F1 Season Wrap: grumpy old men tell everyone to get off their lawn

Some time has passed since the end of the Brazilian GP and the whole yellow flag incident. A bit of a spectacle since: what was a completely legitimate question raised and argued by fans turned into a cause celebre for the F1 establishment, all the way up to El Supremo Bernie.

Ecclestone's view that "Flag-gate" was "ridiculous" is perhaps understandable coming from the man who takes credit for yet another exciting season finale and a nail biter for Red Bull and Ferrari fans. However, what's really ridiculous is that with all its high tech gear and telemetry, F1 did not immediately come out and put the matter to rest.  Do not question our judgement, get off our lawn!

Ridiculous was watching establishment motorsport media work the flag issue into a global controversy after it had been already raised and solved, not by them but by, as notorious gatekeeper/grumpy old man Joe Saward calls them, "Internet people".
Frankly, had these "real journalists" managed to raise their noses from the free shrimp buffet in the various hospitality suites and bothered to sit down to go through laps in question frame by frame as "internet people" had done, they could have also put this very legitimate question to bed within 24 hours and not get Bernie upset. We don't question F1's judgement (and we like free shrimp), get off our lawn.

Another one who got all in a bundle recently was Luca di Montezemolo who, with trademark class, called Ecclestone a senile old coot.   di Montezemolo, not exactly a spring chicken himself at 65, was then verbally kung fu'd by the 82 year old Ecclestone who brought up "88 year old Enzo Ferrari when Luca was a young 40"...
It's actually MY lawn, now get off it!.

Not a good week for Monty, that on the heels of Ferrari's official request for a "clarification" on the flag issue. Bad form that, had they looked in on those "internet people" they would have saved themselves yet another PR mistake.

More grumpy old man checking in: 68 year old Dieter Mateschitz came out accusing Alonso for being a sore loser. Frankly, all year long we heard Red Bull whining about being victims and when your star driver takes blames F1 weakest driver and team for his own inability to manage traffic as Vettel did in Austin....
He just forgot now get off his red lawn.

Someone had mentioned how F1 needs a younger audience, perhaps it should quit telling outsiders to get off their lawn...

The Race:

All season we were told Alonso and Ferrari were lucky and chance was why he found himself in a position to fight for the championship at all. Maybe, chance is certainly a part of racing as it was in Brazil for Vettel. For all the griping about bad luck and Senna doing thing to him, Vettel was quite lucky to drive away from a collision he caused on the fist lap, lucky when after gambling on a set of option tires for his second stop, the skyes opened up on his out lap. Fortunately for Seb, Hulkenberg lost it making a move on Hamilton for the lead and the Safety Car was deployed. Vettel struggled around just that one laps and came in for wets. The pit stop was chaotic but he lost little time compared to being out in the pouring rain on slicks. Champions do make the most of luck, no need to pretend it does not exist.

The title was Vettel's to lose and he nearly did, which made it exciting to watch for fans, Red Bull did a superb job again exploiting the regulations to the maximum.F1 put on a good show yet again and moves ahead to a new season minus bendy noses and hopefully a new better form of coverage in the US from F1 new broadcaster, NBC.

Hero to zero award goes to Nico Hulkenberg.  One mistake is all it took,  and just when everyone was saying he should have been the one to take Lewis' seat at Mclaren next year.

One final word about the man who kicked everyone's butt in Brazil: Jenson Button.  His drive on slicks when everyone else was reaching for wets was, to say the least, spectacular.

Well done Gentleman Jenson!