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[Four mules as one]

First off, well done to Vettel, he drove awesomely well and with 10 poles and 5 wins he does deserve the championship, although he does cry like a little girl. He needs man tears but when we keep getting younger world champions how many years will it be before some kid with braces and acne is supposedly the world's best driver?

But thats not my point. My point is, that was a terrible race. Its a shame that it started with Bahrain and ended just the same. No overtaking, except for at the start and Webber on Alguesari which was more of a 'pull over, brake early and let him through pass'. But of all the drivers and their abilities such as Hamilton, Alonso, Webber, Massa, etc there was just no passing at all. Okay Kubica pulled off a good move, well done to him as the potential best driver in the world. But why is that dumb chicane in at the end of the long straight? If the straight was that little bit longer we would have seen some overtaking manouevres and a more exciting finale, instead of a countdown of laps.

Boo to Herman Tilke and his design team. You are an idiot who has one of the best jobs in the world and is ruining it for everyone. I think he designs these tracks based on how it will look through a TV camera rather than the racers helmet and therefore there is no spirit of racing, just a bunch of woohaa and fireworks and once its finished and all over, no one remembers it anyway.

Such a sad end to the most competitive season in Formula One history. Compare this to Adelaide 1986, Brazil 2007, Brazil 2008. It doesn't stack up, when it deserved to be the best race ever in the history of Formula One.

[hesketh308]

I agree on almost everything you said,

Whoever decided to put Abu Crappi as the last race in the year deserves to be shot.

I think i remember reading that Interlagos will be the final GP next year, so hopefully that will provide a much better season finale if the standings allow

It seemed to me that there was just a lot of people on the grid this race that had no idea what was going on,

Like when EJ and Martin were doing the grid walk and got to Bernie Evilstone, and he was like 'Dont talk to me, talk to this guy' and points at random man with a tea towel on his head and an insanely long name, who looks bored out of his mind......

It's a shame that the two Renaults sort of stopped the big race between the top 5 drivers happening, but you cannot blame them for not jumping out of the way either,

Rant over

[Four mules as one]

Yep, this is the way Formula One is heading with all this glitz and glamour. As a true fan of racing, maybe I'm the dinosaur that isn't needed in Formula One anymore.

[Sea Bass]

Yeh largely agree. Race was tense (mainly because of the WDC situation) and the varying pitstop strategies brought about by the safety car at least made it relatively watchable. There was however a distinct lack of overtaking and wheel to wheel action which is what alot of people want to see. Certainly not a classic, and in terms of title deciders, it was a long way off the likes of Interlagos 2008, Jerez 97 and Adelaide 86 in terms of excitement.

Like you said, not good that we should start and finish the season with 2 of the most dullest tracks which don't promote overtaking. Abu Dhabi and Bahrain are the epitomy of everything wrong with modern day tracks designed by Tilke. The tracks seem very artifical, lack character, are too easy for the drivers (very smooth surface, too many chicanes and not enough challenging corners, and plenty of run off areas) and are located in an area of the world that don't really care about F1. Sure everything looks clean and well run from the outside, facilities are great, and there's plenty of glamour, but the true F1 fans don't really care about that. What makes it worse is that, these 2 races tend to attract the most viewers, and people who don't usually watch F1 will have been put off by what they have seen.

[hamilton08]

Australia should always start the season and Brazil should always end it with Silverstone right in the middle

[hesketh308]

Australia should always start the season and Brazil should always end it with Silverstone right in the middle

QFT

[Denthúl]

Australia should always start the season and Brazil should always end it with Silverstone right in the middle

Disagree. I always preferred Suzuka as the season-finale. Australia should be the opener, though.

I'm sure someone slightly older will come and disagree, saying that Australia should host the finale.

[fduct]

Echo the "Well done to Vettel" sentiments, and also about Abu Dhabi not being perhaps the most appropriate track to end the F1 season. To be fair, it's a technical track to test the cars with long straight + speed trap, adverse camber corners, and distance, and I think some of you are being unfair to Herman Tilke. After all, he did design a superb track in Yeongnam for the South Korean GP, and that turned out to be one of the most exciting F1 races in terms of overtaking - what there was of it after the rain cleared up. Interlagos gets my vote for the final track to the Season. Or, we could do it logically and simply hop from Europe->Asia->S.America. If possible, it would certainly save on logistical costs during the year.

There were some entertaining overtaking, just not very many where we were all looking (Alonso). If you are a disappointed Tifosi, you need to look nowhere further than the Ferrari team itself to place the blame for that strategic blunder. When Ferrari brought in Massa to the pits after he had done two personal best laps on his tyres, I was screaming at my tv, "WTF are you doing?". When Alonso was called in, . If I could work out what Ferrari were doing was crazy from the comfort of my living room, the strategists for the Ferrari team must be the dumbest on the planet to do what they did with millions of pounds of equipment at their disposal. Honestly!

FYI, I think it's terribly bad form to insult those who have spent hundreds of millions of pounds hosting the F1 GP. They can't help where they are born, and as far as I am concerned, those who have passion for this motorsport are all right, and we need more of them.

[Brit50]

I put up a new thread saying my thoughts on how boring this race was right after the finish, but it's mysteriously disappeared, don't know why, it was not abusive. it should have been a blockbuster showdown with so many possible contenders for the wdc but no, once again the lack of overtaking caused by the cars not being drivable within a quarter mile of the one in front! It's a stupid situation when your supposed to be racing but you can't because the car isn't capable of being driven anywhere near any other cars,

It's becoming a farce really, does the f in f1 stand for following????? Because that's what it seems, this race should have been called "The final round in I don't think the track is to blame, I think the rule makers are to blame, the cars must be able to be driven at any speed right up the gearbox of the one in front to allow for overtaking, get rid of the stupid wings all over the cars, soon the drivers helmets will have wings and spoilers on them, we already have the driver sticking an arm in a hole in the cockpit to aid aerodynamics, how far can they take that idea????? It's become silly.

There are too many people driving the cars these days, I don't mean drivers, I mean engineers, team managers and faceless keyboard rappers in the back of trailers,

Bring back pit boards, ban radios in helmets, ban telemetry, ban a lot of the electronics, allow one wing at the front, one at the back, ban all others, get rid of the compound tyre rules, just make it 1 pit stop compulsory a race but who cares what tire you choose! It needs to come back to the drivers, make them more responsible for the cars and the decisions, who cares if we don't have "on board telemetry" on our screens showing when they brake and rpm's etc, how does that help? It just takes up screen space, it's all got too wrapped up in technology, just because it can be done it don't mean it should be!

It's become technologically incredible, but incredibly boring at the same time!

[fduct]

I do sympathize with people who complain that F1 is becoming too technical, BUT I have a long enough memory to remember similar complaints about monster turbo chargers, ground effect skirts, and the oldsters muttering about sissy helmets that do not even show the drivers' faces!

For me, half the fun of modern F1 is working out the competitive advantages of each team's technical prowess. The other half being the drivers.

[Mr.Conte]

I do agree with you guys but, in the non USA market they had 37 million TV viewers watching the last race alone.
For better or worse, F1 is now rolling along like a nice avalanche.
The viewers are there now and NASCAR is worried.
If we can just get rid of all the restrictive choking the FIA is doing to the teams, we will see more aggressive driving / overtaking and more exciting races.
The betting world likes it nice and tight and is happy.
I myself do not want the qualifying to give me my race results.
Bring back refueling and open engine design, throw in ground effects and we will have what F1 is meant to be.

[Gaz]

Australia should always start the season and Brazil should always end it with Silverstone right in the middle

Disagree. I always preferred Suzuka as the season-finale. Australia should be the opener, though.

I'm sure someone slightly older will come and disagree, saying that Australia should host the finale.

i'm easy going on this

but a circuit with overtaking should host the start and a circuit with overtaking should host the final.

simply because f1 drivers are all geared up for a fight in the first race and motivated to impress on the last race

Tilke is a idiot.

[f1ea]

My opinion is the same. Terrible race, not just because of the outcome... but really to have such a great season end with an absolutely unappealing race was terrible.

I've never liked the track. To me it looks more like a cartoon theme park rather than a place where men and machines go to work. Sure, everything is top of the line, and the sunset skyline was gorgeous... but what a terrible place to race at. What an absolutely meaningless layout. I remember last yr i switched the race off about midway through. For this one, i only stayed on it out of respect for Vettel.

to both Abu Dhabi and Bahrain.

EDIT: oh seems we're not alone.
http://en.espnf1.com/abudhabi/motorspor ... 34626.html

[MattMK45]

I agree that the final race of the season was only made interesting by it being the title deciding race. As it stands the track is a bore fest with too many 90 degree turns and too many chicanes. The areas Martin Whitmarsh was complaining about was the run down to the hairpin. I totally agree with him and many others do. If the straight that ends at turn 5 was to carry on, missing out the chicane (turns 5 and 6) would create an oppurtunity to overtake in the braking zones to the hairpin.

However with the chicane still in place, there is too much of a concertina effect to have any chance of overtaking at the hairpin. There is also no overtaking oppurtunities breaking into the hairpin because the attacker would have too much momentum and would not even be able to attempt to turn for turn 6 without falling off the track.

[Fred_C_Dobbs]

Four mules as one, I agree 1000%. We count it a great season because it finished in such dramatic fashion, but the racing was tepid at best.

Over the course of the entire season, excluding the first lap, how many times did the race lead change hands due to overtaking? Excluding lead changes resulting from contact or mechanical failure, once the green flag melée had run its course and the drivers were up to speed, when was the race leader ever overtaken?

I don't recall a single occurrence (but I might be forgetful).