ltc

I miss Sato, but there's no sense over spilled milk, especially when Ferrari makes me smile every November for the past 3

I don't mind Webber refusing to be an Italian lap dog (re: Massa or Barichello), but at least don't go out of your way to screw your team and your teammate.
Don't support him, but don't go out of your way to take one/both of you out.

Button and Hamilton raced incredibly well side by side ... I think Mark is just bitter knowing he blew his one and only shot at a WDC.

Alonso must have the WDC for 2nd place finishes by now, right ?

There may not be any justice in this world, but in the case of Alonso, at least there is Karma.
I nearly fell off my chair when Piquet Sr. was on the podium doing the podium interviews. I was hoping his first question was "what do you remember about Singapore and my son?"

Hell, even if Luca and Bernie come up with a way to finally give Alonso/Ferrari at WDC, I don't think I'll even care...the past 3 years have been so damned enjoyable.

ltc

I checked Google Translate ... Enter Alonso or Ferrari and it translates to Douchebag in every known language....

I am not surprised at all. Alonso and Ferrari were ROBBED.
Clearly Kimi and Roman were ordered by their teams to crash into Alonso.

If only they had a sympathetic ear at the FIA ... oh wait, Jean Todt (former Ferrari Team Principal) is FIA President?

If only they had a sympathetic ear at FOM....oh wait, Bernie has already said that Ferrari is F1 and without them there is no F1 ... and he gives them 50Million Euros "just for being gracious enough to compete in F1" ...and then gives them Constructor's money?

If only there was an opportunity for an in season open test at a friendly/well known track ... oh wait, they already did that Mugello?

If only they had access to a competitor's chassis where they knew their engine/gearbox fit and worked perfectly; they could then use their intitmate knowledge and design files to make the same parts for their own F2012 .... oh wait, they already bolted the rear of the Sauber Ferrari to the F2012?

Well anyways ... they were ROBBED of the WDC.

enduro911

Congrads to Vettel and Red Bull. They are definitely deserving champions. It was tough to see Lewis leave Mclaren after that type of incident. I know Ferrari were doing everything they could to help Alonso take the driver's crown but I really wanted to see Massa finish as high as possible. It will be interesting to see if he's "back." Hope he is. He seems like a good guy and I didn't think he had a chance in hell to make this kind of turn around in his performance.

Adam@Autometrics

Fitting end to a great season. Would have been better if Hulkenburg won, I think. That would have made how many different driver / constructor winners?!

I think Alonso was the top driver this season, but thankfully F1 is not a spec series and the car matters, so Vettel absolutely deserved his 3rd WDC.
The more surprising thing is that Hamilton was not a factor despite having the fastest car on average, and gives up negligible talent to SV and FA, IMO.
Lewis in a MB will hurt the overall competitiveness of next season, I'm afraid. Let's hope Sauber gets it right and Hulkenburg shows us something, or even better Lotus gets it right and gives us moar Kimi!
I'd still like to see Grosjean in a FI or expansion team. Outqualifying Kimi consistently is an accomplishment, in my book; perhaps he just can't handle being near the front.

Bob Rouleau

On the feed I watched, I saw many people congratulating Sebastien on his WDC. One that was missing was Webber. Anyone see him?

morganabowen

Interesting observation Weber didn't exactly endear himself to RBR based on his behavior in Brazil

Eifeler

No congrats from Weber on the American feed either but they didn't show much post race besides the podium cermony. Perhaps more on the next weeks season wrap up show?

multi21

A couple things are bothering me about the race Sunday. One of them is the "competition yellow" sending out the Safety Car for the first time. The arguement could be made that there was debris and Rosberg did cut a tire, but when my buddy who is a hardcore NASCAR fan that has been getting into F1 slowly, but surely texted me and wrote, "safety car, really?" you know it's bad.

If the SC was not sent out and there were more cars with cut tires and it effects either/both Alonso and Vettel, it would have tainted the outcome of the entire WDC season. Can't really decide how I felt about that one.

The other is that this change in broadcast rights may not be good for F1 here in America. Ironically the F1 ratings have increased since SPEED went all NASCAR all the time. Perhaps it's because F1 is something different to the hardcore NASCAR fans and their curiousity has developed into a following. Personally, I know of several guys that have been converts in only the past couple years. A switch to an ESPN style broadcast in NBCSN might hide the coverage to the casual race fan here in America.

Thoughts?

My993C2

During the races and soon after they end, we all see the same video footage regardless of what network we are watching the races on. It's only afterwards if the networks have their own post race shows is there any custom video feed.

I just reviewed the race I have downloaded. Schumacher is the first the greet Vettel, followed by Timo Glock. Petrov, Kobayashi, Kovalainen, Rosberg, Ricciardo and one of the HRT drivers still wearing his helmet (I believe it was de la Rosa) greet him in the weigh in room. Mark Webber is nowhere to be found in the moments after the race ended. Of course this is only what we see in the video. Since neither one was on the podium they could have well greeted each other in their garage. In the Sky Sports post race show, Webber is interviewed and he did make the comment during the interview that he had congratulated Seb. Oh and also during the Sky Sport post race show, Natalie Pinkham was interviewing Vettel when Alonso approached Seb from behind to pat him on the back and the two embraced in a friendly hug. There may be a lot of hard feelings among some of the fans (RL is not bad compared to some other forums), but clearly there is no hard feelings between Vettel and Alonso. They both respect each other.

FGL28

Pete,

When Versus broadcasted the Tour de France they went out of their way to broadcast it live and repeat it several times through out the day. It built a fan base. With F1 the cost to broadcast it is not chump change. So NBCSN will try to give us a good experience. Getting younger people into the sport will not be a bad thing. I would like to think they will have some broadcasts where the whole team is live at the circuit. Hobbs and Matchett have been explaining F1 to newbies for years. Just let the, go. Ron Howard's film Rush will help fill in some of the blanks as would Senna broadcast on NBCSN. I liked Speed's coverage but Bernie wanted more money Rupurt was willing to pay. I say we support the broadcasts and if they screw up email them. They do not know if it is wrong until somebody tells them.

Also learn how to bit torrent BBC if they suck.

agdamis

Lewis - Welcome back, you were curiously absent while Fernando was leading the championship due to his extremely consistent and determined drives. Nice to see you came just in time to gloat and take idiotic pot shots, how mature of you glad you are contributing.

JET951

I think it is important that the safety car was sent out, Even if it had a bearing on the WDC outcome. Safety is paramount in racing. Could you imagine if another driver got a puncture from said debris and ended in a wall with a fatality?
Sean

Bob Rouleau

There was a LOT of debris on the track and it took them quite a while to clean it all up. For anyone who has ever picked up a F1 tire, you'll know how easy they are to puncture with carbon fibre shards.

ltc

I was busy flying all season. It was nice to be able to get back to watching F1 just in time for another epic Ferrari season.

But now that it's over, its time to head down to the shop and start preparing next year's planes. Excited that I will be flying jets for the first time next spring.

Ferrari will be busy too...painting the 2013 Sauber in Ferrari Red ...

9.5 Degrees

I'm glad others have said that it was the right thing to bring the safety car out because the undertones of Ferrari being given aid is just too much as their drivers were under the risk of punture as well as everyone else.

Vettel is deserved. Alonso the better driver in a subpar car. Looking forward to 2013.