gravedgr

I fixed that for you so we could agree again.

ADias

Wrong! Vettel is immature and that is far from refreshing.

Your distortion of my statement is also immature.

Mspeedster

The best man won the race and the championship. Vettel has been the fastest all season long. If it wasn't for rotten luck, he would have won the championship easily. Ferrari only cares about Ferrari and will impose team orders and politics in order to win (same goes for McLaren).

My hat is off to Vettel and the Red Bull team. They won the championship fair and square. Congrats!

beowulf

As far as having "rotten luck," I would say luck is one aspect but also poor driving decisions and suboptimal engineering that led to some engine failures.

With respect to "fair and square," I don't think anyone is so naive to believe that Red Bull says they run" fair and square" and actually mean it. Team principles repeatedly stated that if Webber were in a position to win the championship at Abu Dhabi and needed to get ahead of Vettel, then Vettel would "do the right thing" for The Team. This is a team orders statement that is phrased in such a way to avoid incurring an FIA fine. Although RB won the championship without team orders, they were well prepared to use them without hesitation if needed.

alexb76

Best man won the race, ABSOLUTELY! He probably was the fastest guy most this season... but, did he really deserve the championship? Maybe, maybe not. I was routing for Webber, and if not Alonso.

Alonso was just NOT fast enough today, and couldn't have won for sure... HOWEVER, he only needed to finish FORTH! If STUPID Ferrari team didn't pull him in after Webber, and if he stayed right behind Button all the race and didn't advance, he'd done just that and would have been the champion.

It was 100% fault of the Farrari team and their strategy, and a HUGE MISTAKE. Probably the biggest I've seen since 1994 that I've followed F1.

ADias

Absolutely! And re 'rotten luck' I saw the 'bad luck' created by a spoiled Vettel crashing left and right in a reckless way. And let's not forget the team clear favoritism towards Vettel and disfavor towards Webber.

Mspeedster

Incorrect. FIA rules allows for team orders in the case where the championship is at stake. RB could have imposed orders at Brazil, but chose not to. Ferrari gifted Alonso points by having Massa move over earlier in the year. I've followed the sport since the early '70s and know that any team has some degree of politcs at play. Now I'm not so naive to not see that RB also favors Vettel over Webber. But my point is that I've always enjoyed a championship that was won at the 11th hour by the fastest driver of the season when the odds seemed stacked against them. Such was the case when Senna beat Prost for his first championship, same for Kimi Raikkonen's championship a few years back.

With hindsight it's easy to say Ferrari chose the wrong strategy, but Alonso didn't deliver the goods. His team expected him to get past the Renaults, he couldn't. Vettel delivered when it mattered most. Case closed, the right man won.

Mike in CA

I have to agree. Although recognizing his enormous talent, I haven't been a Vettel fan due mainly to his immature and selfish moves in Turkey and at Spa and the fact that his team seemed to favor him over a more deserving (IMO) Webber. But he was consistently fast all season and achieved pole and drove a perfect race when he had to to win the championship. He did indeed deserve it.

I also have to give Red Bull credit for letting their drivers race at Brazil. Strategically, it would have helped their situation if they'd let Webber pass Vettel as it would have left Webber only one point behind Alonso going into the final race. Maybe they not-so-secretly wanted Vettel to win it all, but it was still a gamble, and they let the fastest driver actually win the race. It's something Ferrari would not have done.

Speaking of Ferrari, Alonso showed again why he's hard for me to like. Shaking his fist at Petrov at the finish was uncalled for. He had 30+ laps to pass the guy and couldn't get it done. Petrov wasn't a backmarker, was fighting for position too, and had no obligation whatsoever to let Alonso through. It's not cool to blame someone else for your failure.

Already looking forward to next season!

ADias

Agreed. F1 is full of spoiled prima donnas. I miss Kimi.

alexb76

Agreed mostly! Webber was definitely the breakheart story, if RB wasn't favoring Vettel ALL THROUGHOUT, Webber would have been much closer or ahead of Alonso and should have won the whole thing.

At the end, today's race (in terms of championship) was decided by a HUGE GAFFE at Ferrari pit stop. The track is just NOT pass friendly. Similar to Alonso, Hamilton couldn't pass Kubica either until he pitted, and Ferrari should have known better NOT TO PIT Alonso when they did. Was seriously flawed judgement, even scandalous!

Agreed, bitching at Petrov was uncalled for, but I can kinda understand after losing the championship everyone thought it's in the bag, it must STING!

Chaos

Waaa,it is never Alonso's fault.

peterm

Pole position is such a valuable asset as is pit strategy. It does tend to take some of the excitement out when faster cars are blocked with rare opportunities to pass. F1 has advanced in technology so much but I think racing is being quashed. The result of a race and a season are more about qualifying/tire/pit strategy not so much about aggressive passing and negotiating the track. There are some tracks ie monaco where passing is almost non existent

gravedgr

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6cxNR9ML8k

Alan Smithee

Clearly Vettel is a very fast driver (as demonstrated by his 10 poles) with a very fast car (as demostrated by the constructors' championship). But he is hardly the best driver, as demostrated by his inability to pass without crashing, and the fact that, even with 10 poles, at no point before yesterday did he lead the championship. IMO, he is very lucky to have a 'world championship'; he did not deserve it.

alexb76

+1. He DID deserve the win yesterday, but not the championship.