F1 abu dhabi.....SPOILER!!!!! Don't even click if you haven't seen the race......

[Buckterrier]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

Vettel didn't win it, he received it as a gift. Hope he said thanks.

Lots of folks here letting their emotional side do their thinking for them instead of using logic.
Lots of anti-ferrari BS spreading as if this were a hen party and you were gossiping about the hussy down the street. Do any of you squat to pee too?

Talk about not watching the race. Umm.... Vettal WON the last 2 races. He earned the championship.
It's your emotions that are getting in the way of reality.

Congratulations to Vetal and HIS championship.

[Henry Schmidt]

Originally Posted by Buckterrier

Talk about not watching the race. Umm.... Vettal WON the last 2 races. He earned the championship.
It's your emotions that are getting in the way of reality.

Congratulations to Vetal and HIS championship.

I would have to agree.
Vettel spent the entire season proving he was the fastest driver in the fastest car. He had his set backs, both mechanical and mental (he is after all quite young) but continued to fight for every point with the support of his team.
The mental errors are just that, mental errors that will hopefully decrease as time goes by. Leaving those aside, if it were not for some very uncharacteristic problems for a front running F1 team (engine failures, brake rotor explosion, broken header just to name a few) he would have clinched the title many races earlier.

[Oh Haha]

The "rose water" must take like ccraaaap as LH took a big swig and spit it out.

I am not a Ferrari-hater in the least. I was a fan of MS/Rubens and then Kimi but think that Alonso is one of those guys that takes defeat poorly.


Of course,anyone of those guys is better and more successful than I will ever be.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Flieger

They do not use champagne at Bahrain or Abu Dhabi- any of the Muslim countries- since alcohol is prohibited. They use some sweet "rose water" instead, which is clearly not carbonated very much.

And why in the world couldn't they use soda water? To put champagne looking bottles in front of the drivers was an insult. And all 3 were surprised at the limp dicks they held.

Anyway, I have to agree with Sam (in part) and add that everyone driving was flat out on the limit (Vettle included). Best race of the year. F1 is back in a big way.

[legion]

Congrats to Seb!

I still don't think he can drive a bad car as well as Hamilton or Alonso, but there is plenty of time for him to improve.

[URY914]

Who was the women on the podium? She was fully covered. Seemed sorta strange to have her there.

[Reg]

The whole place looks like something out of Star Trek. It's really a shame that the deciding race was held on a circuit that allows little (or no) passing.

So, if you go there for holiday there is no alcohol available anywhere? I am sure there would be some on a few of the lavish yachts floating about. WOW

[Hodgey]

Oh how fantastic it was to see Alonso sat inconsolable......whining Spanish loser.......they should offer him some cheese to go with his constant whine.

Vettel, well done sir. Lewis, great drive, Jensen, too cool to duel sonshine.......

Neil (un biased Brit)

[911pcars]

RE: Ferrari's strategy.

According to post race discussions, Weber had just pitted for fresh tires early on. Ferrari thought it would have been risky for Alonso to continue with worn tires and lose tenths to Weber on every lap. Unfortunately, pit timing placed Alonso behind Petrov who drove well (for points) and kept Alonso behind him. Naturally, Alonso was frustrated not being able to pass and challenge Kubica. However, afterwards, he congratulated Petrov on the good drive.

F1 is a high stakes, high pressure series with millions (Euros) at stake and few chances to be in the position to win the world championship. How would you react after a topsy-turvy 19 race season and finally lose the championship by only 4 pts.?

Get this. If Alonso had finished in front of Kubica (only 4 seconds separation at the finish), he would have won the championship by 1 pt.

Congrats to Vettel. He's got the chops for sure, but another year will make him a smarter driver.

Sherwood

[jyl]

Vettel had the speed and the car all season, almost threw it away mid-season with mistakes (running into Webber was the biggest one), but stopped making mistakes about 4 races ago. Webber had the car but not quite the speed, I would have liked him to be WDC though. Alonso and Ferrari did a great job bringing the car from uncompetitive at season start to a contender by season end. It was frustrating watching him unable to pass Petrov, for which I partly blame the track. What a boring circuit. A terrific season. I particularly liked all the rain races. If I had my way, 1/2 of F1 races would be in the rain.

[MotoSook]

Vettel and Webber tangled in Hungary because Webber didn't listen to team orders. He was slower and didn't want to let Vettel by. Vettel was ahead and Webbe should have let him have the turn.

Vettel definitely deserved the Championship. Everyone keeps talking aboun his mistakes, but if he didn't have the mechanical failures, he'd have had the Championship several races back. And as if the other Champs didn't make mistakes this season.

I'm an Alonso fan because he can drive, and he did his best and that's that.

[nostatic]

Bottom line is every driver made mistakes. Had Webber not fubar'd Korea, he would have been in more serious contention. Vettel had some brain freezes as well, but he also had mechanicals that took away points. It is a long season...and whoever has the most points at the end wins. There are no gifts in F1. Well, except maybe the German GP win

[bell]

Ha LOL you said it todd.....and that still didn't give him the championship LOL

[javadog]

Originally Posted by Soukus

Vettel and Webber tangled in Hungary because Webber didn't listen to team orders. He was slower and didn't want to let Vettel by. Vettel was ahead and Webbe should have let him have the turn. .

Team orders? Red Bull? Say it isn't so...

It's funny if you read all of the interviews that the drivers and team managers give out. It's easy to read between the lines and figure out that they would ALL use team orders, if needed. And only Ferrari gets hammered for it... It's a good thing for Red Bull that they were able to pull off yesterday's win courtesy of bad strategy by Ferrari. I would have enjoyed seeing what they would have done had things been different and they had to choose between "fair play" and a driver's title.

JR

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by javadog

And only Ferrari gets hammered for it...

Because it was done by Ferrari in such a clumsy, juvenile manner, and the media picked the whole thing up on the radio. How hard would it be to have silent team orders in a sport where teams spend 50,000 dollars on a steering wheel and travel with six of them?

Massa did get the short straw, but lets look at the facts. Alonso WAS faster and he was eventually going to make that pass at the German GP.

At the beginning of the season, I was hoping Massa could win the Drivers title. I felt he deserved it - after losing it to Hamilton by one point in 2008, even though he drove really well that year, except for a couple of rain races. However, as 2010 unfolded, it became obvious that he's lost some of his fire. That might be because of the accident, it might be because of Alonso's personality in the Ferrari camp, it might be because of his home life, who knows, but anyone could see that he was not World Championship material this season. Vettel is not my first choice for Drivers World Champion out of the four solid contenders, but at least Hamilton didn't win, so I will take cold comfort out of that.

[s_wilwerding]

I would have been happy with Alonso or Vettel.

I too am glad that Hamilton didn't win - I've never much liked him. I was pulling for Webber at mid-season, but he just got so whiny towards the end, and he just started acting like he DESERVED it too much. He didn't drive like a World Champion in the last few races - he just expected people to let him past.

I think Alonso had a great season - he struggled with a tough car, and finally by the end of the season was doing really well. That said, a World Champion should have been able to finish on the podium yesterday.

Vettel deserved it - he ran a great year, and would have won by a lot if he hadn't had the engine malfunctions while leading. He drove like a Champion yesterday, so I was glad to see him win.

[Wintermute]

Originally Posted by emcon5

Well, they were racing for position. Petrov even said post race he would have given Alonso room if he made a move, but he never did.

Frankly I blame Hermann Tilke for what was probably the least entertaining race of the season. If it wasn't for the championship fight, I probably would have fast forwarded through a lot of it.

+1

You had the two best passers in the sport stuck behind two lesser cars. It was pathetic. I said the same thing about this track last year, complete snoozer of a race and crappy track design. Tilke might of designed some better tracks in the past, but his latest tracks are horrific. See my last comments on the Korean GP.

If you look at the speedtrap readings, you notice cars like Torro Rosso all hitting higher speeds. This is at the cost of downforce since they don't have the top Aero guys working on their car. So they sacrifice cornering for straight line speed. This allows the top cars to catch up with them in the corners, but once they hit the straights, the lesser cars can walk away from them. Coupled with the new F-Duct in the Renault, the cars were literally impossible to pass, but couldn't run the overall pace. I'm not blaming the teams, just illustrating why this track (and some others) are so lousy.

I was really really hoping the championship didn't go to Abu Dababibibi, cause I knew something like this was going to happen. Not that I think Seb didn't deserve to win, but the manner in which he won was the last thing I think fans wanted to see. Snoozefest Parade Race.

Grats to Seb and I'm glad Schumi is OK. My wife about had a heart attack on that one.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by 911pcars

RE: Ferrari's strategy.

According to post race discussions, Weber had just pitted for fresh tires early on. Ferrari thought it would have been risky for Alonso to continue with worn tires and lose tenths to Weber on every lap. Unfortunately, pit timing placed Alonso behind Petrov who drove well (for points) and kept Alonso behind him. Naturally, Alonso was frustrated not being able to pass and challenge Kubica. However, afterwards, he congratulated Petrov on the good drive.

F1 is a high stakes, high pressure series with millions (Euros) at stake and few chances to be in the position to win the world championship. How would you react after a topsy-turvy 19 race season and finally lose the championship by only 4 pts.?

Get this. If Alonso had finished in front of Kubica (only 4 seconds separation at the finish), he would have won the championship by 1 pt.

Congrats to Vettel. He's got the chops for sure, but another year will make him a smarter driver.

Sherwood

Agreed. Ferrari's bad pit strategy GAVE the championship to vettel. AS IN GIFT!Ferrari was so busy looking back at werbber they forgot to look forward.

Seems we're not the only ones who feel that way:

Fernando Alonso may be gracious in defeat, however, his team-mate Felipe Massa says Ferrari's strategy cost them both in Abu Dhabi.

Ferrari opted to pit Massa after Alonso's main rival Mark Webber came in on lap 12. Four laps later, the Scuderia also brought Alonso in.

The move dropped both down the order, not only behind slower cars but also behind the few who had opted to pit on lap 2 behind the Safety Car.

And as both Ferrari drivers struggled to overtake, Alonso finished down in seventh place, losing the Drivers' Championship to Sebastian Vettel while Massa could only manage 10th place.

"The race was not good," said the Brazilian. "It was not a great strategy to stop very soon.

"The tyres were in reasonable conditions. ... We were behind all the cars who stopped before on the Safety Car.

"That was the most important thing about the whole race not just for me but for Fernando and Mark Webber.

"It was impossible to overtake."

[Noah930]

I have to agree with Sammy a bit. I didn't understand Ferrari's pit strategy when it happened. Why bring in Alonso so early? What happens when you're mired in 15th, losing ground to the front-runners? Or if one of those mid-pack guys punts you off the track?

I suppose they had to cover either Webber or the guys at the front end of the grid. But were I in 4th place, able to guarantee the championship by just finishing 2nd (even if Webber won the race), I would have based my strategy upon the 3 guys in front of me. Unless, of course, I knew that I couldn't keep up with them either through lack of outright speed or fear that the motor might not last the distance if flogged.

Too defensive a strategy.

[Henry Schmidt]

Originally Posted by Wintermute

....snip....

If you look at the speedtrap readings, you notice cars like Torro Rosso all hitting higher speeds. This is at the cost of downforce since they don't have the top Aero guys working on their car. ....snip....

I'm pretty sure Adrian Newey designed both the STR and RBR cars. Seems to me that STR has the best aero guy in the business. Just saying.....