News Updates

Justin: A nod to my co-blogger for a fine review blog there. I bet Vettel wins International personality of the year later today on the BBC sports review of the year. I still dislike him intensely, then again many in the UK hate Alonso...brilliance polarises I guess! It's true though, Vettel was the fastest guy in the fastest car, but would he have won it, or come nearly as close as Alonso did, in a Ferrari or Mclaren? I doubt it.

Plenty of F1 news to digest as we come up to Christmas. Mark Webber was replaced at the Red Bull xmas party by a fat, unfunny comedian...apparently this was a fun joke.....If I was Webber back in Oz I wouldnt find it funny at all. Vettel was "guest of honour" and all staff members were given a massive bonus plus a huge party at a London hotel. James Corden came along dressed in Webbers overalls and helmet...for a bit of fun. Goes to show, they thought of Webber as number 2 all along. He needs to kick ass next year!

Alonso has gone on record as saying 2010 was his best ever, in a brilliant interview in Autosport recently. Though in their (Autosport) review of the year, for some reason they gave driver of the year to Lewis Hamilton, from Kubica and Alonso....erm, did I miss something?? And on the subject of Mclaren....anyone who thinks Lewis panned Button this year..forget it. Lewis was certainly stronger in the second half of the year after Button had the upper hand earlier on, but the stats don't lie. People moan about Button not making nearly as many overtakes as Lewis, but Button led 145 laps this year to Hamilton's 100. Ok, its just a stat, but it knocks away naysayers degrading Button. Button is serene and superb when leading, and clearly hasnt needed to overtake and recover as much as Lewis.

Will we have two Lotus teams on the grid in 2011? Lotus Group has bought a stake in what is left of Renault, to call themselves Lotus Renault and paint their car's in the famous black and gold livery of the old Lotus of Senna days. This was after "Team Lotus" announced its name change and livery to that of black and gold. Lotus Group has revoked Tony Fernande's rights to use the Lotus name I believe and it's now stuck in the courts. What would be hillarious is having two teams with exactly the same livery.

Lastly, Mark Webber announced via his season review book that he broke his shoulder with 4 races to go and didn't tell anyone apart from his personal physio and the F1 powers that be. He neglected to tell anyone in the Red Bull team. Sensible that. What a hard bastard too!