ltc

Although not quite this soon...

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking...success-201211

SAO PAULO (AFP) - Ferrari gatecrashed Sebastian Vettel's triple world title party by insisting that Spaniard Fernando Alonso should have been crowned champion in an acrimonious, season-finale parting shot.

Red Bull driver Vettel's sixth-placed finish in the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday allowed him to become the youngest three-time champion in the sport's history as the 25-year-old German claimed the title by just three points.

But Ferrari insisted that Alonso, who was second at Interlagos, should have been the man celebrating a third career title, pointing to controversial races in Belgium and Japan to support their argument.

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali said that Alonso paid a heavy price for first lap exits in Belgium and Japan where he was shunted out of contention by Lotus duo Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen respectively.

George S

What an great season for us "couch people". I'm missing F1 already. Very happy for Seb as it looked like "game over" on the first lap. Wonder if Christian will have a chat with Webber about his "three wide" idea? Perhaps SV needs a better team mate or perhaps he can go to one of back markers to ply his trade?

ilko

Funny, they don't mention the gifts FA got in Malaysia and Valencia. Had it not been for those it would've not been even close. Talking about monday morning quarterbacking...

ltc

Luca is a petulant child right about now. I wish I were there to see it.

Yet another XMAS without a WDC under his XMAS tree. Kimi's WDC seems so long ago.
His latest mistress (another year older, another year less attractive) fails to deliver...yet again. When does Santander's money...I mean Alonso's contract expire?
The heads will begin to roll at Maranello soon....

He will be forced to pay even more money to Sauber next year to buy their whole design, rather than just the rear chassis....not to worry, Ferrari gets 50 million from Bernie off the top, before any constructors money is handed out, so he has enough to buy the whole Sauber for 2013, thanks to finishing higher up in the Constructors this year.

ltc

If you look back over the 2012 season, Alonso was the #1 beneficiary in terms points with respect to cars in front of him having DNF's.

Great driver, brilliant starts, driving for his dream team....he's just missing something (besides a memory of his past indiscretions, blackmail, teams he left) ....oh yes, a WDC for Ferrari.

Not to worry eventually he will win one...next year is a lock.
Eleven a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while. Put 1,000,000 Ferrari chimps in front of a wind tunnel and computer and ONE of them will design a car worthy of Alonso's gifted behind.

Fernando, my friend, the grass isn't always greener on the other side, is it?

Flying Finn

Wow, that's pretty "good" if they actually said that...

EDIT: Checked and yes, they are tools... Here are couple of good ones...

Domenicali: "It is a shame because, after such a long season that we really fight in all conditions, we raced 18 races and not 20 -- and being second by three points is not a lot.
"Watch the facts. Zero points in two races (Belgium and Japan) so we have done what we have done with 18 races. The others had 20 -- and the points were over 20 races. These are facts, not words."

Alonso" "The championship was lost when (Romain) Grosjean flew over my head (at Spa) or when Vettel surprisingly only got a reprimand after qualifying in Japan."

How about the 3 races where Vettel had problems and didn't score a point? He races only 17 races?
Don't be bitter, stop the stupid "if" game, you did well but just ended up a bit short.

Kimi's "leave me alone..." quote will be the quote of the season no doubt but Brazil produced a pretty good one also (a'la "Felipe, you are slower than Fernando") when Alonso said: "there are a lot of debris on track" which of course translates into: "we need a safety car so I can get closer to the cars in front".
(I don't think it took more than a half a lap and the SC was out after Fernando called it out)

One more... Kimi finishing 3rd in Championships in his first year back is pretty insane, I know I would've never thought of that happening.

As already said, great season.

morganabowen

I think that was the moment of levity watching Kimi drive an off track on to a side road trying to find his way back to the track That was truely a head banging moment

I was in agreement with Alonso when he was interviewed post race. He said that he did not lose the WDC at Brazil, he lost it in those races where he DNF'd. Fernando is a great driver and probably still has a couple of more WDC seasons left in his career

ltc

The FIA equivalent of the NASCAR "competition yellow flag" ?
There was debris on the racing line, so you can argue it should be removed. However, I seem to remember previous races were similar debris was left, apparently it was considered "off line" ... or more specifically, Alonso didn't radio it into his team. It can be argued that it helped the entire grid, except for Button and Hulkenberg. It also brought Massa back into play for the Ferrari team regarding Vettel.

Also impressed at Massa's blocking strategy at the beginning of the race. Excellent team orders and #2 driver demonstration by Ferrari. Tactically correct and allowed within the rules, under the "blocking is allowed under team orders at the last race of the season" clause.

Webber is an absolute A-hole. He had his chance at a WDC in Korea a few years back and spit the bit (granted likely due to his broken shoulder). He had no shot at a WDC this last race and should have simply not tried to make a point to his team and teammate on several occasions. It was nice for the team to say "Thank you Mark" for not repeating the same behavior much later in the race.

With 2 DRS zones next year (interesting to see how they squeeze those into some of the tracks), RBR will be at a disadvantage, given the loss of their passive DRS at the rear of the car, which will be banned next season.
I look forward to seeing what Newey comes up with next. Hopefully Infinity/Nissan will assist with KERS ... and maybe alternators....

Ferrari will not make the same mistake again this season. They will come out of the gate with a full Sauber clone, rather than the FeraraSauber that was tested at last season's mid season test at Mugello and finally fully implemented in race trim after the summer break.

A beautiful morning, sun is shining, a few light fluffy clouds, about 45 degrees and Alonso shoots and misses yet again. It's good to be alive.

500

That was an amazing and dramatic race in so many ways.

The only sure thing going into it was that we were going to have a deserving world champion. But who it would be was constantly in flux.

Mid-way through lap 1, I thought Seb was out of it. Obviously he was fortunate to not sustain race-ending damage, but his fight back was epic. Then when RB pitted him and put slicks on, it looked like it was going south again. And then the slow additional stop to change to intermediates just compounded the damage. But each time he fought back.

Much has been made on here of the superiority of the RB, but that does not bear out over the whole season (not to mention Mark Webber’s results – good but not great). I would say the Mac was on balance the fastest car, but team mistakes and misfortune conspired to negate some of that. The Ferrari became a pretty decent race car, but poor DRS hampered it in qualifying. Excellent reliability and committed driving by Alonso usually meant that he was well positioned to take advantage of any situation. RB had great speed in the last part of the season when they got their double DRS right, but suffered reliability and weak KERS. I wonder if they will re-think the top-speed trade-offs they habitually make, as it makes it hard for them to pull off DRS passes in races. When you jumble it all together, each car had its strengths and quirks. I think Alonso probably did the most to elevate his car, although it was not always as bad as some think (poor quali, good race etc.).

The Ferrari team was perfection yesterday. Massa was the ultimate wingman and Alonso did everything he could do. These last two races he has been shaded by Massa, but overall, his season has been exemplary. Although I am pleased for Seb, I am also sorry for Fernando. Both guys deserved it.

However, I think it is pointless to point to one or two races and say “but for those, we would have won” simply because that is true for everyone else too.

Unfortunately, like most forums, there is always a contingent obviously biased and negative against particular drivers. No doubt that here there are a bunch of anti-Vettel and anti-Alonso voices. However, I just think we are really lucky to be witnessing such great drivers and great races (not to mention the other guys that have put in a stellar season such as Kimi, Lewis and Jenson).

multi21

^^ well said 500.

Lewis you have to admit that Alonso did more with less this year and perhaps drove the best he's ever driven in his career. More times than not, the driver with the best car wins the WDC, and a season where there were 20 races the cream should rise to the top, but you can't say that the Ferrari was ever the fastest car on track. That was usually reserved for the McLaren and RBR cars. If Alonso would have pulled that out yesterday, even you would have to admit that it was a great performance.

The stat that was interesting was that Alonso has now lost more WDC in the last race of the year than he has won.

Looking forward to 2013, I would say that both Ferrari and RBR will benefit from having a weaker McLaren team. Trading Hamilton for Perez is a downgrade in my opinion and both Hamilton and McLaren will not be the beneficiaries of this move given F and RBR a more clear path to WDC and WCC. Taking nothing away from Button, but he is a notch below Hamilton in pace and I think Ferrari was right in saying that Perez was not ready for a front running team based on his performances down the stretch.

stuttgart46

Why would RB keep Webber after this season? I can not think of a single positive thing he brings to the team. With such good drivers out there, how does he keep his seat?

ilko

Regarding Perez, we can only speculate what will happen next year. Whitmarsh was inteviewed on Sky in Austin and they asked him about Perez's DNFs as of late. He said he had spoken with him and Perez told him he was driving the Sauber the way a Sauber had to be driven in mid-pack. And that a McLaren drive would be different. So there's obviously a lot that we're not seeing here and I'll reserve my judgement until I see Perez drive an actual McLaren. One thing is clear to me though, he won't be a Kovalainen.

FGL28

And this surprises you how? Most of these guys are A-holes. I bet SV could act like an A-hole at times but he knows how to work it and, from all appearances he is grateful for what he has achieved.
The only thing better would be Sato back in F1.

Alonso must have the record for missing WDC by that much.

multi21

It makes much more sense to bring in an understudy to Vettel (not that Vettel is old, but with 3 WDC under his belt, he can hardly be called an up and comer) rather than keep a bitter old guy way past his expiration date.

I'm convinced that Webber has pictures of Horner with a goat. How else do you explain them putting up with his antics?

FGL28