And so, the curious case of Jenson Button draws to a close.

Congratulations to the new World Champion and we start to truly wind down the season and get ourselves set for a duel between what could be Button, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Massa, Alonso and Vettel.

I'm looking forward to seeing what each team can make of the changes to the formula for next season.

At 10/19/09 08:32 AM, Coop83 wrote: And so, the curious case of Jenson Button draws to a close.
Congratulations to the new World Champion

Yep, congratulations to our fellow countryman Jenson. That makes 2 British world champions 2 years running. Lets see if they can make it 3 years next year ;)

At 10/19/09 08:32 AM, Coop83 wrote: And so, the curious case of Jenson Button draws to a close.

Lmao, nice one. Congratulations Button, bring on next season ^_^

At 10/19/09 08:13 PM, Life-Stream wrote: Yep, congratulations to our fellow countryman Jenson. That makes 2 British world champions 2 years running. Lets see if they can make it 3 years next year ;)

Well, Jenson would be up for that and he would become the first briton ever to win two consecutive titles.

It's uncanny - 14 world titles across 10 different drivers has given us 3 multiple champions and none of them could win it back to back. Granted that Graham Hill's were separated by 6 years, Jim Clark's were separated by John Surtees and Clark probably had a good shot at winning the title in 1968, when he was tragically killed in an F2 race.

Sir Jackie Stewart only liked odd numbered years, winning in '71, '73 and '75, being beaten by Jochen Rindt and Emerson Fittipaldi respectively in the two intervening championships. In 1976, the roles reversed and Stewart found his 1975 title between Fittipaldi's two titles, the first for a Brazilian.

Still, enough nostalgia for now - does anyone know who will be driving where yet?! Button hasn't re-signed, but is almost a dead cert to stick with Brawn. Ross should be able to give him a competitive car and possibly a new teammate in Nico Rosberg.

Congrats Button, wasnt sure if he desevered the world title, until that race on sunday, awesome overtakes.

lets see what 2010 brings,all new cars and all.

At 10/20/09 02:49 PM, cronic-22 wrote: Congrats Button, wasnt sure if he desevered the world title, until that race on sunday, awesome overtakes.

Well, Martin Brundle put it nicely in the commentary box - "Button's made about 10 crucial passes this year, and four of them have come here at Interlagos."

lets see what 2010 brings,all new cars and all.

I'm looking forward to it already :)

I think Yesterdays Grand Prix was one of the best, most exciting race in a long time.

There was constatly some battle or overtaking taking place. And alot of racers performed very well.

Alonso did a good job from getting back from last place and finishing fourth. That being said, he did have a great deal of luck, and to be honest it is easier now to remount those positions from the back of the field, what with 10-12 cars not being able to compete with the top teams.

Hamilton had an excellent race, but had bad luck at the end. He wasn't all to happy that McLaren made him do a 2 stop, while the top 4 only went with a 1 stop, and i think he feels that that ruined his chances at a possible podium finish.
I personally think he could have taken Alonso in those last 2 laps had it not been for the unfortunate run in with Mark Webber.

Speaking of Mark Webber. What an unlucky man. The guy never has luck at his home land. And a pretty dissapointing weekend for Red Bull really, what with Vettels brake problem sending him out of the race and throwing away those 25 points he was sure to take home.

That's set to be one of the greatest for this season I say. Great battles, and so much stuff going on, it was totally awesome. Alonso could have done better in some aspects though. A good race by all. Sucks to be Vettel though, you'd think someone's been sabotaging his car with everything that's happened :/

That incident with Lewis and Mark was exciting but still a big kick in the balls for both of them :/ especially in the last 2 laps.

Schumacher won't be signing with Mercedes again either I say :3

At 3/29/10 02:10 AM, SpeedMetalSandwich wrote: That's set to be one of the greatest for this season I say. Great battles, and so much stuff going on, it was totally awesome.

Yeah, it was one of the best races I have ever seen.

That incident with Lewis and Mark was exciting but still a big kick in the balls for both of them :/ especially in the last 2 laps.

I jumped off my chair and shouted `NOOOO` with my hands on my head. I can Imagine they felt alot worse, especially, like you said, in the last 2 laps -_-

Schumacher won't be signing with Mercedes again either I say :3

I personally can't see him racing next year either if he doesn't do well this year.

So Yesterdays Malasian GP was a little less interesting than the Australian, but there were a few good moments.

Hamilton did pretty well to get 6th after starting 20th, so that nabbed him some points.

And Red Bull finally had their weekend, grabbing 1st and 2nd. It's about time Vettel had some luck with his car.

There were alot of retirements.....alot of cars just....breaking down. From memory i think Schumacher, Kobayashi, Di Grassi, Petrov, Alonso all broke down and De La Rosa didn't even start because of car problems.

What i think is pretty interesting so far is that the top 7 drivers are all within 8 points of each other, so it's pretty tight right now, and it could go any way as you can see here.

The incident happened as I applied an even and gradual pressure to the brake pedal.

There was a thunk and both wheels broke free of the car, thus leaving me incapable of braking, except for with my arse cheeks, which sustained significant friction burns.

- Sebastien Buemi

Insurance Claim

At 4/16/10 11:45 AM, Coop83 wrote: The incident happened as I applied an even and gradual pressure to the brake pedal.

There was a thunk and both wheels broke free of the car, thus leaving me incapable of braking, except for with my arse cheeks, which sustained significant friction burns.

- Sebastien Buemi

Insurance Claim

In all the years I have watched formula one I have never seen that happen before

At 4/16/10 11:45 AM, Coop83 wrote: There was a thunk and both wheels broke free of the car, thus leaving me incapable of braking, except for with my arse cheeks, which sustained significant friction burns.

That was some crazy shit! His heart must have been in his throat in the split second the suspension just gave in!

So Redbull 1,2 in qualifying. Unlucky for Hamilton, he had the best times all day throughout the qualifying, but in the last minute everyone seemed to do amazing laps and pushed him down to 6th :(
Oh well, we've seen some great races from him before so lets see if he can do a great race tomorrow.

At 4/16/10 06:14 PM, satelliteMAN wrote: In all the years I have watched formula one I have never seen that happen before

I've seen drivers have punch ups after taking each other off, spectacular crashes (Martin Brundle, Australia 1996; Alex Wurz, Canada 1998), fatalities and some damned good racing over the years, but never the wheels fall off the car when the brakes are applied. The closest we can come is Schumacher impaling himself on the back of Coulthard's McLaren in the really heavy rain in Spa (1998)

At 4/17/10 09:23 AM, Life-Stream wrote: So Redbull 1,2 in qualifying. Unlucky for Hamilton, he had the best times all day throughout the qualifying, but in the last minute everyone seemed to do amazing laps and pushed him down to 6th :(

And still no-one has won from pole...

Oh well, we've seen some great races from him before so lets see if he can do a great race tomorrow.

Well, what can we say? Bring on the rain, bring on the drama. Indecision from the McLaren team caused a little nervous tension for Lewis, but he drove superbly, only to rue the choice of tyres later in the race. Would he have been able to catch Button? Who knows.

Michael Schumacher still doesn't look like the Schuimacher of old. I don't care what those people who say that the car is not competitive - the car was good to finish 3rd under the driving of Nico Rosberg in Schumacher's legendarily favoured driving conditions. In short, Schumacher is no longer "Der Regenmaiseter"

Still, a McLaren 1-2 and they look to take more control by taking advantage of Red Bull's early season misfortune. Can we go for wet races all of the time? Probably not. Will we all get to Barcelona on time? I haven't got a clue, but the way it is, you've got to pack up the trailers and hit the airport, getting yourself as close as possible to Spain, before heading back to the UK, then driving down to Spain for the race weekend.

My solution - fly to Frankfurt, drive to Blighty, then unload, digest, load and off to Barcelona by road. You'll cover a lot of miles, but sometimes you've got to go the extra few hundred (or thousand) miles.

Okay, so I've finished watching the F1 from Germany, after I played cricket through the race yesterday and I really can't believe how fucking biased the stewards and FIA are towards the Ferrari team - they effectively bought an illegal team order, to switch Alonso and Massa for $100,000.

I think that we're looking to see a Ferrari win in Hungary, but when we come back after the 3 week break, we could be in a very interesting position with 3 teams and 6 cars all in a position to win the championship.

So me and my brother were talking about the new layout for Silverstone. He actually likes it, but I don't. I think that Burnie should stop fucking around with the tracks, and choose better places to race in than Korea and all these Middle Eastern countries. But anyway, what is your opinion of the new layout?

Here is a picture from wiki encase you don't know what it looks like.

Congratulations to Sebastian Vettel on a brilliant drive to make him world champion. I was obviously rooting for Lewis, but it was a long shot. I'm just glad that Fernando Alonso didn't win it - he's proven himself to be a arrogant bastard and a sore loser this year. He even raised his fist in anger at Vitaly Petrov after the race - what a douche.

Disappointed that Webber couldn't get the win, he really blew his big chance this year. It was good that the championship race was so close and came down to the last race though.

At 11/14/10 12:27 PM, Shaun wrote: Disappointed that Webber couldn't get the win, he really blew his big chance this year. It was good that the championship race was so close and came down to the last race though.

+1. Although I was hoping Alonso would take it for Ferrari at the same time for obvious reasons, and not because I like Alonso.

Ok, time to resurrect this thread ahead of the new season, which looks like it will be just as close and exciting as the last few. Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull will once again be the teams to beat, but it looks like the whole field is coming together as the traditional back-markers are showing signs of life.

So pre season picks to win the Championship this year? For me I think it is too close to call, but sticking my neck out I'll go for Hamilton (a gamble given we haven't seen the shiny new McLaren in action yet, but boy does it look good!), with Red Bull taking the constructor's title for me they have the most consistent pair of drivers.

Also a word on Robert Kubica. My favourite driver over the past few seasons (though the patriot in me always follows the Brits), it is a terrible shame that he has had such a nasty accident so close to the season starting. What's more news of a partially severed hand brings up the question of whether he will ever come back. A terrible shame for Formula 1, and of course for the man himself, a certain future world champion in my eyes. I wish him a full and speedy recovery.

Looking forward to this season. New Renault looks AWESOME in black in gold, will be interesting to see how Lotus get on as well. Obviously though I'm hoping for a big fight amongst the big three.

At 2/7/11 06:20 AM, Sentio wrote: Ok, time to resurrect this thread ahead of the new season, which looks like it will be just as close and exciting as the last few. Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull will once again be the teams to beat, but it looks like the whole field is coming together as the traditional back-markers are showing signs of life.

Well... except for Hispania, who still only have one driver on their books

So pre season picks to win the Championship this year? For me I think it is too close to call, but sticking my neck out I'll go for Hamilton (a gamble given we haven't seen the shiny new McLaren in action yet, but boy does it look good!), with Red Bull taking the constructor's title for me they have the most consistent pair of drivers.

You think? Pirelli making tyres that will fall off quicker should play towards Jenson's McLaren, making for some really interesting strategy choices.

Also a word on Robert Kubica. My favourite driver over the past few seasons (though the patriot in me always follows the Brits), it is a terrible shame that he has had such a nasty accident so close to the season starting. What's more news of a partially severed hand brings up the question of whether he will ever come back. A terrible shame for Formula 1, and of course for the man himself, a certain future world champion in my eyes. I wish him a full and speedy recovery.

Yeah, Robert has had an horrific accident and he will be out of action for most, if not all of the 2011 season. A chance for Senna to make his mark with a competitive car, or Grosjean to have another crack at the big show.

Right a few quick blurbs on the teams, drivers and whatnot:

Red Bull - Vettel and Webber will be going at it head to head this year, in one of the most fierce rivalries since the days of Senna and Prost. If only they could drive as well as the two greats.

McLaren - New car, lots of new gadgets and question marks. They led from the front with their KERS in 2009, so will this help this time around? Innovative and hopefully quick. Wait and see. Jenson and Lewis need to rebound from a poor 2009 to start winning from week 1, in order to build a championship calibre team.

Ferrari - Alonso is one of the best drivers in the world, while Massa isn't. Team orders are back, to help the team that uses them the most / best. Will the car be a better machine than last year's offering? Who knows, but it looks decent in testing.

Mercedes - Michael Schumacher is hunting for title number 8 (greedy fuck) and Nico Rosberg pushed his teammate hard in the best of the rest class. Now the gap is narrower and expect this car designed by Ross Brawn to be up there with the front runners, as is his knack.

Renault - Rebounding from the loss of Kubica is a priority for the team that has sold a major stake to Lotus in that ongoing saga - whoever said that Renaults were dull cars? Petrov is too young to be a lead driver and either Senna or Grosjean are going to cause the team to go backwards, if Kubica is ruled out for the term. No offence to those drivers, but they aren't in the same class as the pole. Could Hulkenberg be brought in? Other third drivers could be a possibility, but it's down to the Renault need and their management.

Williams - Seasoned veteran, Rubens Barrichello comes back again to lead the Williams team, which is to float on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange this season. Venezuelan driver Pastor Maldonado makes his bow, after pushing Hulkenberg to the side, for more sponsorship bucks. Sir Frank plays that game well, so expect Williams to stand pat.

Force India - Adrial Sutil needs to mature and evolve into the team leader, as opposed to someone that drives through the opposition, while Scot Paul DiResta gets the second seat, ahead of Tonio Liuzzi. A good chance, with a fast car, let's hope he takes it. They deserve to be further up the track than this, expect them to move to remedy that.

Sauber - Kamui Kobayashi is another driver with talent that needs to mature slightly, but he has proven that he can drive and do it fast, as he scythed through the field in various races. Mexican rookie Sergio Perez takes over in the number 2 seat.

Torro Rosso - The Red Bull farm team might be able to go quicker, but is the team ever going to lose patience with Jamie Algesuari and Sebastian Buemi, both of whom have been more known for their antics off the track than on it. Word to the wise guys - shut your mouths and get on with the driving.

Team Lotus - The veteran duo of Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen will jump into the green and gold again this time around, to try and put Mike Gascoigne's creation to where they feel they belong, in the mid-table. Ambitious moves from the team have not been diverted from by the ongoing saga between Tony Fernandez and the Lotus brand owners. Track results should speak for themselves.

Hispania - If ever a team at the back of the grid could go backwards, HRT have done just that. Sacking three reasonable drivers, because results didn't match what the car was capable of. Gents, your car sucked and you know it. Indian veteran (he knows not to speak unless spoken to) Narain Karthikeyan joins the team and still no second driver is signed.

Virgin - Timo Glock doesn't deserve to race for a team that finishes last. Fortunately, HRP come to his rescue this year. Perhaps now the Virgin has a fuel tank that can get them to the finish on "full mix", from the start of the season. Belgian Jerome D'Ambrosio joins the fray in the sister car.

It's looking like being a good season. I want to see more from the test at Jerez this week and that should give us some ideas on the performance of the cars, but don't read too much into the times until first practice in Bahrain.

Heidfeld to sub for Kubica to start the season. Still no news on Hispania's second driver.

3 weeks to go until the season gets underway and I'm not sure we'll see 24 cars on the grid at Sakhir

A modern Formula One car is a single-seat, open cockpit, open wheel race car with substantial front and rear wings, and an engine positioned behind the driver. info from wikipedia

Well, after two races in 2013, a few things are certain:

1) McLaren are shocking and not in a good way.

2) We're in for some drama, even if it's just handbags at dawn between Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.

Australia was a relatively tame affair, compared to the drama that I just witnessed at Sepang. Starting in the wet, Vettel did not get away as fast as he could have and when his rear was tapped by Fernando Alonso, it damaged the wing. Fairly innocuous, he would come into the pits at the end of the lap, I thought. Apparently, so did the commentary team and the Ferrari mechanics. Someone forgot to tell Fernando and when the second pillar snapped under braking for turn 1 on lap 2, he was a passenger into the gravel, his race over. Stefano Domenicali took full responsibility for not bringing his driver in to change the nose, one of the worse decisions of the day.

Dramas were happening everywhere and with a changing track, Vettel came into the pits a couple of laps early and threw away the lead, lapping slowly as he came out. Other teams made a better decision and capitalised, gaining ground on the Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton made the embarrassing mistake of pulling into former team McLaren for service and the bemused mechanics waved him on - they were ready to service Jenson Button. Fortunately, he carried on, so no-one could see Lewis blush under his crash helmet.

Fast forward a little later and with the track continuing to dry out, the Lotus cars were finding going difficult and the harshly penalised (3 grid places) Kimi Raikkonen was not able to make any ground on less competitive cars. Up front, it was quickly becoming a tussle between four cars - Webber, Vettel, Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, who was closing down on the squabble nicely. Pit strategy played out, resulting in a switch between Vettel and Hamilton, but close racing reverted to the above running order soon afterwards.

A couple of dubious pit lane releases meant damage for the Torro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne and Charles Pic, as they collided, Torro Rosso being guilty of unsafe release there. Another incident put two cars close together, but with the drama of the race, I forget who was involved. If I were a proper reporter, I'd watch the whole race again and take feverish notes!

The Force India cars had issues with wheel guns in the pits and were forced to retire both of their cars, due to overheating issues. Paul di Resta had managed to post a couple of fastest laps on the drying track, before coming to grief, so it was especially bitter for him.

McLaren had one particularly hairy moment, when Jenson Button came into the pits and had a wheel not secure properly, perhaps costing the team half a minute to repair. Button later stated that this mistake cost him a podium, coming home to retire the car, having been running 12th, a few laps from home.

Sat in the grandstands, Sebastian Vettel was all over the radio, telling the team to move Mark Webber, as he was just too slow. The team refused and "action 2-1" was in place, though on lap 46, the German had seen enough of the rear of the sister Red Bull. He pulled to the side on the home straight, placing his car inches from disaster of the Pit Wall on his right and Mark Webber's car on the left. Being lambasted by the team engineers and Christian Horner, he was told that "this is silly" and "you'll have some explaining to do"

Mercedes had made a grave error with their predictions for the weather and had under fueled Lewis' car, meaning that he had 16-20 laps to drive on fuel saving mode. This exposed the petulance of Nico Rosberg, over the radio, telling the team that he was going to pass Lewis, as he was too slow. Ross Braun managed to reign his German driver in and Lewis admitted after the race that Nico deserved the podium more than he.

Result
1. S. Vettel 1: 38.56.681
2. M. Webber + 4.2
3. L. Hamilton + 12.1
4. N. Rosberg + 12.6
5. F. Massa + 25.6
6. R. Grosjean + 35.5
7. K. Raikkonen + 48.4
8. N. Hulkenberg + 53.0
9. S. Perez + 1.12.3
10. J. Vergne + 1.27.1

Standings:
S. Vettel 40
K. Raikkonen 31
M. Webber 26
L. Hamilton 25
F. Massa 22
F. Alonso 18
N. Rosberg 12

It's going to be a long, close season. I hope that someone straightens out Vettel and soon.

At 3/24/13 01:06 PM, Coop wrote: Well, after two races in 2013, a few things are certain:

1) McLaren are shocking and not in a good way.

2) We're in for some drama, even if it's just handbags at dawn between Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.

I've missed both races so far, but I can't disagree with you assessment based on the highlights and reports that I have seen. It will be interesting to see how things play out at Red Bull- I rather hope Webber has put his foot down and simply said that as and when the positions are reversed he will be racing Vettel all the way to the line. It will make racing and competition more interesting if Red Bull have no more team orders, and if I were in Webber's shoes I would not be gifting Vettel anything.

Encouraging signs from Mercedes and Lotus in breaking up Ferrari and Red Bull at the front.... McLaren may as well start looking to next season already. Well off the pace unfortunately.

For curiosity: is this club still alive?