensues when it appears that Kimi Raikkonen has gone missing. Qualifying begins. Lewis Hamilton seems to have set an absolute blinder and is romping towards pole until Sebastian Vettel manages to pull out an extra second on the flabbergasted Brit.

Raikkonen re-appears just hours before the race is to begin on Sunday. “I was having a shit”, he explains. The race starts and Vettel clears away into the lead, much to the groans of literally everyone. Kamui Kobayashi banzais his way from 15^th to 4^th in just five laps before slamming into the back of Lewis Hamilton. Lewis later receives a penalty for dangerous driving. Meanwhile, Massa is brought in early for his stop to keep Alonso on-strategy. The Brazilian does not complain. Alonso, however, does because he could see Massa in his mirrors at one point and it “put him off”.

After half an hour, the light level is too low and the race is red-flagged. The grid stays populated for two hours as Bernie insists he is “hopeful of a restart”. It is only after he is informed that the sun has gone down and light won’t resume, that a result is declared. Vettel wins the race with Button and Rosberg alongside him on the podium. Vettel celebrates his victory by singing the Nokia Theme Tune on the podium.

Malaysia

Rumours begin to surface of a disagreement between Vettel and Webber. Both attend a press-conference insisting their relationship is fine, whilst holding cold stares against each other. Meanwhile, live television audiences watch on in horror as Eddie Jordan protests against his wardrobe budget cuts by wearing nothing at all during the race weekend. Jake Humphrey and David Coulthard remain undeterred (they’d seen it all before).

Vettel storms to pole, with the commentators calling his lap “The most incredible, unexpected thing ever”. The next day, the race is delayed by five minutes as the cars are left waiting for the starting lights. “I was having a shit”, Charlie Whiting later explained. The Hispania team, who announced a new package of upgrades to the car the previous weekend, watch on as their drivers are lapped 30 times within the first hour. 

Meanwhile at the front, Webber pulls off an extraordinary move to overtake Sebastian Vettel for the lead. However, Red Bull radio Webber to inform him that his driving was ‘dangerous’ and he ‘ought to give the position back’. He begrudgingly complies, and David Coulthard comments that it was a ‘sensible team order’. During the pit-stops, Lewis Hamilton gets on his limiter too late, and is 1mph over the speed limit upon pit-lane entry. He is consequently black-flagged. 

Vettel storms home to another victory. He claims that this was ‘his greatest victory ever’. Webber refuses to comment.

China

Before the race, Ross Brawn of Mercedes announces that the team have begun planning for next year, and this season is irrelevant. Regardless, Michael Schumacher still claims he is the best driver in the world ever and will be Champion this season. He qualifies in 16^th. Hamilton and Button appear to be dominating qualifying with superb times in Q1 and Q2. However, Sebastian Vettel pulls off another last-minute winner. “That is quite literally the best lap I’ve ever seen” shouts Martin Brundle, to a seething penniless Sky audience.

Problems persist at Williams as Mike Coughlan announces that he is retiring with immediate effect. The team reacts by saying that they will continue without anyone in the role of technical director. Meanwhile, McLaren rage as it is announced Jean Todt will be the guest steward for the race. He insists he will be fair before awarding Lewis Hamilton a five-place grid penalty for ‘unreasonably extravagant attire’.

The race is red-flagged after five laps as Kamui Kobayashi begins driving the wrong way down the track. He is radioed several times with angry bosses informing him he needs to pull over, but Kobayashi refuses, shouting “I got this one in the bag”. He eventually runs out of petrol and marshalls remove him from the track. The race restarts after a lengthy delay and Massa, who qualified just ahead of Alonso, if informed by guest steward Jean Todt that he has to give the position back to Alonso for a dangerous overtake. Massa accepts this with a smile.

Vettel cruises home three minutes ahead of the rest of the pack, to secure his third win of the season.

Bahrain

The teams all agree to a last minute boycott of the race. However, Bernie Ecclestone continues to insist that the race ‘will go ahead’. Come race day, TV audiences watch in their millions as Bernie Ecclestone, alone, runs around the track 50 times. Breathlessly, he explains “It was important that the race went ahead in some form”. Ecclestone awards himself 25 championship points.

Spain

An excited Pedro de la Rosa announces that the HRTs have installed a new package that will make the cars more competitive in time for his home race. A new, slimmer design does indeed improve the performance of the troubled team, but a lap into their qualifying campaign, the cars fall to bits on the track. “We thought taking the nuts and bolts out would be an aerodynamic advantage”, explains Luis Pérez-Sala.

In order to save on tyres, nine out of the ten drivers through to Q3 don’t set a final lap time. Only Vettel does, with commentators calling it a ‘spectacular moment’. Before the race, rumours begin to stir that the Pirelli tyres will only last five laps a set. This turns out to be accurate, leading to an exciting race of innumerable pit-stops. Despite this, Sergio Perez somehow runs his Sauber to the end of the race on just two sets of tyres.

Vettel has a collision with Button in the 33^rd lap, which results in Button spinning into the gravel and retiring from the race. “That bloody kid”, shouts Button who is sporting a streamlined goatee. Stewards are misinformed about the incident and, in a bout of confusion, penalise Lewis Hamilton.

Vettel battles past the fearless Perez to win another race. “I am amazing”, he cries before making Angry Birds noises.

Monaco

Monaco is, without doubt, the most glamorous venue for an F1 race. Because of this, the organisers agree to ban Eddie Jordan from the Grand Prix, citing “millions of pounds worth of damages to our image” as the reason.

Come the day of qualifying it appears that Daniel Ricciardo hasn’t slept following the F1 party on Friday evening, as he sits quietly in his car gently sipping Fosters. As there is a clause in the F1 Regulations that allows Australians to drink alcohol before and during races, Ricciardo is not stopped from going out onto the track. He sets an enormously quick time and places himself 7^th on the grid.

Sebastian Vettel secures pole position again, with Martin Brundle literally falling out of his seat in astonishment. The race begins and Michael Schumacher is overtaken by the two Caterhams and a Marussia in the first four laps. “I’ve still got it”, he later affirms. Meanwhile, Felipe Massa is driving a terrific race in 2nd and keeping Vettel under much pressure. However, on the last lap Ferrari inform him that he must move over in order to aid 4^th placed Fernando Alonso. He attempts to do so in Rascasse, and the difficult turn means he is hit in the back by Alonso. Massa is consequently fined his entire years wages for the incident. Vettel wins the race, and every broadcaster at the GP is thrown into the Red Bull swimming pool, including a furious David Coulthard who batters Christian Horner in anger. Adrian Newey later admits he perhaps should have spared Sir Frank Williams from such treatment.

Canada

Excitement builds when it is surprisingly revealed that Robert Kubica will be returning to F1 in this race with the Toro Rosso team. However, during Friday practice, Kubica taps the pit wall at 25mph whilst exiting the pitlane. He breaks thirty bones in his hands and arms, and is out for another year. “I’m confident I will return”, his computerized voicebox says. Meanwhile, there are further problems at Williams as the entire developmental team announces that it is retiring. Williams reveal that they will continue without replacing them.

On Saturday, the qualifying session goes ahead without Kimi Raikkonen who has gone missing again. He is later found crying in a rally car, yelling “I want to go back, I want to go back”. He misses the rest of the weekend. Fernando Alonso finally breaks Sebastian Vettel’s dominance of qualifying, as the stewards conveniently ignore him cutting the final chicane completely.

Vettel has a poor start to the race and Lewis Hamilton overtakes him into the first corner. Mark Webber then tries to come up the inside of his team-mate, but Vettel veers over to knock him off the track and out of the race. A furious Webber waits in his car until the pack comes around again, and in a fit of rage, hurls his boots at Sebastian Vettel. Instead, he accidentally hits Fernando Alonso, knocking him unconscious and handing the lead over to Lewis Hamilton. After the mess is cleared up by the safety car, Hamilton is penalised by the stewards for “straying a bit too close to the safety car”, and Vettel goes on to win the race. Webber later denies a rift between him and Vettel, stating “It’s just the sort of thing that happens when you’re on the track”.

Valencia

Absolutely nothing happens. Vettel wins.

Britain

On the Friday of the race weekend, Bernie Ecclestone reveals plans to boost the yearly F1 campaign up to 40 races. “Teams will cope”, he confidently states. He also announces in an interview with Martin Brundle that during the 2013 season, only race wins will be taken into consideration for the Championship standings. “But if you did that this season” Brundle responds, “Vettel would pretty much already be champion”. Ecclestone curtly retorts “Yes, but I would be second”.

The British crowd boo as Vettel once again storms to pole. The F1 world is beginning to get weary of his dominance, with Michael Schumacher commenting “There’s nothing worse in F1 than a German winning every race” before looking puzzled. Come race day, a surprise publicity stunt takes place ahead of the Olympics. Usain Bolt is given permission to take part in the race on foot. He is naturally left well behind most of the field at the beginning of the race, but he fights a real battle with the HRTs. This ends in disaster however, when Narain Karthikeyan accidentally runs into Usain Bolt whilst the Jamaican is overtaking him. Bolt 's injuries keep him out of the Olympics.

Further ahead, Paul Di Resta is knocked off the track by Kamui Kobayashi. This leads David Coulthard into an explosion of four-lettered rage, meaning Eddie Jordan and Jake Humphrey have to storm the commentary box and wrestle him away. He is suspended from broadcasting indefinitely.

Jenson Button, who started at the back of the field due to an engine failure in qualifying, wrestles his way to 2^nd, just behind Sebastian Vettel. He tries desperately to overtake the German, and he finally does just three laps before the end. The crowd goes wild. However, another engine blowout leaves him a few yards short of the finish line. “Get out and push Jenson”, shouts James Allen on 5Live. He does, and ends up with severe second-degree burns that leave him out of racing for a few weeks. Vettel wins.

Germany

Before the race weekend, Mercedes declare that Michael Schumacher has signed a new six-year contract with the team that will keep him racing into his 50s. They also reveal that they will be replacing Nico Rosberg (who has finished 6^th in every race so far) with Ralf Schumacher. Ross Brawn denies that Michael Schumacher is a major influence on his every decision, before painting the car completely red by hand.

Vettel once again hoards pole position and, expecting cheers from his adoring German fans, instead gets a healthy dose of nonchalance. Lewis Hamilton is banned from taking part in the race after the FIA adjudge that he ‘is not getting into the spirit of the race with that attitude’. Hamilton earlier commented that he preferred the British Grand Prix.

Vettel leads away to the sound of moans. Alonso and Massa have an extraordinary battle that lasts for around 25 laps. They continuously change position in a fight to win 2^nd place. Radio transmission suggests that Massa has begun ignoring team orders, and TV audiences are shocked when he responds “Get off, I’m not your dog”. During his mandatory pit-stop, the Ferrari mechanics “Forget” how to put tyres on, and this drops him down in 20^th. Vettel is unchallenged as he wins his 9^th race of the season. “Fruit Ninja!” he simply cries.

Part 2 never happened, unfortunately...

F1 2011: A Lovely Review

Aka: F1 2011: Why? God? Why?

This year was always going to be different. Despite the usual suspects lining up in the best cars, the goalposts had jumped to a different world. DRS and KERS, Pirelli tyres, new rules, a new Grand Prix and the promises for a great gamut of overtakes. Was it any better than 2010? Well, that’s very debatable. It certainly had its own story, but if you were forced by some oddly-specific maniac to sum it up in one word it’d have to be ‘Vettel’.

That’s really what it’s been about. Sebastian Vettel has dominated to the point of boring the F1 world with his unopposed brilliance. Landing on pole a record-breaking 15 times, and stepping on the top of the podium on 11 occasions, there was never any doubt that Vettel was going to run far away with the title. It wasn’t an exciting championship win – Vettel made a habit of pulling out ridiculous leads into the first lap of races, earning him an untouchable position before the Grand Prix had really begun.

While an exhibition of a driver’s excellence, this sort of victory is something that a viewer will struggle to enjoy. There was little in the way of overtaking or battling this year for Vettel (albeit he did pull off a couple of wonderful moves during the year – namely in Italy), so the ‘Championship fight’ was more of a marathon round the world Sunday Drive for the young German.

You can’t blame Vettel though. Clearly he had a car that was burning the eyes of other drivers through sheer jealousy, and Sebastian just knew how to use it. His teammate Mark Webber had the same machinery available to him, and in contrast had a whisper of a year. Somewhat consistently, he carved out 10 podium finishes during the year, including his race win at the season finale in Brazil, which helped him to third place in the Championship. However, when you look at what Vettel achieved over the year, Mark has to be seen as having underperformed. On the few occasions that Vettel faultered, Mark was rarely there to compensate and convert the fortune into victory.

It’s possible that Webber is still ruing the way in which his title hopes faded in 2010, angrily stomping around in his home and shouting at pictures of Vettel. Perhaps it’s affected his form significantly for this year. I mean, that’s speculation, but I’m going to run with it because it goes well with my next point. It’s thereby difficult to decipher how well other drivers have performed comparatively, as their cars were likely not up to the challenge this season.

However, we can say that Jenson Button has had a very good year, because I’m a fanbo… I mean, he’s put in some terrific drives over the season and looked much sharper and more consistent than McLaren buddy Lewis Hamilton. Button’s performance at Canada seeped enough class to last a season. It was utterly breathtaking.

After Jenson’s title win in 2009, many believed he’d had his moment in the sun and burnt himself out henceforth, but I think his fictional ‘Best of the Rest’ award has shown that with the right car, Jenson can be a challenger in the seasons ahead. He’s by no means the paciest driver on the grid, but he has a real intelligence and anticipation that gives him a cooler head than the feisty young boy racers of this generation. He’s been compared to Alain Prost, and I can see why (despite the fact I was barely alive when Alain Prost was racing).

What of Lewis though? He’s been hanging around the paddock with the face of a child who’s been told Father Christmas isn’t real. Such is the depression of Hamilton that he ended up taking it out on poor Felipe Massa, bumping him all over the track and just being a general bully. OK, that’s an over-dramatisation. I think the Hamilton-Massa saga (one of the most interesting subplots of the season) was partly down to the misfortune of them coincidentally ending up on the same bit of track. No-one can deny the over-aggression between the two though, and their seeming magnetism has been somewhat of a problem.

They apparently had a hug and patched things up yesterday. Well, good for them. Lewis really needs to clear his head of the demons that have persistently pecked at him over the year, and a fresh start with Massa is a good signal. He will hopefully be back to form over 2012 (and by that I mean going past people as opposed to going into them).

For Massa though, his days are numbered I feel. As much as I like to credit him as an excellent driver, he too seems to have suffered from missing out on a title. Since 2008, the old Felipe that had a vibrant streak capable of pushing him to the front of the pack has completely vanished. Instead, the Brazilian failed to finish in any position above fifth throughout the season. That’s undeniably shoddy, especially considering that Alonso conjured up numerous podiums and a race victory.

Ahh, Fernando. As much as he is the man I love to hate, I must admit I miss seeing him and his hairy eyebrows in a title fight. Clearly an unbelievably strong driver, Alonso has had another season in the relative abyss. It should be a dream for him to be at Ferrari. It seems the two were a match made in heaven, but the Scuderia has let the Spaniard down, and he will be getting slightly itchy feet again should the team fail to deliver once more.

I think that covers the top 6. There have been so many stories this year though. Mercedes has continued to be the best of the chasing pack, with Schumacher beginning to get into his stride a little more. Seven-time champion Schumi still fell behind his teammate Rosberg, but not without showing us the odd spark of class. His fight with Hamilton during the Italian Grand Prix just showed how much spirit the old dog still has, and it will be fascinating to see if he can continue to improve in his third comeback season, and indeed, if that season will be his last (again).

The disaster continued for Williams, which has been one of the most tragic sights in F1 (only topped by Eddie Jordan’s dress sense). Their results have been simply terrible. They amassed a pathetic 5 points over the year, and didn’t look up to task at all. For Rubens Barrichello, the team’s tumultuous year will probably see him forced into retirement. For Pastor Maldonado it’s… awkward. He replaced Nico Hulkenberg as a much maligned ‘pay-driver’. He had a super act to follow, with Hulkenberg looking solid in 2010 and delivering a hugely unexpected pole position at Brazil. However, the Venezuelan was poor, and did nothing to please those who doubt the fairness of the involvement of pay-drivers.

It was the debut season for a Brit (the first time since Lewis Hamilton’s maiden year in 2007). Paul di Resta may not have set the world alight in the same way Hamilton did, but he performed very capably with the Force India and was a strong number two for Adrian Sutil. His form dipped after a quality start to 2011, but Di Resta proved himself to be someone with, at least, a mellow future in F1. As for Sutil, it seems quite likely that he will be replaced for 2012. I don’t understand this, as Sutil has appeared to have taken Force India quite far in his six years at the team (two when they were Spyker). If Sutil is shafted, I can see him being an excellent replacement for any team in need of a driver.

It was a bad year for Robert Kubica. Injured weeks before the season started, the rehabilitation of his hand movements have taken longer than expected, and it seems that Renault are beginning to consider a future without Bobby. It would be an enormous shame if Kubica’s career is over. He’s easily one of the most talented drivers to have emerged over the past few years, and I had him down as a dead cert for a championship. In fact, more than that. A completely destroyed, mutilated cert. However, it may never be.

Other than that, they were all either new rubbish teams, or a bit boring, so I’m not going to go on about individual stories. What of the other big topics of the year? DRS for example has split the Formula One opinion base right down the middle (with little cracks to either side for when it made a good race or not). It has no doubt increased overtaking, but in an artificial way. Dull races have been somewhat livened up by the new system, but perhaps at a greater cost for F1. If a car is within the one second mark of the driver ahead for the whole race, he is going to get a massive advantage over the car behind him. It’s a small, yet significant, imbalance.

I’d be more inclined towards a ‘push-to-pass’ system. Everyone has a set amount of times they can use the DRS, and it’s not based on any relation to other cars. That way, the benefits of DRS can be utilised without incurring the potential unfairness of the system. KERS is fine, it does the job without causing much fuss and it seems to work as a constant defence mechanism without being too effective.

The tyres have been another big feature of the season. Pirelli promised that their tyres would degrade very quickly, and would make racing more exciting. Despite this, teams seem to have coped quite well with the Pirellis. The ‘cliff’ has not been quite as immediate as the company suggested, and at worst the teams have had to do a four-stop strategy. However, I think the tyres have made for interesting racing, and Pirelli have done a good job. I do wonder what direction they’ll go in next year – hopefully they’ll go for more aggression and degradation.

One more thing to comment on – the Indian Grand Prix. Contrary to most Tilke circuits, this one looked very exciting, and had the potential to throw up a classic. In the end, it was a bit of a letdown, with Vettel leading every single lap. However, I like the circuit and there seemed to be interest from the Indian F1 supporters. I think it will become a good mainstay for Grand Prix racing over the coming years, and hopefully Karun Chandhok won’t be cruelly snatched of his chance to race in his country.

That just about wraps things up. I’m going to end the year with my seasonal awards (which I literally made up as I wrote the preceding sentence).

DRIVER OF THE YEAR

Well, that’s too easy. SEBASTIAN VETTEL is a worthy champion, and a worthy winner of this award.

RACE OF THE YEAR

Canada was an absolute classic, that will be talked about for many seasons to come. Surely one of Button’s finest performances, coming from the very back of the pack to win the race in the last lap. Extraordinary. Jenson also wins DRIVE OF THE YEAR for that.

SURPRISE PACKAGE OF THE YEAR (TEAM)

Very tricky, because no team outside the big three stood out. SAUBER had some good races though, so I’ll (hesitantly) pick them.

SURPRISE PACKAGE OF THE YEAR (DRIVER)

PAUL DI RESTA was not expected to seem as comfortable as he did in his opening Grand Prix season. Di Resta also gets my ROOKIE OF THE YEAR award.

DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE YEAR (TEAM)

No doubt. WILLIAMS.

DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE YEAR (DRIVER)

I don’t want to continue the Williams hate. I would say Pastor Maldonado, but instead I’ll plum for FELIPE MASSA.

NUMPTY OF THE YEAR

Ok, I will give this one to PASTOR MALDONADO for his utterly stupid move on Lewis Hamilton during the Belgian Grand Prix qualifying.

BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR

MARTIN BRUNDLE has moved into the main commentary position seamlessly, with all the professionalism, clarity and sharp analysis you could hope for.

And finally… THE JB AWARD FOR DODGING THE LIMELIGHT

JAIME ALGUERSUARI. Doing enough to impress, but not enough to capture our attentions. Nice one Jaime.

Strife in the Fast Lane

The word ‘tumultuous’ was invented for people like Lewis Hamilton. He’s the sort of sportsman who cannot go through a season in his career without a heap of controversy and incident being levelled upon his shoulders, but despite this he is still considered one of the best Formula One drivers on the grid. How does such a star lend himself to such inconsistency, you might ask (if you were talking to him)?

There’s been much written about Lewis’ recent chequered form. A lot of people say it’s a problem with his attitude, some say he lacks support, some say he’s just not that good a driver. Whatever the reasons for his lack of consistency, I think the truth is his dip has been marginal, at worst. This year was never going to be his year with the fantastically quick Red Bulls tearing up the field, but Lewis has consolidated a decent 168 points thus far, with a solitary win in China to his name.

As people point out though, he’s been outclassed this season by his team-mate Jenson Button, a perhaps less fancied driver amongst the Formula One ranks up until this season. I don’t think this would be a fair reflection on Button though, as in my opinion he’s a driver that just defines quality in each department. He’s pacy, a fighter, a tactician. To be behind Button is no disgrace at all.

Besides, Jenson has much more experience than Hamilton. His many years in fairly average cars such as the BAR and the Renault were a steep learning curve for Button, but going through such a school of hard knocks has clearly worked wonders for him. When his chance came in a competitive car, he was far readier than his team-mate at the time Rubens Barrichello, who had spent quite a few years playing the safe understudy role to Michael Schumacher. Still, this perhaps doesn’t explain why Hamilton has fallen behind his team-mate.

Whatever the reason, it’s clear that Lewis is currently going through a school of much harder knocks. It’s true that he’s never had to participate in a useless car for more than a few races at a time, but he’s always been in a fight for something, no matter what season it was, and he’s always been making mistakes along the way. It’s easy to forget though, that Hamilton’s career is still in relative infancy, and these mistakes will continue for a few years yet.

But that will come to be his advantage in the near future. If we look at Sebastian Vettel at the moment, he is enjoying the benefits of an absolutely amazing car. There’s nothing wrong with that particularly, but it’s quite incredible that practically no misfortune has befallen Vettel throughout the whole season.

You could say that’s great; that he isn’t making mistakes and he’s matured from his more petulant 2010, but I feel that he’s missing the sort of fight that characterizes Hamilton and Button. It’s rare that he isn’t leading races into the first corner, it’s rare that he gets overtaken and it’s rare that he has to deal with any problems during the race. The Red Bull won’t always be the best car on the field, rather like the McLaren wasn’t in 2008. But whereas Hamilton created the opportunity for the title that year, I have my doubts that Vettel will be able to do the same in the future.

So what about these many incidents that Hamilton’s been having? Why is his style reminiscent of bumper-karts at the moment? I think that this is just the nature of the beast. Hamilton’s style is to absolutely hammer every chance to overtake, and when he gets this right it’s completely spectacular. Nothing compares to it in modern day F1. However, when he’s off-form, this sort of style will take the unfortunate appearance of Hamilton just getting one thing wrong and thumping someone off the road.

That’s why I say Lewis’ dip in form is marginal – He’s only making the odd mistake when you consider how often he gets himself into a scrap on track. Just look at Monza. He spent 27 laps trying every trick in the book to get past Schumacher, and only our old German friend’s brilliant defending snuffed the opportunities out. If Hamilton had really lost his head, he would have ended up going into the back of Schumi’s Mercedes at some point.

So although it’s difficult to know why Hamilton is struggling at the moment, I think there’s no need to fear for him. He’s had a difficult year but he’ll have learned a lot. There was never really an inkling of hope that he’d win the title thanks to Christian Horner and Adrian Newey being Gods amongst men, but next year he’ll be more prepared than ever.