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Another cracking race and a well deserved victory for Jenson.
A well deserved championship for Seb? The stats don't lie but the former Minardi boy deserved it. Fred is the best racer by some margin and I think most people recognise that. Even Lewis, Seb and Jenson in the wee, small hours.
Vettel has let the mask slip over the past couple of years and petulant doesn't quite cover it. You get what you see with Lewis and Fred.
Despite the epic races, I felt disengaged from this championship. Maybe it is age, maybe it is a distaste for Vettel. It has something to do with the receding influence of a certain Italian team on the pitlane. McLaren and Williams are my default teams and the prospect of either winning a title anytime soon is remote.
Webber is always a favourite but, as Lease has said, he is on a long goodbye. That day in Melbourne in 2002 is a lifetime ago now, isn't it, Roo? He is an epic racer on the big stuff and he could absolutely argue its the circuits which have got small. Small, fiddly nonsense which suit drivers like ... his team-mate. Ultimately, Webbo has flattered to deceive.
F1 effed off and left me behind. Corporate hostility, easy-peasy run-offs, empty grandstands, empty soul. But I'll still be watching. And dreaming. Forza Minardi!
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Comments
Watching Bathurst this year when the commentary team were showing important aspects of the track. Mark Skaife, former V8 champion said "all the best race tracks have consequences". So true.
Maybe Tilke should have a look.
Haven't been to a GP in years. I think the last time was with Lease. Also waning interest. Some of these new tracks have no soul, almost like watching full scale slot car racing.
As Viges mentioned, Webber is more your old fashioned racer and likes the fast tracks. Hates the Mickey Mouse stuff that's why he has customary mid season slump, where Vettel's season seems to get back on track.
Oh, and I can't stand Vettel's index finger salute!!
[Edited on 26-11-12 by SuperRoo]
The argument about whether it has been a good season, or not, or whether F1 is in a good or a bad place really is moot. It is what it is. In the seventies it was a widow-maker. In the eighties it was a techno-feast. The nineties were all about the concept of the integratation of the team into a homologous performance entity. So now for the last decade or so, it has been about intervention.
THE TRACKS - Just about Bernie making money. The trend is towards stadia. No point in blaming Tilke, he is just working with the design brief.
THE CARS - Ever since they got rid of the gear shift, the driver has been just another part of the package. The exhaust and the airflow in general are rich sources of energy that will continue to be exploited in the quest for higher cornering speeed.
THE DRIVERS - Expect more and more of the same. Very soon there will be no Webber, and people will miss him very quickly. Once you lose Alonso, Button, and Kimi, there will be no difference between the drivers at all. We are in the age of the Wunderkind. They are machines that work metronomically when in clear air, and have no thought of consequence in traffic. They have been taught this way. The cars they drive and the tracks they drive on are unchanging. They are schooled to be Public Relations mouthpieces that reflect the market values of the spopnsors they serve. That is just how it is.
Fact is that we cannot go back to the Widow-Making years of the great tracks. The consequences were too high. Just watch Gille's accident to see how close was the margin between glory and death. We can't go back to that.
The current Formula One will implode before too long. The manufacturers are gone and they will not be back for a long time. Mercedes will tire with a year, or two. At best, the car-makers will be present only as engine manufacturers, wher they can get a good R&D return for their money. In other areas, sponsors will do what Coke have just done. They will enter the sport only as a counter to a competitor who is being successful, and then they will leave just as quickly, and as soon as the threat has passed. Look at the trail since cigarette advertising was banned; Airlines, IT companies, Phone companies, Financial Institutions, they came and they went, and the list of compliant boards is getting smaller.
Then there are the Countries. Asia really isn't interested. Singapore stands out as a party, but the rest are on short fuses. The Middle East is about money, so they can probably carry on for some time, but what is needed is for Europe to become rejeuvenated. I wonder if that is possible before Bernie's passing?
Bernie says another two or three European races may 'have to go' to accommodate more in N America and Asia. Spain will slim down to Valencia and Barca alternating.
F1 without Bernie? Be careful what you wish for. I can see a breakaway series faster than you can say FISA/FOCA.
The money WILL run out, and the field WILL shrink.
Not that there were not some interesting bits.
Vettel and Maldocrash I put down to the Columbian. Too much impetuosity....again. Had he lost Vettel the championship, it would have been a travesty. I don't like finger boy any more than anyone esle does, but to lose it that way would have been crook.
Hulk and Clewlis not so clear. Hulk did leave his braking a snippet too late and was aleady understeering across the track before Clewlis turned in, so I reckon 50/50. Certainly didn't deserve a drive-through.
Nearly pissed meself when Webber let Vettel through and the radio said 'Thanks Mark'. You can almost see Webber's thought patterns around the lines of "I'll let the little fucker through once. After that he's on his own." He still couldn't help himself to show that he could pass Vettel when an opportunity came up though, and the ego is undimished in the twilight. It is far better that he didn't go to Ferrari.
At the end, it was a fun race to watch, but not really anything more than that. At times it approached farce, with Kimi relying on the Tom-Tom to get back on track, and getting let down with a blocked exit. Lots of slippin' and slidin' and bullshit like Schumacker letting Vettel through (which in itself was almost a championship-defining moment. Not to mention the Toro-Rosso obligation society's antics.
So on we go to 2013. I'll be watching.