darguy

That was quite a race! I love the strategy playing out - all the way from the last qualifying session and into the outcome of the race, and championship. Shows just how tight this series has become. Petrov and Kubica certainly played interesting roles. I'd love to see Kubica in a genuinely competative car.

While I would have preferred to see Weber win the championship, he did not seem to have the package together to bring it all the way to the end. Vettel certainly earned it. I'm glad that Alonso finished more than 7 pts ahead of Weber (considering his 1-2 swap with Massa earlier in the year), it takes that little escapade out of the final equation.

Looking forward to 2011!

63Corvette

I concur! Great race, great result, and great end to the season

dfinke23

I wonder what was going on with Webber (or his car)?
For RB, this entire season there hasn't been a gap like that in qualifying, or the race, when both cars do not break.
BTW, Schumacher is lucky to be alive.

Zoxxo

I agree. In fact, this entire season has been quite good.

I do think that it was pretty weenie of both Hamilton and (especially) Alonso to suggest that the Renaults should have done something other than race for position and points. Hey Fernando, you're not *entitled* to the championship! That's why they have the races, kiddies. Sheesh.

Again, I agree on both counts. I would have preferred to see Webber win it. I hope Vettel doesn't become an insufferable twit.

I guess. He still has 7 points that he didn't earn. He, and Ferrari, needlessly kicked Massa to the side (and to the team's detriment.) Sometimes it seems like Ferrari actively searches for new ways to be a-holes.

Definitely! It will be interesting to see who gets the new car design nailed from the start. No F-ducts, no double-diffusers, no adjustable front wings, adjustable REAR wings (!), KERS (), Pirelli tires... Wanna place any bets against Adrian Newey?

Should be interesting, indeed!

Z//

Jason

I take back 1/2 of the nasty things I said about RB after last weeks race. Congrats to Vettel, I never dreamed he'd pull it off. Was fun to watch Renault, a team that wasn't good enough for Alonso, stick it to him.

VetteDrmr

I agree, that was a great race from a strategy POV. My favorite driver (Anybody But Alonso) won, but I don't think I saw more than a handful of passes for position on track, regardless of where they were. It'll be interesting to see how Vettel does next year.

I did like the timing of the race, running through twilight to darkness; made for great TV imagery.

Now we enter the gathering darkness of the off-season .

Have a good one,
Mike

varkwso

Great race - I was hoping for ABA so it was a win in that way. Vettel is not my favorite guy but he can drive.

Schumacher was a lucky boy..

1991Z07

It was rather interesting that Webber and Vettel have been close ALL year long, yet when it comes to the final race of the year (when Webber needed a fast car) his was WAYYYY slower than Vettels...

And it isn't any big news that Red Bull's owner favored Vettel all year long...

Maybe a software tweak in the engine management side to drop the power?

Zoxxo

Why would Red Bull spend hundreds of millions of dollars to get BOTH(!) of their drivers within shot of the championship and then cripple one of their two shots (when the other two teams had only one shot each) for some very unexplainable, obtuse, obscure reason?

I think not. That would take perversity to a level even Formula One would have trouble understanding.

Z//

vetteblack

Politics could be a reason. Webber has been complaining most of the season the team has favored Vettel. It was a great race, and at the best track on the circut too.

VetteDrmr

BTW, one thing that I got lost on was what caused Alonso to drop back to 7th? Was it bad strategy, poor pit stop execution, or just the launch?

The DVR's going to get a rest now, for sure!

Have a good one,
Mike

darguy

I think it was strategy, and fear of the soft tires wearing out. They couldn't imagne that they'd finish less than 4th, so just had to finish ahead of Weber and Alonso would win the championship. So, when Weber's tires started going off and he pitted (after seeing how fast the guys who switched to the harder compound with the SC), they mirrored Weber's strategy to keep ahead of him.

That worked for objective 1, but he couldn't get ahead of Petrov.

Ironically, Weber had a bunch of hot laps from Q3 on his tires that Alonso didn't, and as it turned out they could have stayed out longer to build up the 23 sec required to not get mired in the pack (as Vettel did). Complicated stuff, very interesting.

Zoxxo

Strategy. Ferrari focused on Webber as their main (only?) rival concern and when Webber - running behind Alonso on the track - pitted for new tires, Ferrari brought Alonso in two laps later so that he would also be on new tires. In theory, that would keep Webber from gaining time on Alonso. But Ferrari failed to take into consideration that both Petrov and Rosberg had already pitted for new tires (during the lap 1 safety car), were good to go to the end of the race, and Alonso would come out behind them both on the track. And both of those cars were close enough to Alonso's pace that he was going to find it difficult to get past them. In the meantime, Vettel had checked out up front.

Fascinating stuff, it was.

Z//

drivinhard

Finally caught up on brazil and Abu dhabi last night. I'm slow. tough avoiding the interwebs the last few days, but I was able to keep it a secret to myself.

F1 needs to run every race at night.

pretty good season, 4 in the hunt at the end. Was pulling for webbie, but glad to see RB ****** it from Alonso.

others may disagree, but somebody needs to put Kobayashi in a good car. the kid can wheel and it would be fun to see him take it to hammy and vetty

VetteDrmr

Ah, got it. Saw all of that, but just didn't put it together. Guess my understanding of strategy is no better than Ferrari's.

Have a good one,
Mike

Zoxxo

What I have always found interesting (or odd) it that with all the money that F1 teams spend on simulators, carbon fiber brake fans, etc., etc, that (apparently) no one has developed a software package that takes the relative positions of all the cars on the track, the lap times of same, the pit stop bogie time, etc., and generates a constantly updated "here's what you ought to do next" read out for the engineers. And/or a "what will happen if we do this?" scenario generator. In the big picture, this ought to be relatively simple and inexpensive and, in this case, might have saved Ferrari the world championship.

But then, F1, like most every other "society" in Earth, is often blind to the obvious. I still find it amusing that Jacques Villeneuve went from CART to F1 and brought with him the (awfully obvious) idea of front wing elements that could be adjusted during pit stops (doh!) Weren't you F1 guys watching the other big open wheel series on the planet???

The other interesting tidbit I'd forgotten was that when Bobby Rahal won the Indy 500 his engineer was Adrian Newey!

Z//

Everett Ogilvie

I couldn't agree more.

Jason

Renault should put him in Petrov's seat.

Cloaked323

Dunno what happened to my first post anyway. 1st and foremost needs to address reckless driving, where Webber is king, he's got not business being the F1 Champion with his driving tactics, he cost Hami a real shot at the title (Singapore). I think Hami, Vett and Al were the best drivers out there. I still believe that none of them are better than "Schumacher" in the hot years.

sperkins

Hulkenberg in Q3 Brazil was simply incredible to watch. It was inevitable and a shame to see him get eaten alive from the start and now he's out at Williams. I really hope someone else gives that kid a shot. Like Kobayashi, I think he'd be fun to watch in a competitive car with more experience. I thought it was pretty funny how they kept saying that Petrov was holding up Alonzo when he had 35 laps to make a pass on fresher tires.
Vettel - pretty amazing story. 5 wins and 10 poles in 19 races, wow.