But should rule changes be allowed in the middle of a tournament?
It wouldn't have been a change as much as a clarification. And that design was banned the very next year. The FIA has made similar decisions a number of times in the past. I think they really screwed the pooch on this one because they didn't think it would be such an incredible advantage to a few teams, especially Brawn, over a far longer period than they thought.
Wow, an excellent analysis. Very objective!
I also see Vettel, Alonso and Hamilton on one level. As German I just am a Vettel fan. Also I find that he is a very nice guy.
Thanks. I've been extremely interested in road racing since I was 9 or so. I haven't missed watching an F1 race since the 80s when US TV started carrying all the races.
Vettel seems to get a lot of bad press from other countries which he apparently doesn't really deserve.
I don't follow F1 closely, but is the Red Bull really that superior to other cars? In qualifying conditions it seems to be the best, but during the race it seems the only car that was consistently capable of winning an incident-free race in any circuit was the McLaren. The Red Bull came alive in the second half of the season but I don't think it was better than its rivals earlier.
The opposite is true of the Ferrari: can't compete in qualifying but it isn't so bad relative to the other cars in the race. I'm not taking anything away from Alonso who was pretty good, but I'm not sure I can buy this myth that he was driving a vastly inferior car. It was inferior overall, but reliability is also a component of how good a car is and Ferrari was the best at that for example. Also, the Red Bull appears to have great aerodynamic performance but it's inferior to plenty other cars in straight line speed, I think.
It is closer than it has been in the last few years, expecially after the start of the season. But the Red Bull is still clearly the car to have. It was still dominant in most of the races during the year despite Ferrari and McLaren making large improvements during the season. But as I already said, at least it wasn't overwhelmingly so.
The reason the Red Bull car is inferior in straight line speed is intentional. The design and setup allows the car to be far faster in the higher speed corners. It also seems to have an advantage in mechanical grip which comes into play in the slower corners. I think there is no doubt that Adrian Newey is the top F1 designer at the moment.
The Ferrari at the start of the season was indeed inferior. It was only due to Alonso's incredible talent that it managed to do as well as it did. He seems to be able to get the most out of any car no matter how disadvantaged it might be. This is a quality which only a few of the very top drivers have. But they made some extraordinary improvements during the year despite the bad start.
The good news for all racing fans is that the car is not nearly the dominant factor as it has been in the past. The reasons for this are numerous. The FIA continues to change the rules which levels the playing field to a great extent. The engines from the top teams are now being shared across far more teams making them far more competitive. The DRS in particular means that there is far more passing, as well as the use of two different tires. The latter also makes race strategy extremely important. And the lack of fueling means that one major difference between the abilities of various teams is now eliminated.
This was another extremely exciting year for F1. It used to be far more boring not all that long ago, especially during Schumacher's incredible reign. But what is perhaps the most promising sign is that F1 is no longer essentially dominated by only 3 teams. We continue to see tomorrow's stars making some extraordinary drives to break into the top positions.
