No-one's said anything about the U.S. G.P yet? Hmm. I'll put in my ten cents worth, then. I thought it was a good race. I think, however, that Alonso,s championship challenge is over. Sure, he's still in mathematically, but all Vettel needs from the next race is a podium and, if Alonso doesn't win the race, Vettel should have the Championship in the bag. The Ferrari just doesn't seem to have the race pace at this stage of the season when compared to the McLaren or Red Bull cars. Great drive from Hamilton and Button. Raikkonen also drove well but seemed to lose pace compared to the cars around him in the last ten laps, but he did have some great overtaking moves - it looks like the old Raikkonen is back after that win. I think Lotus could be a serious contender next season, especially if Lewis Hamilton's move to Mercedes doesn't prove fruitful for him - the Mercedes really lacked race pace badly, so they'd better have something very, very good for Lewis to drive next season. I'm also starting to wonder if Lotus will hang on to Grosjean - sure, he's fast in qualifying, but he is a bit reckless and cavalier and doesn't have Kimi's race pace - how many times has Grosjean finished ahead of Kimi this season in a race (where neither car has retired)?
I liked the Texas race. Pretty fun Qualifying too. I would have liked it if Alonso wasn't 30 seconds behind the leaders though. I know Vettel is gonna win it this year,, but if anything Alonso is driver of the year. Dude is amazing. I got a feeling that if you put him in either a Mclaren or Red Bull, he'd win it all. And probably pretty easily. I told the wife a couple weeks ago that next year I'm not rooting for Hamilton anymore. With all the shit he pulled this year, I'm done with his immature ass. The DNF because he would let Maldanado go past him, the tweeting pictures of internal documents from Mclaren, the whining and bitching about Mclaren giving Jensen a better car/setup... I hope he has fun at AMG, losing. So basically, I don't know what team and driver I'm behind for next year. I hate Red Bull and Ferrari. Can't root for AMG because, fuck Hamilton. Looks like Lotus for me.
I'd give Kimi driver of the year due to his consistent finishes. Lotus would be a great bet for any neutrals - a little more raw pace and they'll be serious competitors to Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren. I'm still a Williams guy at my core - and they have *really* tested my patience over the years with nutcase/inconsistent drivers (far too many to list here, but would include Wurz(!) and Montoya (!!)) and reliability issues (fucking hell, 2006. 36 starts and 20 retirements? What the fuck? Were they designed to disassemble themselves during the race?!). But I still enjoy the racing, even if the guys at Williams infuriate me. Senna, however, drove well last race... Maldonado will be a competitor for the future if he can control himself better. I'm hoping Williams can hang on to both drivers for 2013, dependent on having a car that doesn't break and can show some pace - I think Maldonado was the first guy to win in a Williams for 9 years, since J.P. Montoya?
I like Kimi a lot, but calling him Driver of the Year is a longshot. He only won one race, but like you said he was very consistent. If Mclaren could have kept their car on the fucking track, Hamilton would have won a championship this year. Shit. How many times was he leading a race this year and the car quit? It'd be nice if Kimi could do something in Qualifying. And its all on him too, because Grojean puts up some monster laps. Speaking of,,, Practice Two is on in a half an hour. I'm praying for a gearbox change on an RBR car, specifically Vettels. Edit: Oh shit I forgot a nice P.S. to my thanksgiving day. I asked the Fiance what she wanted for X-mas, and this is what she told me: Its rare that someone asks for something that you were going to get them anyway.
So that's it for 2012. I'm posting this a few minutes after the race has finished, so it's spoilered. Don't read if you still have to watch it. Spoiler What a fantastic race, in continuously changing conditions. A sad race for both Hamilton and Hülkenberg, who collided while dicing for the lead - Hulkenberg got 5th and Hamilton retired. I think Hamilton could've given Hülkenberg more space - he must have seen him in his mirrors, surely? Button got the win, with Alonso 2nd and Massa 3rd and Vettel got 6th place, with Vettel having just a 3 point lead to win the World Championship ahead of Alonso. Ferrari got their reliability right but the car just wasn't quick enough this year. It was nice to see Massa on the podium again, since he drove a really good race. Kimi, unfortunately, was nowhere for most of it - I think this was due to incorrect tyre choices on his and his team's part. Grosjean, Perez and Senna all crashed out early in the race. I hope someone signs Kobayashi - I can't believe he is still without a drive for next year...
I am fucking astonished that Vettel not only won the championship, but finished the fucking race. He gets clobbered, and spun, is at the back of the field..... And then charges through the field (with an extra pit stop where his team fucked him by putting him on slicks) and ends up 6th. I know he's a great driver, but how in the mother of fuck does he do it? Do people just move the fuck over when they see him in their mirrors? Maybe its my bias for rooting for the underdog? Who knows. I disagree with you that Hamilton could have given Hulk more room, I just think it was slick and Hulk's nose got loose and it was just racing. I think you're nailing this point. Doesn't it say something that the two fastest teams in the field had major reliability issues. I think that they run the cars right on the edge of the envelope and because of that issues invariably pop up. Whereas Ferrari, and I think as well Lotus,,,, run slower but had hardly any DNF's due to mechanical issues. (In fact I can't remember if either Ferrari, or Lotus had any mechanical problems this year and didn't finish the race because of it?) I think its because he got fired way too late in the season, to a certain degree I think it was like musical chairs, but by the time the he got axed, the music had stopped. Next question: Is Grosjean getting whacked? I can't see it happening. Who they gonna get that's better? I think he's good but immature driver. A combination of bad luck, with in-experience makes him look really shitty. He's a better driver than the year he had. Or once again maybe its just me rooting for the underdog?
I couldn't find anything about mechanical anomalies for either Lotus or Ferrari, and Red Bull had 3 retirements (I'd thought it was more, but only one for Vettel at the Euro GP and two for Webber) This is how Wikipedia has the grid for next year so far: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Formula_One_season. That shows a LOT of open seats. Ferrari, Red Bull (now Infiniti Red Bull) and Scuderia Toro Rosso are showing unchanged driver line-ups. I wonder if Bruno Senna might drive for Lotus, like his uncle did. Force India seem to have an open seat - possibly for Karthikeyan, since the majority owner is Indian? Both seats seem to be open at Williams for 2013 - unsurprising, since both drivers didn't perform as expected. Seems like the musical chairs has not been solved yet, aside from Schumacher's retirement.
Maybe you're right, and there are still a bit of settling left to do. Currently (according to Wiki) there are 5 seats left open. Even though they haven't re-signed him, do you really think that Grosjean isn't going to be driving for Lotus next year? Who's are they going to get that's better? Paul Di Resta? Also, Maldanado has already re-signed with Williams. And unless HRT finds a buyer in the next couple days, they aren't going to be racing next year. So, we're down to about 3 seats up for grab. Caterham, Marussia, and Sahara Force India. I'd think that Kobayashi could hook a seat with any of those teams, couldn't he? Also I found this interesting... It was in that Wiki article under RULE CHANGES: What's the over under on that rule being implemented because of Maldonado or Grosjean? I get the feeling that in the last race when Maldonado got a ten spot penalty because he didn't go to the weigh in when waived in, was cumulative rather than fair and just. Am I wrong?
Yeah, I see that page has been updated since I posted it. Bottas now seems to have the other seat at Williams - he's apparently been one of their test drivers for the last two years so that seems a logical move. Williams have promoted from within before (e.g. Damon Hill, David Coulthard, etc.). I am entirely unsurprised that they've dumped Bruno Senna - he was pretty poor in most of the first half of the 2012 season. I am surprised, however, that Maldonado has been kept - he threw away a lot of points this season and Williams could've finished much higher if he'd kept his head more in races. I think he'd only been kept due to that Spanish GP win. I don't think any team, except possibly Lotus, would have a punt on Bruno - he's slower than Grosjean but is more likely to bring the car home and not do anything too stupid (daft accident at Interlagos aside). I am a little surprised that Gutierrez got the race seat ahead of Kobayashi at Sauber - the only place he can end up now is at Force India. Anything else would be a step backwards for him - Caterham's car looked very slow last season, considering they had the same Renault power as Williams, Red Bull and Lotus, which is odd considering their owner is Tony Fernandes, who has pretty deep pockets. It'd be a waste if a driver of his talent joined Marussia, since they just don't have the finances to even compete for points. As far as HRT goes, I think they're history, unless they get bought by a car manufacturer with deep pockets, because it's going to take a LOT of money for them to get close to getting a remotely competitive car and I simply don't see it happening for them, since most car manufacturers (Mercedes aside) seem to be getting out of most forms of motor racing.
Question for you Durb, since you've been watching F1 for a lot longer than I have. (I was raised on NHRA, CART, and Indy Car) Has a lower tiered team like HRT ever rose to prominence? They were fucking awful this year. I don't think I saw them not start from the back row. I mean them and Marussia, and Caterham didn't score a point did they? What's the point? I get why Force India, and Sauber, and other middle of the pack teams race.... They've got an outside shot. But, the bottom teams didn't produce shit. Have they ever?
I think the last time a lower-tiered team rose to prominence was Jordan through the 1990's. Jordan made the step up to F1 in 1991 from F3000. They always had above average to brilliant drivers (Michael Schumacher, Barrichello, Eddie Irvine, Damon Hill, Fisichella, Ralf Schumacher, Frentzen, Trulli, Brundle, Nick Heidfeld...) and had a focus on chassis development in the earlier days, before they got better engines in 1997 (Mugen-Honda - they'd had Peugeot and Ford engines before that), then they started regularly competing for podium places and getting wins by Frentzen and Hill in the late 1990's. Force India was Jordan in the old days. Jordan went backwards when Honda moved their engine supply to BAR - that was the beginning of the end for them. I reckon it was a result of poor performances in 2001 and 2002 - all of their drivers (and they had at least 6 in those 2 years) had at least one retirement - that caused Honda to move on. I think Caterham could be the next breakout team, due to them already having a very strong engine (Renault).