How Max Verstappen exposed Formula One groupthink.

"Max Verstappen is redefining physics"

Startling statement from Toto Wolff, a man now at the pinnacle of Motorsport and one who has some understanding of physics himself.

But what Max should really get credit for is exposing Formula One groupthink.

Because what Verstappen did was something many of you with even basic track experience will understand,  he drove classic rain lines!

Driving off line and avoiding apes?  That's Skip Barber racing in the rain 101.





We got driver coach Peter Krause  on the horn:  

"Max was doing everything Bruce MacInnes and other Skippy instructors have taught for four decades!"

So, the bigger question: are we to believe the top drivers in the world (and if you doubt they are, you didn't watch the race in Interlagos)  forgot how to drive in the rain?

Not exactly, but Verstappen exposed the rut many of them may be stuck in.

For years, high downforce and very good rain tires allowed drivers to largely ignore rain lines, relying on car setup to drive the essentially the same places on the track they would in the dry.   In Brazil,  a combination of factors dropped grip  below a certain critical threshold  yet most drivers appeared to not adjust their approach.

We also asked coaching guru Ross Bentley to weigh in:

"Verstappen's performance in Brazil illustrates a few things.  First, with youth often comes a good form of not knowing what you shouldn't do. In other words, he's naive, but in a positive way. Too many drivers, after just a few years, start to follow what they think they should do. And they believe what they think they should believe. Verstappen doesn't believe he has any limits, and that's why he's doing what he's doing in F1. Let's hope he continues this way, because it's what Senna and Schumacher did longer than most."

When I hear people like Toto Wolff saying things like Verstappen is "redefining physics," it also shows how even people at the top of the sport can get into this "follow others" mindset. Verstappen isn't redefining physics. He simply drove further off line than other drivers because he wasn't set in his ways, and there is more grip that far off line. On one hand, what Verstappen did was nothing special - go to any junior formula race and you'll see a lot of that. On the other hand, what he did was special because he didn't follow everyone else, or the way others think.!

Peter Krause again:

This is the problem with the "funnel" approach. The higher they get, the narrower their view on what works. VES might be a tad immature, but he goes where there is grip, and he has ultimate confidence that IF he gets into trouble, he has the skillz to get out of it. Witness the epic save!

Yes "THAT" save, Let's have a quick parenthesis there.   I think even the most rabid Max fanboy will admit there was an element of luck involved but that said,  Max did everything he could, phenomenally right.     Pay attention how, once the car is sliding well over a 45 degrees to the direction of travel he locks the tires and straightens the wheel.  This gives him the best possible opportunity to prevent a tank slapper once the car straightens out in one direction or the other.    The true magic moment is the precision and timing of when Verstappen releases the brakes, taming momentum and catching the car.  



A lot of drivers made a lot of saves this year at Interlagos. They will not get the glory the Dutchman will get and,  in part,  that's because it's show business.

Ross Bentley:

When TV commentators and journalists rage about a driver's performance, and wonder how he's doing it, remember that they're being paid to entertain. Former drivers who are making comments know what's going on, but it's more entertaining to marvel at the situation. Or maybe they've just forgotten what it was like to be young and naive!

Young and naive FTW then,  it's all about an open mind.  A good lesson for all, no matter where you race or how old you are!

Rosberg frustrates Hamilton in Brazil.

In what turned out to be a rather dull race up front, Nico Rosberg capitalized on is Saturday pole performance by dominating Lewis Hamilton who, for his part, lamented overtaking was not possible at Interlagos.

After blaming his mother and a cold for his early morning Zonda crash in Monaco and skipping the traditional post qualifying photo Saturday, today the British instagram star blamed the circuit.

I guess "18 year old" Max Verstappen didn't get the message.





For the second race in row, Mercedes gave both drivers identical strategies.  Toto Wolff confirmed this was to keep the peace within the team.   Indeed  Mercedes has been consistent, always basing strategy on the driver leading and it's interesting there wasn't really that much complaining about it when Hamilton was on a winning streak.

Be that as it may,  F1 needs to stop being a strategist's world championship and get back to being a driver's championship.    Drivers should be the ones making the calls on their tire and brake wear,  those sensors hold be eliminated.   If Hamilton wanted to try a crazy strategy today as he did in Monaco, he should have been allowed to.  

Unfortunately the reality of the prize money for points scheme likely means even Mercedes cannot risk entertaining the fans beyond turn one....

Rosberg upsets Hamilton in Brazil

Couch vs Yacht : "I can't believe I might lose to this guy"

Whichever way the fight between the two Mercedes drivers will end two weeks from nowin Abu Dhabi, one thing is for certain, Nico Rosberg proved all the doubters and haters wrong.

Here he is, one race to go and he's outscored Lewis, the man conventional wisdom has as the fastest driver over a single lap, in pole positions this year.  Somehow he still has a chance if he wins the final race in  Abu Dhabi.  Of course he will have won five races, half as many as Hamilton, a statistic that will drive Lewis and his fans insane with rage if the Briton manages to lose the championship.

Because it is Hamilton's championship to lose at this point.  Mathematics say that if Rosberg wins the final, double point race, Hamilton has to finish no worse than second.   Given Mercedes' record of 1-2 finishes this year, this should be an easy ask for Lewis.  In Brazil the Mercs finished  41 seconds ahead of third place Felipe Massa... 41 seconds!

But it's not a done deal, Hamilton has shown he too can make mistakes at crucial moments, he was extremely lucky to get away with his spin  at Interlagos without any damage to his car and with very minor damage to his championship hunt.

In a way, it's too bad he did get away with it, the ideal championship finale would have the two both needing a win to be crowned champion, with no possibility of winning from P2.   But it didn't work out that way.

Hamilton now has 334 points vs Rosberg's 317.  Should Hamilton  come second in the final race he would finish the season with 370 points vs Rosberg's 367.   But he has to finish second if Nico wins, third would not cut it (334 + (15x2)= 364).

If something happened to Hamilton and he dropped out, Rosberg will have to score at least a 6th place to win the Championship.

I would guess Hamilton will not play it safe.

Being the Mercedes', it was Mercedes power:  Massa managed a podium despite a 5 sec penalty and pulling into the Mclaren pit for service.  Button must have made quite a few wonder why he does not have a seat in F1 yet for next year.

Raikkonen was the liveliest he has been all season, better late than never.   His fight with Alonso was exciting and his not moving over is probably all the proof you need Fernando is leaving.

Not much else to say really except bring on Abu Dhabi and the 2015 season.

FORMULA 1 GRANDE PRÊMIO PETROBRAS DO BRASIL 2014

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	71	1:30:02.555	1	25
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	71	+1.4 secs	2	18
3	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	71	+41.0 secs	3	15
4	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	71	+48.6 secs	5	12
5	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	71	+51.4 secs	6	10
6	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	71	+61.9 secs	8	8
7	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	71	+63.7 secs	10	6
8	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	71	+63.9 secs	12	4
9	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	71	+70.0 secs	7	2
10	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	70	+1 Lap	4	1
11	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	70	+1 Lap	17
12	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	70	+1 Lap	16
13	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	70	+1 Lap	15
14	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	70	+1 Lap	11
15	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	70	+1 Lap	18
16	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	70	+1 Lap	13
17	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	63	Power unit	14
Ret	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	39	Suspension	9

This is the most epic Formula 1 broadcast opening ever

Brazil's Globo killed it with their opening for the 2013 race at Interlagos.

Check out the "making of" after the jump

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!

Case closed.

We looked up two things, an FIA track map with the marshaling positions indicated and a clearer copy of the onboard which you can see frame by frame from turn 3 on.
 I rocked the few frames where the marshal on the left side of the track is visible waving what, though not clear, we have to assume is a green flag.  Vettel makes the pass after that green flag station so it's all legal.

Where did the confusion arise? Well,  the lights on Vettel's dashboard are still on at that point and stay on until he passes the next light station.  The dashboard lights are perhaps tied to  transponders at light station as opposed to marshal positions (they don't always match) but flags still take precedence.



Below, laps 3 and part of 4, where Vettel passes the Marussia (notice the lack of top speed on the RB8 at this point) and then the Toro Rosso,  Notice also that on lap 3 the flag station on the right at the exit of T3 is green while on lap 4 it becomes yellow and keep in mind the camera does not see as well as the human eye would in those conditions.

Final verdict?  It was in fact  heads up racing by Vettel, like a Champion would drive.

Are we watching a Championship stolen?

Lights are shining on the dash and that should come straight from Race Control regardless of what marshals are doing on the track.

At the same tine, how could such a sophisticated system not detect the infraction?   If it did happen as narrated on this clip then Vettel and Red Bull have some hardware to give back.

I'm searching, as is everyone else I'm sure for a clearer onboard of the incident... but here is the complete video by Nick G.  illustrating all three suspected illegal passes by Vettel in Brazil,  two in fact legal but the above,  clearly not

Vettel is Schumacher 2.0

The trouble with championships is that someone has to win them.

I suspect there will be many who say Sebastian Vettel did not deserve it as much as Alonso did, I don't completely disagree but that's racing.

I think many will always see 2012 as a win thanks to a much superior car, like people said about Schumacher's last few titles.   Again, true but that's the nature of F1 and also what made Alonso's season so extraordinary. Were it not for Grosjean, Ferrari would have been celebrating tonight for as good as Red Bull was as a team, Ferrari had no breakdowns, no major strategy mistakes this year. But that's racing, it's not sentimental.

Many said Alonso was in a position to fight because of luck, maybe, but when then it takes much luck to be hit as Vettel was today and be able to drive away, to stop for the wrong tires and get a safety car to remedy the mistake a lap or two later (albeit in a somewhat chaotic way). Luck is part of racing.

But the point is that you still need to be able to take advantage of the chances and Sebastian did that in spades and much like Fernando, he let no difficulty get in his way, it was 100% all the time. No whining like Hamilton did today, no Emo stuff like Massa is prone to from time to time. In the end he certainly earned it, congratulation on a spectacular career so far, three in a row by age 25 is just extraordinary,  Vettel is truly Schumacher 2.0

Another fantastic season for Formula 1, No wonder Bernie was beaming after the race. We always talk about the good old days, but let me tell you, racing in the past was never like this, this is the golden age.

More about the race itself when the Executive Summary is ready, in the meantime I'd love to hear your opinions.

Brazil.... Brazil....

Vettel will be the youngest ever three time World Champion Sunday afternoon ...or maybe not. Weird things have been known to happen at Interlagos and Fernando is most definitively looking for a little macumba in Sao Paulo tonight.



2007, Hamilton had it in the bag but his Mclaren choked (or he pressed the wrong button...)



2008 Massa, wins his home race and becomes the first Brazilian World Champion since Senna....for about 38 seconds, until Hamilton crosses the line in 5th place having passed Timo Glock who will never ever in his whole life ever get a Christmas card from Maranello.



2010 Alonso seems to have the Championship well in hand but the race but Brazil denied him crucial points when in the final race in pre-DRS Abu Dhabi saw him spend 40 laps behind Petrov's Renault.

Did I mention it might rain?

Who would you want to see wearing the latest culturally correct Pirelli first place hat this week end?

Be Sebastian Vettel for 11 minutes

I was thinking about all those drivers who claim to be Senna reincarnated, who wear his colors, who issue press releases about their visit to his grave and talk about him incessantly any chance they get.

I remember one of Senna's talents being his incredible ability at some point in qualifying, to put the hammer down in a way designed to destroy the opposition, usually right after they thought they had his number. He would find time where there seemed to be none or at least, where nobody else could find any.

In Brazil on Saturday, the most "Senna" of drivers was not wearing a replica helmet, he's a driver very much his own man at the moment. His pole lap, the last lap, was just phenomenal, the fastest of the week end.

Enjoy this rare treat, eleven minutes onboard with the 2010-11 Champion Sebastian Vettel in the mighty RB7 at the Autodromo Carlos Pace in São Paulo.

.

2010 Brazilian GP Executive Summary

Some discussion points out after the Brazilian GP:

1. Red Bull wins the constructors title, it was a great, no effort spared, attack from f1 clowns to clear #1 team. But something happened on the way to the dream, the wrong guy ended up with more points. Red Bull does not want Webber to be their first World Champion.

2. Webber, who now has not won for seven races, needs to win the final race and hope Alonso does not come in second. It's not that big of a gamble to think there will be a Red Bull 1-2 in the final race, yet... If Vettel is ahead and Alonso is fourth or better, Red Bull will have to get off their high horse and issue team orders let the drivers decide on their own. If Alonso DNF's, Vettel has a chance to win the championship in a tie-braker over Webber. Can you say Turkey?

3. What happened to Mclaren? Hamilton tried hard as usual but he kept complaining about lack of grip. Button advanced once more through clever strategy but the british team has been going backwards in the final part of the season with the drivers seem unable to nail setups for the race. Very un-Mclaren.

4. Alonso, what a second part of the season. Love him or hate him, you cannot fault his driving and determination.

An interesting tidbit came out about his Saturday practice crash in Monaco which prevented him from qualifying and was clearly his lowest point of his season, with the world press wondering if Ferrari had made a big mistake. Alonso, as reported by "Gazzetta dello Sport", personally delivered a handwritten note of apology to all the members of the team, from mechanics to management, (ok, presumably he made copies.. grin) apologizing for his mistake and promising a comeback and a fight for the title. Not exactly the whining complaining pest, some corners of the media like to paint him as and he certainly galvanized the team.

5. What is it with Barrichello and Interlagos? Macumba?

6. Safety car: c'mon what would you have given to have had Vettel, Webber and Alonso all lined up behind the SLS for a final sprint rather than be separated by lapped cars who refused to get out of the way?

The race itself was not the best ever, Red Bulls were just too good especially on tire wear, but the backmarkers did do some entertaining suspension arms be damned racing here and there.

Great season finale though, 4 years running now.


end of post

The good, the bad and the ugly.

Interlagos track facts:

Lap time: around 1'12"
Time on brakes: :9.2 Seconds
Number of brake zones: 7
Gearshifts per lap : 37
Time spent at full throttle" 68%
Fuel consumption: 2.9 Liters per lap


That great old 1970s footage reminded me that F1 back then was more fun to watchmostly because you could actually see things happening. Current cars are so quick that as a spectator you have no chance to physically see anything but what looks like a blur on rails. So it's useful to see the bad to appreciate the good.

Have a look at how quickly Vitaly Petrov's car snaps from under him. Braking events average about 1 second, is it any wonder there is no passing? What is surprising is that there are not more errors with such a small window to hit lap after lap.



After the jump, compare Bruno Senna fighting the HRT all around the track compared to Alonso's totally smooth experience. Even given the different tires and unknown fuel loads, you have to feel for Bruno, check out how much time he has to spend on partial throttle compared to the Ferrari.







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Brazilian Magistrate Threatens to Arrest Massa...

...if he allows Alonso to pass him again as he did in Germany!

That's the treat expressed by prosecutor Paulo Castilho who invoked Brazil's "Sporting Statute" which includes a two to six year jail sentence for those found guilty of "Sporting Fraud". Good luck with that.

Meanwhile Massa was more humorous in a TV interview. When asked what it is that Alonso has to make him a the number one at Ferrari, Felipe said: "Fleas". We figure he was partly mesmerized by his interviewer, the beautiful and brilliant Gianne Albertoni!



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Brawn World Champions, Button World Champion

Congratulations to Brawn GP and Jenson Button. I read many articles along the lines of "but is Jenson Button worthy..." yada yada. Ultimately, pointless: you win Championships by having the most points and Button was able to do that. You may debate style but not substance.

And you can get as "Oliver Stone" as you like but there is no denying one basic thing about Brawn GP, Along with Mercedes they built a package that was not just fast but incredibly strong and reliable. Why did Button win the championship even after other teams fitted their cars with "double diffusers" and closed the performance gap? Because his car, unlike his those of his rivals, did not break once in sixteen races (he was punted off track in Belgium). Rubens had one mechanical. That is simply fantastic, the car was a tank.

As for today's race, Button, like Hamilton, had a dry setup and as expected sliced through the field. But from the start the seas parted for Button as, once again, cars in front of him got into trouble. Raikkonen was shut down hard by Webber, Trulli and Sutil got cozy and bumped each other out taking Alonso with them. Rosberg had a mechanical, Nakajima crashed. Mclaren drove off with a fuel hose attached and managed to light Kimi's Ferrari on fire for a second ( way more embarrassing than Singapore last year, the fuel man was not even close to done when the lead mechanic released the car...)
Button had some trouble with the very impressive Kamui Kobayashi and had, I thought, a bit of a lame moment when he complained over the radio the rookie was not making things easy for him ("we'll let Charlie know" was the reply from the team). Yes Jenson, it's called racing... I like Kobayashi, he fought hard and showed Button and other veterans zero respect, reminded me a bit of when Alonso was dealing with Schumacher way back...

And Barrichello, once again jinxed in Brazil, he owes Brawn for a chance to see if eighteen's the charm for winning his home GP!

Oh yes, almost forgot, Webber won, Kubica had a great race and Vettel not a so great race.
Feel free to weigh in, as usual.


home

The Curious Case of Jensomin Button

(Steven Tee/LAT Photographic)

Has Jenson Button actually figured out a way to go from a seemingly insurmountable lead to losing the world championship to Ruben Barrichello? Sure looked like it during qualifying, Button plain blew it, no excuses. Barrichello barely made Q3 but then got the job done with a light car to score his first pole in a long time.
Vettel also blew it and then blew a gasket in a not so cool "toy out of the pram toss" episode... Dude, conditions were tough for everyone.

Of course some cars will have gambled on dry setups and in the unlikely case of a dry race, watching the "drys" make their way through the field should be very entertaining.

Because Liuzzi has to change his gearbox (destroyed when he crashed in Q2) he will start from the back which means Button and Vettel will start side by side.

Barrichello is on pole but he has been traditionally jinxed in Brazil and he has the lightest fuel load. Webber looks like a real threat but Raikkonen is also there ready to pounce and now probably very motivated to show well.

Don't miss the race this afternoon!


(Ercole Colombo)

Pos  Driver       Team                       Q1        Q2        Q3
1.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:24.100  1:21.659  1:19.576
2.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:24.722  1:20.803  1:19.668
3.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:24.447  1:20.753  1:19.912
4.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:24.621  1:20.635  1:20.097
5.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:23.047  1:21.378  1:20.168
6.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:24.591  1:20.701  1:20.250
7.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:22.828  1:20.368  1:20.326
8.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:23.072  1:21.147  1:20.631
9.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:23.161  1:20.427  1:20.674
10.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:24.842  1:21.657  1:21.422
11.  Kobayashi    Toyota                (B)  1:24.335  1:21.960 
12.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:24.773  1:22.231 
13.  Grosjean     Renault               (B)  1:24.394  1:22.477 
14.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:24.297  1:22.504 
15.  Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:24.645 
16.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:25.009
17.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:25.052
18.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:25.192
19.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:25.515
20.  Fisichella   Ferrari               (B)  1:40.703

All Timing Unofficial

Brazil Practice Samba

Interlagos

Weather uncertain, Button's clinch uncertain... Formula 1 script writers heading for another successful season finale!

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The Cruel Internets, Brazilian Edition.

Post them is you got them! (post link in comments and I'll add then to the main post)

Two Champions.

Thing is, in sports somebody has to win and somebody has to come in second so, congratulations to Lewis Hamilton and McLaren for the Driver's Championship and Ferrari for the constructor's title.

But I would make the case the correct outcome should have been the reverse, Massa and Mclaren.   Hamilton's title was built on his own talent of course, but also very much on Ferrari's mistakes. Mclaren gave him a car which never failed and the benefit of unchallenged number one status.  Even so, I think it would be fair to say Ferrari lost the title for Massa rather than that Hamilton beat him.  Massa had more race wins, more fast laps and just one less pole.  Crucially, it was mechanical failures and that clown moment in Singapore which cost him the title. Mclaren as a team were essentially perfect and without question deserved the constructor's championship more than Ferrari this year.

Everyone naturally will be gushing about Hamilton so indulge me if I spend a few words for Massa, up to now the Rodney Dangerfield of Formula one. 

We've been hard on Massa and at times deservedly but Felipe finally got his respect.  He's not the slick driver with the immense natural talent, he did not have the benefit of a planned career and a top team his first time out, he spent time as a test driver and he's the guy who works hard and learned to develop his skills. This makes him a more sympathetic character.

 

I came across this moment at the end of the race today I thought was emblematic: it's Massa's race engineer Rob Smedley, emotional and no doubt wondering what could have been. Smedley was a key to Massa's success this year, an expert in telemetry interpretation it was him who would convince Felipe that certain corners might be taken faster and that the car could be pushed further. Part friend, part psychologist, Massa's success would have been very much his as well,  who can say if Massa will ever be in this position again?

Maybe cheesy to say but in the end, as fans, we all won: for the second year in a row we've had a nail biter of epic proportions.  I think this added another ten years to Bernie Ecclestone's life he must be so happy. 

By one point on the last corner of the last race...you can't make this stuff up.  

Felipe last lap in Brazil

( Thank you all for your comments after the race,  and I do mean all of you,  it's great you participate and make these pages more interesting and alive!)

Live comments...

Leave a comment...if you can stand it! here we go!




And here is the rest of it.