To sum up...2010 was a better F1 season than 2013!!!!!

Justin:

I decided to watch my 2010 F1 Review DVD this weekend. Thought, given how boring the second half of this year has been, I'd like to watch some vintage F1. OK, recent vintage, but vintage none the less.

2010 was the year when Webber made his....Mark....gettit, by winning in Monaco and at Silverstone, amongst a couple of others. We had teammates fighting all over the shop with Jenson unsettling Lewis by winning two of the first four races for his new team. We had Webber and Vettel literally driving each other off the road as well as swapping front wings etc. Ferrari binned the "no team orders" rule by cunningly disguising their order to Massa to make way for Alonso. Good one...Rob Smedley didn't beat around the bush there!

5 guys going for the world title - you could probably take that down to four after the brilliant GP at Spa which saw "The Crash Kid" Vettel lose control of his car and nerf Button out (of the race and title contention).

4 guys going into the last race with a mathmatical chance of the title. A truly great season.

Back to 2013.

Will I even bother watching the next race? The only reason I watched the last one was a Webber pole and the hope he may produce a last victory before retirement.

I recently put to my co-blogger that a leading candidate for driver of the year has to be Romain Grosjean.

OK, there are others who are deserving of such a brilliant award given by me.

Sutil, who has made DiResta look stupid at various times through 2013, especially the first race in Australia when after a year out, he was amongst the leading cars for a good while.

Rosberg - you would easily say he has more than held his own against Hamilton. There was a big hoohaa about JB going to Mclaren to join Lewis. OK, qualifying forget about it, but over the course of three years in terms of wins and points JB and Lewis were more or less equal. Rosberg looks just as fast as Lewis frankly, over one lap and the race, where Lewis has a lot more problems looking after his tyres. Rosberg has been best of the rest (outside the Red Bulls) for the last couple of races now.

Hulkenberg. Has driven some stonking races this year, often keeping much quicker cars behind him for long periods. A great racer and future champion surely.

Alonso? Look at the drivers championship. He is still second. The Ferrari, you could say is probably the 4th outright quickest car after Red Bull, Mercedes and Lotus.

I'm naming Grosjean as my driver of the year though. From the worst season in anyones career for a long time in 2012, crashing into anybody and everybody on more than a few occasions, to being a consistent podium finisher from race to race now - that's a terrific turnaround and fair play to him for sorting himself out.

He has clearly become the lead driver for Lotus, and with Kimi leaving they are treating him as such - encouraging him to go get Kimi when he was just in front in a race.

Some may say that Grosjean's rise has coincided with Kimi signing for Ferrari and perhaps taking his foot off the gas, not being paid etc etc. Perhaps. But Grosjean has shown a real maturity in his driving this year, particularly the second half where he has become a serial podium offender and with the right car again, with Hulkenberg is a future world champion surely.

Team leader at Lotus next year is Grosjean. I am excited to see how he copes and how he does.

Roll on 2014 F1. This second half of the year has been dull!!!!!!!!!!! If we all know who will win before it starts, why watch? I am asking myself more and more at the moment.

Kimi - A one stop strategy before the race ;-)

Justin:

Starting from where we left off in 2012 seems to be the main theme for Round 1 in Australia.

The three men on the podium were the top three in the title race last year and I would possibly put Kimi alongside Seb and Fernando in terms of real title contenders for 2013.

Of course, it's just one race and it's a quite particular street circuit in Albert Park. Malaysia has a lot of rather different characteristics as a track with fast, sweeping corners which may mean we'll see other cars coming to the front.

By way of a two stop strategy, and a one stop strategy before the race.... Kimi beat Fernando by over ten seconds in the end, with Vettel a further ten seconds down the road in third.

There was some great racing, nail biting stuff in the early stages with Vettel being hustled by the two very quick Ferrari's.

Mclaren are absolutely nowhere and Lewis must be loving his move to Mercedes, where he finished a solid if unspectacular fifth.

Sergio Perez's debut in his new team was frankly not good enough. Ok, its a difficult car, with JB struggling to ninth. But as we all know in F1 you must beat your team-mate first and foremost. I almost forgot Perez was in the race at all to be perfectly honest.

Mark Webber had a rubbish start yet again, from second on the grid. We learned later that he had an electronics fault AND no kers...does this guy get any good luck at all, ever?! Great recovery drive to sixth.

Adrian Sutil should get a mention - he led the race after a year out and didnt look out of place amongst the front runners at all. He faded due to differing strategies, but still finished a well earned seventh.

Good to see Massa is still keeping Alonso very honest, as he did in the last handful of races last year.

Alonso said the pace of the Lotus was a worry. Keeping things in perspective though, Ferrari have turned up with a very fast car. This time last year theirs was an absolute dog.

It seems Mclaren has brought the ugly duckling along this year.

Pecking order looks like Ferrari and Red Bull (RB may have better one lap pace but they seem to ruin their tyres in the race), Lotus then a small gap to Mercedes. Mclaren have fallen back and need to sort themselves out quickly.

To Malaysia in one week!

This isn't the Kimi we know - he usually drinks all the booze :-)

Valencia??....boring race??

Justin:

Lets start with this f1 funny! 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81QPQE0qJQc 
My esteemed colleague and I just had an hour long chat on the phone about Valencia, the F1 season to date, our live event coming up, countdown to Belgium and many other things in between.

The European GP served up a dramatic, overtaking ladden race from start to finish. It just goes to show that F1 really is IF spelt backwards!

IF Seb hadnt have broken down, nobody would have caught him as I'd imagine he would have scampered off into the distance again after the safety car, such was the speed he was showing in quali and throughout the race. Let's not forget he was four tenths quicker than second placed Lewis on the grid. Amazing when you think that at one point at the end of Q2 the red car of Alonso was 11th and just two tenths off pole!

Poor Roman Grosjean suffered a similar fate to Seb a few laps after being taken with force by Fernando Alonso. Lets face it, it wont take me long to get onto just what a stonking drive his was.

After qualifying he said he'd be aiming for fifth or sixth and would probably lose out heavily to Hamilton and Vettel in the title race. A few balls out overtakes later coupled with yet another Mclaren pit fuck up (compare this to Ferrari doing the quickest stops constantly throughout the year) and Vettel retiring, then you have an emotional home win for the guy that never ever gives up. He is always there, lurking in the podium spots ready to pounce. Consistently fast and one of the all time greats. End of.

What a fantasic scene it was when he parked up in front of the grandstands and soaked up the atmosphere with the marshalls and his adoring public.

He was on the podium with two former Ferrari champions in Kimi and Michael. Well done Schumi!

Fair play to Mark, from 19th to 4th - beautiful drive there mate!

Maldonado took out Lewis with a lap to go - oooppps. I still don't think Lewis was totally blameless really as, ok, you say Pastor was coming off the track back into Lewis, but did Lewis not ease him off the track in the first place?

Still, the title race is, to me anyway, looking like the top four of Alonso, Webber, Hamilton and Vettel to duke it out for the rest of the year now. Next in fifth is Rosberg and I don't see him picking up big points anytime soon.

Poor old JB - just what is going on with him? Perhaps the Mclaren is rather difficult to drive all of a sudden and Lewis can just drive around these issues?

Elsewhere, "I Was Having a Blog" has yet another of our popular live events coming up in Stonehouse for the British GP weekend - which I personally cannot wait for!

Just three GP's...Britain, Germany and Hungary...then....we're off to Spa baby....SPA!!!!!!!!!!

Our Nige was voted number 13 in the BBC all time greatest driver list....just who is next? More importantly, who is next in our F1 Hero series?

To sign off I have to leave you all with this - amongst all the bloody hillarious stuff here, Mark Webber at 1 minute 22 seconds...he loves those arms on the chair!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuIiQ8wfyMQ

Monaco Magic

Justin:

On a track which offers the ultimate test of a driver, Mark Webber has re-written the history books with his Monaco GP win. He becomes the only Aussie to win the flagship event twice in the history of the sport. He has also won the race in two of the last three years.

He also becomes the sixth winner in six races this year, which has never before happened in F1. Though he didn't seem to care for this particular stat afterwards, saying that the Monaco win would be special regardless of this record.

(image above is from BBC website - we ain't breaching no copyrights here)


And did he do it in some style or what!

His first win of the year catapaults him to joint second in the title race - he is firmly in it ala 2010. Welcome back mate.

At the end of the race he finished just half a second ahead of Rosberg, followed in a train of cars by Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton and Massa. For most of the last twenty laps these guys were seperated by no more than 6 seconds. Fantastic stuff! At one point when the rain started falling, each was all over the back of the guy in front. At one point, they were all well under a second from each other.

Webber got a flyer (for once) at the start whilst Grosjean got in all sorts of bother, punting into Schumi and spinning himself off.

Maldonado had a horror weekend frankly. He used his car as an angry weapon on Perez in quali then crashed out in the race.

Webber, Rosberg, Hamilton and Alonso (all on the softer compound) all stopped for harder styres around laps 29 and 30. By way of a mega in lap Alonso managed to jump Hamilton in the stops, and of course whilst all these guys pitted Vettel cruised by on his harder tyres that he had started on.

Good strategy by Red Bull saw Vettel eventually move from 9th on the grid to 4th at the end which represents a good day for Vettel really.

When Vettel pitted around lap 46 for the softer compound tyres when he was around 17 seconds ahead of Webber, but crucially 20-21 ahead of Hamilton. So, he re-emerged from the pits in 4th.

From lap 47 to the finish on lap 78 we were given Formula 1 racing of the highest order by guys who did not put a foot wrong all day.

It made my neck hairs stand on end watching the train of cars...Webber, Rosberg, Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton...Massa (sort of hanging on just about at the back), covered by so little time for so many laps.

Beautiful!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/18228584

Just watch from 5 minutes onwards on this BBC highlights clip!

To race this hard, fast and close is absolutely magnificent. At Monaco you do not get away with mistakes as you would on other tracks - you hit a wall and thats that.

It was a pleasure watching these guys fight.

We truly are in a golden era for F1 - I don't care what negative remarks people have about tyres. F1 drivers adapt - thats a specific skill all the best guys have.

Time for a quick sub-heading feature!

Webber - Driver of the day, on a day when there were a fair few contenders. Faultless race and from pole too.

Schumi - Life in the old dog yet as proved by his blistering quali lap, only to be scuppered by yet again more mechanical issues in the race.

Vettel - Keeps picking up points - great drive from 9th to 4th.

Rosberg - Beautiful drive too - kept Webber honest throughout.

Hamilton - Picked up points again, but are Mclaren going backwards? He seemed to point the finger firmly at their door again, seemingly annoying Whitmarsh a little in the process.

Button - One to forget - now 31 points of the championship lead after 3 rubbish races.

Di Resta - Fantastic drive through to 7th. I doubt he will be at Force India next year.

Alonso - This is where my objectivity may take a battering from my co-blogger, but I have seen various reports from differing sources all saying that Alonso is essentially driving as well as he ever has, doing extraordinary things in an ordinary car (it was a dog at the start of the year, but Ferrari do seem to be turning it into something better. In the meantime Alono's driving ability alone is keeping him in the hunt. He is utterly relentless and never gives up and is always lurking in the points. DC himself called Alonso unbelievable and the BBC's Gary Anderson stated in his blog:

 "In Alonso's case, his position is simply down to the quality of the driver. He has done astounding things with that car. He's always good off the start, always gets stuck in, and then fights the battle from then on." 

 The more I read about people complaining about tyres (fans?) saying they want to know who the fastest guys in the fastest cars are, not have this apparent lottery we are having with six different winners in six races......I say to you, look at the title standings....and shut the fuck up!!!!!

The cream always rises to the top, no matter the conditions, rules etc.....

Alonso leads Webber and Vettel followed by Hamilton, Rosberg, Kimi and Button....

Five of those seven have been contesting the title for the past two years and keeping race wins amongst themselves exclusively (Webber, Vettel, Alonso, Button and Hamilton) and one of the others is a former world champion.

What we have is near enough to a level playing field for the golden generation of Formula One drivers.

Let them get on with it!

The number seven

Phil: Mark Webber's win at Monaco means we've had six winners out of six races this season, with six world champions on the grid. But today's blog will be brought to you by the number seven (not 666), which I think is the number of serious contenders for the world championship.

That number alone shows what an astonishing season it's been so far, and shows every sign of continuing to be. Let's take a closer look at them, in reverse order for dramatic effect....

7th (45pts) - Jenson Button
Jenson won the first race of the season but since then a string of poor results culminating in an uncharacteristically lacklustre performance and DNF at Monaco have put him well behind his teammate. Never bet against McLaren though, and Jenson remains in my view one of the more underrated drivers on the grid, crowded out by the breadth of talent elsewhere.

6th (51pts) - Kimi Raikkonen
Kimi took his world title by a single point in 2007, and ever since then, or perhaps even earlier, he's been known more for his toiletary habits than for his driving ability. I for one have taken the piss out of him at every opportunity since, and I have to admit that he has surprised and impressed me perhaps more than anyone else this season. I'll say something else - I would be genuinely pleased to see him win a race this season, and there's every reason to think he will. Probably more than one.

5th (59pts) - Nico Rosberg
Nico took a masterful and very popular maiden win in China. In 1982, a similarly chaotic and unpredictable season, his father Keke took his maiden win and the world championship, winning only one race that year. Might his son be able to emulate this feat?

4th (63pts) - Lewis Hamilton
If Jenson is having the season Lewis had last year (well, maybe not that bad), then Lewis is having the season Jenson had last year. He hasn't won a race yet, but has been more consistent than anyone except perhaps Webber, having stood on the podium three times, and has scored more points than three of the six race winners.

3rd (73pts) - Mark Webber
Even more delicious than taking his second Monaco GP win was probably, for Mark Webber, drawing level on points with his teammate Vettel. After a season in which he couldn't hope to compete with Vettel despite having the same machinery, Mark will be a serious challenge this year.

2nd  (73pts) - Sebastian Vettel
Never bet against the reigning world champion Vettel. No one team has come close to dominating this season, and all the top teams and drivers have had one or more races where they have been hopelessly off the pace, but the numbers show that Red Bull are still at the front if anyone is - they have the lead of the constructors' championship and two out of the top three drivers.

1st (76pts) - Fernando Alonso
My co-blogger is very pleased that Fernando is still at the head of the title race, even though he's having to absolutely wring the Ferrari's neck to keep his lead. The consensus in the paddock is that Alonso is the best of a very talented bunch, and his performances this season have done his reputation no harm at all. Having said that, a fragile lead in the title race at this early stage in the season shouldn't give anyone the illusion that he has a command over the championship - in a season like this, unlike last year, the world champion will be the man who gets to the end of the last race with the most points in the bag, and every single point will count.

Just ask Nico Rosberg's dad.

First blog of 2012

Phil: My co-blogger has left me the honour of naming our driver of the year. As he suggested a dramatic podium-style top three countdown, I'd have to say my top three drivers of the year would be Vettel, Vettel and Vettel, with Jenson narrowly missing out on a podium position.

The cynics would probably say this has more to do with Adrian Newey's design genius, and that Vettel is merely a good driver in an outstanding car. The way I look at it is this. The first man you need to beat in F1 is your teammate - the only man against whom you're really competing on a level playing field. By any measure, Vettel thrashed Mark Webber, taking 15 poles and 11 wins to Mark's 3 poles and 1 win. We both agree that Mark is a world class driver, but Vettel had that edge - the pace to find another couple of tenths when it mattered in qualifying, the maturity to pull out a lead in the first few laps and then command the rest of the race from a position of strength, and perhaps most of all the confidence that comes with being world champion.

Even if he retired tomorrow, Vettel's already done enough in my view to put among the all time greats. Maybe not a Senna or a Schumacher, not yet, but certainly a Hakkinen or an Alonso.

Andrew Benson's blog at the BBC F1 site weighs up Vettel's talent in more depth, and includes this photo which in some ways sums up the 2011 season for me. Actually, I'd have moved Hamilton further back, probably colliding with Massa, and Heidfeld out of the frame completely, but otherwise fairly accurate.

Where was it taken? The first corner, of the first lap, of the first race.

Calm down, dear

Phil: I think we need to have a chat about the Red Bull team orders thing.

In my view it really ought not to be the headline: the headline should be Ferrari's first win since last autumn. Mark Webber having been told not to attempt to overtake his teammate for second place on the last lap of the race was slightly disappointing, as we missed out on what might have been an exciting last lap, but no more than that. Mark is right to try to overtake, he's right to ignore the team the first time, but I think that Red Bull were also right to try to stop him.

I really don't think anyone can condemn Red Bull yesterday and condone Ferrari at Hockenheim last year, for the following reasons.

1. Team orders were illegal then. They are legal now.
2. Massa was told to give up a position to his teammate. Webber was told not to overtake his teammate.
3. The Ferrari incident decided the win. The Red Bull incident decided second place.

Finally, and I don't think it's relevant to the comparison between the two incidents, but Vettel is dominating Webber every bit as much as, and probably more than, Alonso was dominating Massa. That's not a criticism of Webber, because Vettel is in a class of his own: as Martin Brundle said, he's becoming the benchmark, as Schumacher one was. It's almost inconceivable now that Vettel does not retain his world title. He's 80 points ahead of his teammate, and 92 points ahead of his next nearest rival (Alonso). If the ten remaining races this season finished with exactly the same result (Alonso first, Vettel second), he would still beat Alonso by 12 points.

And he's 0.4s faster than the Stig.

Can we put this one to bed now?

Not bad for a number two driver

Phil: This blogger is a little embarassed about the team's performance at this week's 'rehearsals' for today's British grand prix.

Having been overruled on the team name (we eventually went for Stig's Substitutes), I was unfortunately overruled on the pit strategy as well, and we went for a unique seven-stop strategy that more or less guaranteed that we spent half the race in the pit lane. (The thinking was we had four drivers and needed to do two stints each, because one stint of 20-25 minutes would be 'too tiring'. Bear in mind this was billed as a 'Le Mans style' endurance race, albeit lasting only an hour and a half). We eventually finished 6th out of 8, two laps behind our rivals from another of the firm's offices, who of course did the minimum three pit stops.

Anyway, another man who right now probably thinks he's the only one in his team singing from the same hymn sheet will start the British grand prix from pole in under an hour. His name's Mark Webber.

Came home from work tonight and Jenson Button had parked in my drive

Phil: I'm sure there's a perfectly innocent explanation for Button's 'pit stop strategy' to which my co-blogger has alluded. After all, it's not long since last season, when he was world champion, and got the first pit box. Christian Horner joked that Button was obviously very keen to drive for Red Bull. Sebastian Vettel joked that he might drop into McLaren next time out in Turkey and borrow some of Jenson's tyres. Er....stick to being world champions, guys.

My co-blogger has as usual done a sterling job of summarising what was actually a complex and tricky race. I've little to add, except for: wasn't it the dog's bollocks? We haven't had a race that good for ages. I mean, last year was good, but the interest for me came from the five way fight for the title, which ebbed and flowed all season until the very last race. I seriously don't remember a race as good as this last year, when any one of four, five, maybe six drivers could actually have won it (there were a couple of laps, after the first set of stops, when I seriously thought Rosberg would win it).

Here's an interesting thing. DRS was introduced to give us more overtaking. Some (my co-blogger and I included, I think) say it's artificial - Jake Humphreys compared it to American wrestling. We had plenty of overtaking at Shanghai, and both Hamilton and Webber put in aggressive, overtaking drives that probably would have been easily the drive of the season, were it not for the other's. (Webber fought his way from 18th on the grid to 3rd in the race, and Hamilton won having made it to the grid with little more than 30 seconds to spare after a fuel leak in the garage). But, and it's a big but, neither of them used DRS very much to overtake. They almost didn't need to. The thing that made the difference at both Shanghai and Sepang - more so even than Hamilton's and Webber's masterful performances - is tyres. As someone said after the race, 'thank you Pirelli!'. With Pirelli's disintegrating masterpieces all round, every race is a wet race. To win races in 2011, you need to manage your tyre strategy to have the right tyres in the right condition at the right moment in the race, and then use your advantage to pass the opposition.

I think we have another classic season to relish.

Plenty to say...?

Phil: It's been a classic year. I think we can all agree on that. I think I'm right in saying also that never before have four drivers started the last race of the season with a mathematical chance of winning the title. Each driver from each of the top three teams led the championship at some point or other during the season, but the man who led after the last race (and at no other point during the season) was Sebastian Vettel.

We've talked a lot about Alonso lately, but I think we need to give Vettel some blogspace. Some have suggested that he somehow not a deserving champion. I'd agree with Stirling Moss when he said Vettel is undoubtedly the fastest driver at the moment, but pointedly didn't say he was the best. When you consider the raw pace of the Red Bull, they in some respects ought to have walked it (in a previous blog, I mentioned that the only teams to score more poles in a season were McLaren in 1988-9 and Williams in 1992-3, and we know the utter dominance of those teams at those times). Vettel sat on pole ten times out of 19 in 2010, but only converted that into a win five times. Alonso by contrast took the same number of wins from only two poles. It's become a bit of a cliche, but Adrian Newey's cars are fast but fragile, and reliability let Vettel down, probably more so than Mark. But there's also a lack of maturity about Vettel, which his predecessor as youngest driver ever to do anything, Lewis Hamilton, never showed, from day one. It was this that led him to commit the racing driver's cardinal sin - knocking off your team mate when he's in the lead - at Istanbul.

But (and it's a big but) maturity seems to be all he lacks. At 23, he's the youngest champion, race winner, driver to score a point or sit on the podium. To say he has a bright future would be a huge understatement. After the race if he's done well, one of the first to congratulate him is often Michael Schumacher. I can't lipread in German but the body language is warm and there's clearly no rivalry there - in fact, at 41, Schumi is old enough to be Vettel's father. My point is, Vettel is now where Schumacher was in 1993 or 1994, and I think he has the talent to dominate Formula 1 in the same way Schumacher did. If Red Bull continue to have the pace, and if becoming world champion gives Vettel a little more maturity, then we could have witnessed the beginning of a new era in F1.

A couple of other points, specifically about Abu Dhabi. I have very little time for the naysayers (and I note that my co-blogger isn't one of them) who think there is a Renault conspiracy which meant that Petrov deliberately kept Alonso behind him to allow a Renault-powered driver to win the title. Petrov kept Alonso behind him because he was protecting his position (both in the race, and at Renault next year), and Alonso was out of position because Ferrari cocked up his pit strategy. It's as simple as that. And I think it's an exaggeration to say that that cost Alonso the title - this season was so close that any of the mistakes that any of the leading drivers made potentially cost them the title. If, as some predicted, the Korean Grand Prix hadn't happened, Webber may well have won the title.

I think we have plenty to talk about between now and 13 March 2011. Watch this space!

The magic number is 256

Phil: As usual I agree with my co-blogger what a nail-biting finale we have to this epic season. I'd also like before we go any further to doff my cap to the appropriate angle to show some rispeck (innit?) to Nico Hulkenberg for his maiden pole at Interlagos. He's someone we'll be seeing more of in future, I think.

Now, the interesting bit. I've taken a break from my day job crunching numbers to crunch some numbers. Only these numbers aren't ordinary numbers. They're Formula 1 world championship points.

Let's start with the easy bit. If Alonso wins or is second in Abu Dhabi, he is world champion.

If he is third or fourth, Webber needs to win the race to be world champion, and Vettel cannot be world champion. As my co-blogger hinted, Red Bull may have suggest Vettel moves aside to let Webber win the race. All the indications are that they will do the sensible thing, but Dieter Mateschitz, the head of Red Bull and Christian Horner's boss, is on record as saying Red Bull, unlike Ferrari, don't do team orders. If they do, then I for one would be interested to hear Alonso's view on team orders immediately after the race.

What I really want to see, however, is Vettel first, Webber second, Alonso fifth. This would give each driver 256 points. In the event of a tie (which has never happened, the closest winning margin being half a point, Lauda ahead of Prost, in 1984) the rules say that the champion is the driver with the highest number of wins. The problem is that Vettel and Alonso will both have won five races each. So you look at second places, and third places. Unfortunately, they will still be tied even then. In fact, Vettel will win the world title by three fourth places to Alonso's two (his third fourth place being scored, ironically enough, at Monza). While I have no particular affection for Vettel and have publicly stated I want Webber to be world champion, I think this would be a suitable climax to this season.

Finally, Lewis Hamilton can only win the title if he wins the race, with Vettel no higher than 3rd, Webber no higher than 6th and Alonso no higher than 11th.

Unfortunately for McLaren, that's about as likely as a wet race at Abu Dhabi.

Fernando...Alonso?

Phil: With two races to go in this epic season, I think it's time for me to come off the fence and predict a champion (some seasons it's been all over and the fat lady has sung by now, but not this year).

I think Fernando Alonso will be world champion this year.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with my co-blogger that Mark Webber deserves to win the title more than anyone. I think he'd be a very popular champion and I would be very happy to see his career capped with a world championship. I want Mark to win, but I think Fernando will.

Let's look at the numbers. As my co-blogger pointed out, he has scored three wins and a third place in the last four races. That's 90 points out of a total of 100. If he keeps this form up, nobody can beat him. If he wins in Brazil, Webber will need to be fourth or better to stay in the title race, and Hamilton, Vettel and Button will be completely out of it.

Alonso now has 26 career victories. For the historians (which I know includes my co-blogger), his victory in Korea put him ahead of Lauda and Jim Clark (25 wins each). His previous victory in Singapore put him ahead of Fangio (24). He has now won more race than any other driver except Schumacher, Prost, Senna, Mansell and Jackie Stewart.

My co-blogger will certainly be aware that Alonso is a bit of a controversial figure, in Britain at least, and plenty of F1 fans don't seem to have a good word to say about him. It's easy to focus on his undeniable arrogance and self-centredness and lose sight of his equally undeniable talent How many other drivers could have done what he's done over the last four races? I might have said Hamilton, but then he cocked up royally at Monza, a race Alonso won.

In that respect, he reminds me of Senna, who during his lifetime was loved and hated in almost equal measures (given the nature of his death, it's easy to forget the many controversies he stirred up in life).

If he's going to win, though, it has to be by more than 7 points. Don't get me started on that one again.

Two photos

That's how good this season is. The other wall, incidentally, is at Estoril, 1986. Funny how Hamilton looks just as unhappy to be sitting next to Alonso as Senna looked unhappy to be sitting next to Prost...anyway, I digress.

I agree completely with my co-blogger about Massa's reduced circumstances. As my co-blogger rightly points out, two years ago he was one corner away from the world championship. My concern is that he might now become one of Formula 1's nearly men: a talent somehow reduced by a life-threatening crash (Herbert, Panis) or simply outshone by a faster teammate (Barrichello, Berger, Coulthard).

Finally, another statistic. Red Bull have taken 12 pole positions this year. The only other teams to have beaten that record are McLaren (1988 and 1989) and Williams (1992 and 1993) (on the other four occasions, the team took a whopping 15 poles, ie every race but one). McLaren and Williams walked it in 1988-9 and 1992-3 respectively. With that pace, Red Bull ought to have done the same this year. The viewing public's great fortune is that they haven't.

One week 'til Suzuka...

Phil: My co-blogger's thorough and insightful analysis deserves a pat on the bottom, at the very least. I agree the Hamilton/Webber collision was nothing more than a racing incident, and that having scored maximum points at Monza and Singapore, Alonso is certainly the man to beat at Suzuka. I think we also agree on the downright odd teammate relationship that Lewis and Jenson have: Lewis when interviewed after the race seemed understandably downbeat (after all, two consecutive DNFs won't do great things for his championship chances) and said he still hoped either himself or Jenson would be world champion this year. Or Jenson? Then, one day this week, I read an interview with Jenson himself telling the world what a great driver Lewis was and how much he hoped he could get his title chase back on track. Is there some patting of bottoms going on behind the scenes?

Anyway, teammate rivalries, or otherwise, lead me on to this very good, very technical opinion piece on how Michael Schumacher has 'lost it' permanently. Not only is he being outdriven by his teammate Nico Rosberg, but the margin by which is being beaten is getting wider. Is Rosberg getting faster, or is Schumi getting slower? Here it is http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/9037790.stm

Finally, I've been dipping into the BBC's archive of classic races, which are updated before every race, starting with the 1982 Detroit Grand Prix:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2010/09/your_classic_grand_prix_-_race_2.html#more

You'll think the cars are crude until you see the BBC's graphics. And why did someone at the BBC think that the best 'establishing shot', the image that says 'Formula 1' to the British viewing public, is a shot of Niki Lauda eating a slice of toast?

Plenty of overtaking though.

It's pissing down in Singapore

Phil: My co-blogger texted me the other day to remind me I hadn't blogged for a while. There's actually very little to add to his analysis of Monza's action, and only the arse-licking to take away. All I can constructively add is that, as I predicted, Webber and Hamilton are definitely not running away with it: a win for Alonso, second for Button, and fourth for Vettel versus sixth for Webber and DNF for Hamilton means the gap has narrowed considerably.

I stumbled across an interesting calculation today (bear with me, this gets better) of how the championship would look if we were still using the old points system, which I much preferred:

Hamilton 75
Webber 74
Alonso 67
Button 67
Vettel 66

I post this as a reminder of how close this season really is: less than a win between first and fifth in the title race, with five races still to go.

A bit of an update on the mid-season reshuffle. Nick Heidfeld returns to F1, replacing Pedro de la Rosa at Sauber. Romain Grosjean takes over his testing role at Pirelli. Does this mean Schumacher is likely to continue in 2011? Heidfeld was presumably hanging on to the test seat at Mercedes on the assumption that he wouldn't last the season, so does this mean he will be back next year?

There are also rumours that the BBC are looking to replace Jonathan Ledgard in the commentary box. In case you were wondering, he is the bloke who talks when Martin Brundle isn't talking. The favourite to replace him is Moto GP commentator Charlie Cox, although from comments posted online a return for James Allen has been suggested, or Brundle by himself. My co-blogger and I are of course available, should anyone from the BBC be reading the blog. The truth is, though, that all this means is that Murray Walker is irreplacable.

It's pissing down in Singapore.

Just another day at the Spa

Phil: The title of this blog doesn't really cut it, unfortunately, but it's the best I can think of.

Spa was another of this season's classics, enlivened as ever by rain and the resultant safety car incidents. Hats off to some blokes in Belgium in about 1920 for chancing across such a classic racetrack with such superb temperamental weather. Maybe they could teach Hermann Tilke's state of the art tracks in the middle of deserts a thing or two.

Hats off also to my co-blogger for such a detailed and insightful analysis, which for once I actually agree with. If I had any hats left I'd also take them off to Lewis Hamilton (who, let's not forget, actually won the race) who didn't put a foot wrong all afternoon - even if his race engineer did add a comedy moment by appearing to tell Lewis not to come in for inters too soon, just as he ran off into the kitty litter (the transmission being delayed, of course, to avoid broadcasting confidential team tactics and Sebastian Vettel saying, 'Scheisse!' whenever he crashes).

Mark Webber may have buggered up the start, but he was there ready to take Kubica's second place when the Pole missed his pit box. If you want to be world champion, it's consistently good results that count, and as my co-blogger insightfully pointed out, the smidgeon of points he got from Kubica's error may make him world champion come Abu Dhabi (but probably not before).

Hamilton may have done everything right, but Vettel and Alonso seem to have done everything wrong. I won't go over Alonso's misfortunes again, but Vettel's collision with Button was frankly bizarre - the sort of crash you have to watch several times on the replay before you can really work out what actually happened.

I'm tempted to agree with my co-blogger that with Vettel's inconsistency and unforced errors and the pressure Alonso is under coping with what's still clearly the third best car, it's a two horse race between Webber and Hamilton. However, this season is so close that a bad day at the office for Button, Alonso and Vettel makes it seem like Hamilton and Webber are pulling ahead. The reality is that the boot could well be on the other foot at Monza. It's still to early to call, and, almost unbelievably, any one of five drivers could still take the title. This season is already a classic and could be the closest ever.

Next stop is one of my favourite tracks, Monza. But before that, Ferrari have to face up to the FIA for the team orders charade at Hockenheim.

Splash and dash

Phil: Blogging in my lunch break at work as I've moved yet again, and have no Internet at home, so it's going to have to be a short splash and dash.

First things first, greetings to our follower! First actual readers, and now an actual follower. This blog goes from strength to strength. If we carry on at this rate we may be starting our own religion by the end of the season.

Anyway, the race. I would have to agree with some (but not all) of my co-blogger's detailed analysis. The news since he blogged is that Schumacher has apologised to Barrichello for almost shunting him into the pitwall, and been penalised 10 grid places at the next race, at Spa. Given his current qualifying form this may well put him last on the grid.

I'm going to give a pat on the back to Vitaly Petrov, consistently outraced by his Renault teammate Robert Kubica all season to the extent that Renault have openly considered who to replace him with (Sutil? Heidfeld? Raikkonen?), who scored a 'best of the rest' fifth place at the Hungaroring.

Congratulations also to Mark Webber - make no mistake, this was the drive of a champion. Admittedly, the opportunity only arose because of his teammate's misfortune (one of the Red Bulls was inevitably going to win this race, as they were head and shoulders ahead of the rest of the field at the weekend, and I'm going to pretend I didn't see Vettel behaving like a spoilt child as took his penalty and on the podium) but the important thing is that Mark took the opportunity and turned it into a dominant win. And with the top five drivers separated by only 20 points (the equivalent of only 8 points under the old system) with one third of the season left, this is going to be the closest season finale in a long time. I can't wait.

The best thing since Minardi

Phil: Greetings to both our readers, who've missed out on the second of our I Was Having a Blog live events, the Grand Prix Trivia pub quiz. Congratulations to my co-blogger who scored a creditable second place, and shouldn't pay any attention to the old adage that second place is the first loser, particularly given that he was faced with questions about, for example, the 1968 Moroccan Grand Prix*.

Any, we discovered last night that my co-blogger was curiously ignorant of the existence of Minardi, so to enlighten him, here is my Minardi featurette about a team that competed for two decades and achieved pretty much nothing, apart from helping launch the careers of some great drivers. Here are a few of them.

1. Fernando Alonso. When Alonso took his first world title in 2005, his old boss at Minardi, Paul Stoddart, joked that he was Minardi's first world champion. His début season at Minardi in 2001 was less succesful, eleventh place at the last race of the season in Japan being his best finish, but as has often been the case, opened the door for him at Benetton, and the rest is history.

2. Mark Webber. Alonso's replacement at Minardi might very well be Minardi's second world champion, and perhaps as early as this year. Mark impressed at his very first outing for Minardi, taking fifth place at his home grand prix in 2002, the team's first points for nearly three years, and 16th place in the championship.

3. Alessandro Nannini. Nannini drove for Minardi in early days of the team, in 1986 and 1987. Like Alonso he went on to Benetton, and took his only grand prix victory in Japan in 1989, after Prost's and Senna's infamous collision. He retired from the sport a year later having been seriously injured in a helicopter crash.

4. Giancarlo Fisichella. Fisi drove half a season for Minardi in 1996, before being replaced by a pay-driver. His best result was eighth at Montreal, but it was enough for Jordan to sign him for the following season. A career of midfield mediocrity, punctuated by occasional moments of brilliance, beckoned.

5. Jarno Trulli. Long before Jarno Trulli got old enough to need naps in the middle of races, he started his first six races at Minardi in early 1997, scoring two ninth places. When Olivier Panis crashed at Montreal, and would miss the rest of the season, Alain Prost chose Trulli to replace him.

One final factoid about Italy's number two team: nobody ever stood on an F1 podium, wearing Minardi overalls. Ever.

*Made considerably trickier by the fact that the only Moroccan Grand Prix actually took place in 1958.

Not bad for a number two

Phil: 'Not bad for a number two driver', if you haven't heard, was how Mark Webber sarcastically described his achievement in winning the British Grand Prix. Well Mark, at this blog we love a good number two.

The infighting at Red Bull seems to have returned with a vengeance, and the clearing of the air that followed Webber's and Vettel's collision in Turkey seems to have been only temporary. Fair enough, there was only one new front wing, but it's looking more and more like Vettel is the unofficial number one driver at the team. To me, Christian Horner's congratulations message to Mark which immediately preceded his 'number two' remark seemed very empty and lacking in enthusiasm.

I'm going to leave the Alonso penalty to my co-blogger, as I know he'll want to take issue with it. Instead, here are a few things which for me brightened up the afternoon at Silverstone: it was good to see Button make his way back from fourteenth on the grid to fourth in the race, in a car which he described after quali as 'undriveable'; it was good to see Barrichello and Williams as high as fifth; it was good to see Stirling Moss up on the podium dodging the champagne; and finally it was good to see guest steward Nigel Mansell threatening to fine Eddie Jordan for his poor dress sense (something we've been complaining about all season - at last the stewards are taking note).

Ouch!

Phil: Well, I think what most people will remember about this race is Mark Webber's crash of the season. It looked painful enough from the trackside camera, and truly terrifying from the in-car camera. What we won't remember is Eddie Jordan becoming momentarily airborne post-race after having received a high-speed shunt from David Coulthard's chin. Admittedly, this didn't actually happen, but discussion between the two of them did become rather heated during the post-race chat, EJ championing the right of drivers of crap cars to get in everyone else's way, and DC....I'm not sure what he was saying, but in the interests of BBC impartiality it's as well to remember he's still on the Red Bull payroll.

My own view is that it can largely be put down to a racing incident, and it's important not to lose sight of the fact that both drivers walked away from a horrendous accident unscathed. It wasn't immediately obvious at the time that Webber was racing Kovalainen for position, Webber having had a dreadful first few laps culminating in a pitstop where his front left wouldn't come off. in fact, you could argue that everything of significance in this race was a direct result of Webber's slow start. The post-race dispute centred on Kovalainen's right to defend his position versus his responsibility to acknowledge that Webber's Red Bull was in reality much faster than his Lotus and that therefore defending too hard might prove disastrous, as in fact it did.

Ironically enough, all of this more or less guaranteed victory for Webber's teammate and rival Sebastian Vettel, whose main rivals were all disadvantaged: Webber crashed, Hamilton received a drive through penalty for overtaking the safety car which had been called out after Webber's crash, and Alonso pitted behind the safety car and dropped to midfield as a result.

This leads me on to the day's other controversy: that Alonso felt that Hamilton's penalty, which cost him any chance of passing Vettel for the lead but didn't lose him a place, was unfair. To my mind, this only stacks up if Hamilton deliberately slowed down in order to back Alonso back into the pack. There's no evidence that he did - it would be obvious from lap times, wouldn't it? - and it's hard to imagine any driver having the mental agility to predict where the pack would be in half a lap's time in order to slow his arch-rival down enough to put him behind them without damaging his own race. The teams and the FIA have to put GPS devices in each car to be able to predict where they all are. There's clearly a huge amount of bad blood between Alonso and Hamilton, particularly on Spanish soil, but I confidently predict we'll hear no more of this particular incident.

A number of cars, including Jenson Button, were actually investigated by the stewards after the race for driving too fast after the safety car was called out but before it could collect the pack, and were penalised five seconds each. There's no change in the provisional results down to seventh place but Alonso leapfrogs Buemi for eighth and there are other changes to what we thought the order was further down the field.