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.

Seven agree/ disagree replies..

Justin:

What have you been doing?

1. Steady on. Don't go making broad, sweeping remarks. Did you see the race in Singapore? And a few before that one?! Yes, we had excitement with the battle for 4th down and plenty of shenanigans through the field, but the race winner was never in doubt.

I'm struggling more and more to get excited about races where we all know who the winner will be before the start. I switched off for a few races in the Schumi years, where he dominated and pissed all over the rules (Vettel has really earned my utter hatred this year - Mr bigger than the team twat), engineering results of races on the finish line etc etc, parking so competitors could not complete pole laps etc etc. For me, I'd much rather see 5/6 guys fighting over first, all in the title race. I actually agree with Lewis for once. He and Fernando are much better than being relegated to fighting for 5th.

Dogfight. World Champions. At the front. All of them. Go. Next year.

Rule changes cannot come soon enough for me.

I'm almost at the stage where I won't do my yearly ritual of rising early for Japan. Whats the point?

This decade...the even years provide us with vintage years...perhaps the best ever in F1. 2010 and 2012 were awesome. I'd even say 2011 was better than this year. At least 2011 gave us the most epic race ever. Canada...slightly damp.

So, my only hope is that 2014 follows 10 and 12.

2. I concur. The Hulk is bloody awesome.

3. I concur. Though, if I was the Lotus boss, I wouldnt say "hold station and bring the points home". Lotus have let it be know they are hurt by Kimi leaving, so fuck him I say. As DC said, Kimi is leaving, this is them giving Romain the confidence to be team leader. Besides which, over the second half of the season the Frenchman has been utterly superior to Kimi.

4. Alonso has stated he'd love to see Mark go out with a win before the end of the year. He said Mark announces his retirement then has all this bad luck. Hows this? Webber wins in Brazil with Alonso joining him on the podium? That would be beautiful.

5. They'd need the bleep sound a lot more if I was commentating.

6. Indeed.

7. Bet he plays with it in private too. Nudge nudge wink wink.

PS....

8. Neither of us has done an official review of Rush yet. I will do this over the weekend.

9. Fact. Niki Lauda is without doubt the most double hard, courageous man with balls the size of melons ever to race in F1. Fact.

a) Because he came back after his near-death crash 6 weeks later and finished 4th.
b) Even more so because he pitted after a lap in Japan 76.

Seven things we learned on Sunday

Phil: Yes. Don't ask what I've been doing. Anyway...

1. Formula 1 is less boring than we thought. In the first half of Sunday's race in Korea, we had Sebastian Vettel pulling out two seconds in the first lap, everyone pitting within a lap or two of each other, and, er that was pretty much it. In the second half, we had overtaking, not overtaking, overtaking back, sparks, tyre delaminations and rogue safety cars. No change at the front, but at least the rest of the pack kept us guessing.

2. Nico Hulkenberg is a world champion waiting for the right car. In these days of DRS when it's all about overtaking, keeping a faster car behind you has become something of a lost art. Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes should have dispatched Hulkenberg's Sauber in a lap or two after the second safety car incident, but despite a much faster car, DRS and a world championship under his belt all he could do was ask the pit for suggestions.

3. Romain Grosjean is Lotus' man for 2014. After Kimi had mugged Grosjean of his second place you'd have expected Lotus to tell both cars to keep station and protect their two podium places and valuable points for the constructors' championship. Not so, and Eric Boullier not only reminded Grosjean that he should feel free to race Kimi for second but chose to do so in English when both are native speakers of French. In other words, he wanted the whole world, including Kimi, to know who he's backing.

4. Mark Webber really is the unluckiest man in Formula 1. While one half of the Red Bull garage has enjoyed seemingly effortless victories in the last four races, the other half has struggled somewhat. Mark seemed to be making good progress in Singapore when his pit told him to back off a bit. Not enough, unfortunately, as his engine blew up with half a lap left. His mate Fernando Alonso stopped to give him a lift back to the pit lane - a sporting gesture some would way, but not the Singapore stewards who slapped him with a 10 place grid penalty for this week's outing in Korea. So it was that despite having qualified towards the front of the grid Mark was leaving the pit lane immediately behind Sergio Perez when a huge lockup by the Mexican caused a spectacular tyre delamination. Mark was right behind him and picked up a puncture of his own from the debris. While the pack formed up behind the safety car, Mark pitted, only to come out again a few places in front of Adrian Sutil. When Sutil lost it soon after the restart he struck Mark a glancing blow, which coincidentally severed a fuel pipe which set fire to the back end of his car, leaving one Red Bull in parc ferme under the podium and the other half burned out by the side of the track.

5. There is a bleep button in Formula 1. It just took a Lewis Hamilton toys out of the pram moment to find it. No longer can teams avoid giving away their pit stop strategies or their cars' mechanical ailments by giving their drivers messages like, 'Box this lap, fuckwit'.

6. Korean 4x4s are faster than we thought. Anyone reading this who has a Ssangyong or something like that sitting in their drive (which probably means they really wanted a Range Rover but couldn't afford one) can now tell their grandchildren of the day a car like theirs led a grand prix. Which by my reckoning actually puts them just ahead of Caterham in the constructors' championship.

7. Gavin plays with his organ in public. Fact.

Why people choose to boo Vettel - My theory

Justin:

It isn't because he is winning all the time and making things pretty dull ala the Schumi era circa 2001-2004. Oh no. I'll get to why in just a moment.

You have to say, this year is starting to feel like 2011 again (whereas 2010 and 12 were vintage seasons).

I sat watching the Singapore GP in Mallorca and thought "well that was dull, I could have been out in the sunshine". 3.4 seconds ahead after the first lap is just depressing. Brilliant, yes, but it doesnt make for a good GP to watch.

The title is gone for the year. Alonso, Hamilton....forget chasing him. He is out of sight lads.

There is no denying he is making the most of being in by far the most superior car. He is the best driver in the best car. It is rare that a world title is won by anything or anyone but that combination.

Massive regulation changes are coming for 2014, and as Alonso said, everyone starts from zero. It is the biggest chance everyone else will get to beat Red Bull and Vettel.

You read on forums and websites EVERYONE complaining that he should be respected, not jeered and heckled when on the podiums. Why? It's every F1 fans right to pick and choose who they cheer or boo. We are told F1 is a gentleman's sport and Vettel should be treated as one.

Again. Why? Surely he revoked all his gentleman privaliges when he pissed all over his own team, made himself bigger than the team, in Malaysia this year.

Schumacher put himself above the laws and everyone else by barging Hill and Villeneuve off so blatantly. By "parking" in Monaco and knowingly blocking Alonso's last flying lap. The list goes on.


If I was at a race, I'd boo Vettel for what he did in Malaysia.

Mark Webber is the most well liked guy in F1 at the moment. The same reason people boo Vettel on podiums is the same reason they all cheered his retirement at Silverstone. Webber is an adopted Brit, hugely popular at that. People didnt like one bit what transpired in Malaysia.

It's a permenant stain on Vettel's reputation I'm afraid. What annoys me further is he puts it down to the fact he is winning all the time. I'm sure if you polled the boo boys a large percentage of them would say the hatred stems from Malaysia.

It went beyond pure team order fiasco's of the past (ie Massa moving aside for Alonso in Germany in 2010 - the team ordered that, as Alonso was far ahead of Massa in the title race - ok thats when team orders were banned, but you get the idea - Ferrari gave an order and it was accepted).

If Mark Webber had so blatantly ignored an order and barged past Vettel, I'd imagine his punishment would have been far more severe than the telling off like a naughty schoolboy that Vettel received.

So, Vettel, thats why you get booed on Podiums. Deal with it. Don't cry.

Roll on 2014!

Toxic Teammates

Justin:

Best friends, work colleagues etc etc, fall out. Some friendships recover, get over blips, some aren't meant to or simply don't. For one reason or another, lack of effort or caring, some friendships fade.

Add to all this the intense sporting environment of F1 and you would have to say true friendships are hard to find. That's not to say they do not exist, just rarely between two drivers on the same team.


I've picked three examples of when "teammates" were nothing of the sort, where the relationship soured and people fought the enemies within, but each example has some striking similarities with the next. Indeed, Piquet Vs Mansell at Williams in 1986 is similar in nature to that of Alonso Vs Hamilton at Mclaren in 2007. That of established double world champion coming in to a British team either expecting to be number 1, or promised they would be number 1. In the case of Williams fate intervened and in the case of Mclaren Ron Dennis sold Alonso a dream that didn't exist (read, there seemed to have been an almighty misunderstanding and general fuckup at the contract signing!).

The first example, Prost Vs Senna...what hasn't been said about it? This was simply the case of Senna thinking "who is the best driver?" and then setting out to move to the best team, alongside the best driver, to destroy him.

Prost Vs Senna

Prost himself remarked once that Senna wanted to not beat him, but humiliate him. That was Monaco in 1988 when Senna was told to slow down whilst 55 seconds in the lead ahead of Prost. He kept pushing and pushing, then crashed out. No doubt Prost saw Senna wanting to humiliate him as a weakness. Despite the odd barbed remark, things remained cordial enough for 88, with Senna taking the title in Japan.

1989 was the beginning of the end...the end of 89 was the end of the end.

Senna had begun moulding the team around him and even though Prost won the title, Senna had effectively driven Prost out of his home simply because he refused to work with someone like Senna ever again.

They crashed into each other in the 1989 finale in Japan, one blaming the other. Senna got his car moving again, via a steward bump start. Prost went immediately to the FIA office to lodge a formal complaint about Senna. Senna was DQ'd, for re-entering the track a few metres from where he left it.

Prost took the title whilst Dennis protested on Senna's behalf. Theres favouritism if ever you saw it. Dennis always claims to give equal treatment to drivers. OK, Prost was taking the number 1 to Ferrari for 1990, but still, Mclaren won the drivers and constructors titles and here he was defending Senna at the expense of Prost.

Senna's passion and intense drive came from his need to be the best, to prove himself against the best. To destroy the best.

For 1990 they weren't teammates, but they weren't friends at all. The rivalry carried on.

Another example of Prost's alienation from Dennis was Prost throwing his winning trophy at Monza in 89, when he'd just announced his move to Ferrari, to the Ferrari fans. Whoops! Again, Dennis helped aid the disintegration of relations no end.

All the way to another coming together in Japan for the title showdown. Senna later admitted to deliberately getting his own back for what happened in 1989. Senna was very passionate, driven by a sense of injustice, the system being against him. Prost was cool, calm and calculating.

They reconciled when Senna won his last race in Australia 1993 and Prost joined him in the podium. They were no longer rivals as Prost was retiring.

All I remember of their years at Mclaren was a completely poisonous relationship.

Opposites do not attract.

 

Mansell Vs Piquet

Piquet arrived at Williams in 1986 as a double world champion. Mansell was the guy who wasnt supposed to be fast, to be easily put in his place by Piquet. 

Piquet has stated previously that when he signed it was on the understanding he would be number 1. A month or so later the team was in a state of disarray after Frank Williams' accident.

With equal equipment and no team orders Mansell was inspired whilst Piquet was clearly rattled.

Through 1986 and 1987 the two had some titanic clashes on and off the track. Piquet always felt like the fighting outsider whilst Mansell was the fighting Brit, just fighting for everything.

Honda paid Piquet's salary and were non too impressed that through 1986 Williams never ordered Mansell to pull aside and let Piquet through. Piquet stated that had he been backed he would have won the title, rather than allowing in-team fighting. This is similar to Alonso and Hamilton.

The low point of this toxic teammate lineup included some rather nasty remarks from Piquet about Mansell's wife.

Alonso Vs Hamilton

Possibly the most toxic of the lot as everything went to pot within half a year of Alonso and Hamilton first teaming up at Mclaren.

Looking back now, it's easy to see that perhaps the issue wasn't between the drivers themselves, but more Alonso and Ron Dennis...therefore, Alonso Vs everyone at Mclaren. However, both drivers had plenty of anger towards each other at the time.

This year in F1 history was also set against the backdrop of "spygate", where some Mclaren team-members were found to have gotten their hands on Ferrari car data.

Has to be said, Alonso the antagonistic politics player came to the fore in 2007.

First signs of real trouble brewed in Monaco when Hamilton was annoyed about being told to hold station behind Alonso after the final pitstops. 

Unbeknown to Ron Dennis, Alonso had seen some of the Ferrari data, but would later refuse to take part in the spygate trial.

As the season progressed, relations between all parties soured as we all realised there had clearly been some huge misunderstanding between Alonso and Dennis when they signed contracts. Alonso believed he was to be given number one status to lead Mclaren's charge to his third world title. Nobody was really prepared for how quick Hamilton was to be, apart from maybe hamilton himself.

This was an epic clash of ego's. The proud, double world champion who would not regard Hamilton as anything other than a young, brash upstart who he'd firmly put in his place. As the year progressed Hamilton's ego came to the fore and he almost kind of forgot his place in the standings of F1 driver greats. It was a great rookie season for sure, but he was not standing shoulder to shoulder through history with the very best just yet - his strut and actions suggested he thought otherwise.

By Hungary came around things were strained. Hamilton ignored a team order to let Alonso past him in qualifying for a clear run. This had been agreed before the race. Yes, we don't usually hear this bit, the bit where Hamilton started off a chain of events, not Alonso.

As revenge, Alonso came into refuel in the final moments of qualy, was cleared to go, and just waited patiently in his pitbox. Hamilton was queuing behind and as a result of Alonso delaying him, he missed a final run. 

Dennis hauled Alonso's trainer off into the garage for a few harsh words.

Essentially, Mclaren was now tearing itself apart at the seams. For a man who always claims to be able to manage driver lineups and who is a huge control freak, Ron Dennis was getting a lot of things wrong as his house became a rampant mine of utter chaos.

Alonso got penalised for his actions and started with a grid penalty - not good for the team.

Allegedly Alonso also approached Dennis with regard to his knowledge of the Ferrari data. Alonso is then alleged to have told Dennis "give me number one status or I go to the FIA with this data". Dennis told him to go to the FIA as he hadnt  a clue such data existed.

Things continued to sour between all three, with both drivers antagonising on and off the track.

As DC put it a while ago, Alonso had been sold a dream by Dennis...what it was, what it was supposed to be, they cannot agree on.

Dennis also claims not to favour drivers.....lets ask Mika and DC shall we?! Alonso took it as they arent backing him so they must be backing Hamilton then.

Alonso drove bloody well given all the chaos around him, the team being against him etc etc.

In the end, the chaos at Mclaren gifted the title to Kimi as the two Mclaren guys paid too much attention to each other.

Alonso was right about one thing - if Mclaren would have backed him, he'd have won the title.

Alonso and Vettel at RB will never happen...too toxic a mix. I dont think Kimi being at RB will be any less toxic either frankly. Vettel will spit his dummy when he loses.

A link to a video of before it all went wrong - funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKU90BSHqHk

In a Rush...

Justin:

My esteemed colleague and I both watched the BBC documentary on James Hunt and Niki Lauda last night. I am yet to hear his views on it, but I'll give you mine now.

As with the Documentary Senna, some of the never seen/ behind the scenes footage is utterly incredible.

And today, the likes of Red Bull and Mercedes are constantly in a game of one-upmanship with each other and involved in political fights with the FIA. Some things in F1 just never change.

Witness Alastair Caldwell (team manager at Mclaren) and Daniele Audetto (team manager at Ferrari) getting quite, quite wound up, even now, when they are interviewed in the documentary about the political posturing and gamesmanship that went on in 1976 when they were both in charge. They clearly havent wasted money on Christmas cards for each other!

The images of Lauda's crash in Germany which nearly took his life are horrifying to view and it casts my mind forward to the safety issues of today's F1. Exploding tyres was something I touched upon last time out, but one of the big risks of open cockpit racing is debris or items hitting the driver in the head. Back then there were all manner of safety issues.

It's just got me thinking too about MotoGP riders. My colleague brought rallying into this blog once, so I can surely touch upon MotoGP. Jorge Lorenzo broke his collarbone on the friday before a race and went home to have a plate inserted, then raced on the Sunday and finished 5th. Insane.

The race just gone this weekend, he fell off his bike in practice and bent the damn plate! He now misses two races! Don't get me wrong, f1 drivers are incredibly brave, it's just with bikes theres only so much you can do safetywise. If you come off at 180mph, its all down to luck.

Just watch the documentary - it's a beautiful film about a beautiful rivalry in a beautiful moment in F1.

Hands up to those of you who cannot wait for Ron Howard's new film to come out??!!

Rush!

Not blogged for a while

Justin:

First off let me say that I think I can speak for all 5 readers (and one would think the world at large) when I say we all wish Murray Walker a speedy and full recovery. Like many people around my age who grew up on F1, Murray's voice, energy and Murryisms were a vital part of Sunday afternoon's on F1 race weekends. The guy is a living legend and we look forward to him recovering and continuing with his BBC website column and seeing him live on the Beeb's coverage of the British GP next year.

The German GP is starting in just under an hour. I won't see it until 6pm tonight - stupid BBC. Bah.

Anyway....

Canada was a while ago in the memory now, but I recall it was a great race. Now that is lazy F1 blogging right there!

Silverstone...was pretty much utter chaos, drama, excitement and any driver that left their balls at home probably had a bit of a bad day.

There were so many candidates for driver of the day. Webber, getting punted after a rubbish start, from 14th to 2nd. Massa - a lightening start from 11th to 5th, a tyre blowout, and he recovered from 17th to...7th was it? Alonso, started 9th, suffered a tyre failure, recovered to 3rd. Paul di Resta, drove from the back to get good points. Hamilton....a fighting drive. He was leading when his tyre blew up...he went to the back and fought back up to 4th. Rosberg too...ok, he benefited from problems for others, but as Webber remarked, to capitalise on others problems, you have to be in a position to capitalise.

Storming race. The last ten laps after the safety car were a pure shootout. Webber and Alonso were on newer tyres and destroyed most of the people around them.

I have to admit, it would have been great to see Webber win his last race at Silverstone, but as it was, his was a barnstorming drive to 2nd. Another lap and it would have been 1st.

Vettel....gearbox failure. That certainly helped liven up the title race!