2011 FORMULA 1 ETIHAD AIRWAYS ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX: RACE *** SPOILERS ***

Two wins give him the title. Period. Thats 20 more points as well. Beyond that he isnt a turd. He is an F1 driver. Driving for Ferrari. Thats really enough. Cheater would fit FA pretty nicely both at Mclaren and Renault.

 

Just saw the race on DVR. Pretty indicative of the entire season -- snoozefest.

Is it next season yet? Let's call it now and go home.

 

With that excuse you can rewrite pretty much the entire history of F1 and come up with a long list of WDCs the world never heard of.

 

He left and Santander stayed with Mclaren. Another quitter just like Kimi. FA hardly the gallant warrior. Crying on the radio in Germany unable to pass Felipe. Please stop before I call another Ferrari driver a turd. Decorum here sorely lacking. Congratulations.

 

Is that so?

Here three shots from my archive:

2009 BADoer in Valencia
2010 Alonso in Istanbul
2011 Alonso in Montreal
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Sorry but they continued their sponsorship with Mclaren. Do a little more research. Its well known. They stayed with Mclaren when the quitter left for Renault. Enjoy!

Oh here you go: From Pitpass http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=42880 Were sponsoring Mclaren since 2007.

 

The sky is falling
The sky is falling

 

So the fact that Ferrari starts painting SANTANDER onto their cars in the year Alonso joins the team is purely coincidental? Or are you saying they just didn't like the bare look of their rear wings?

BTW: I couldn't care less who sponsors McLaren or not.

 

At the time Santander was seen as Alonso's sponsor and followed him to Ferrari.
They were not expecting him to exit McLaren Quite as fast as he and had a multi year deal in place with that team.

 

"Santander originally signed as a McLaren sponsor in 2007, when former world champion Fernando Alonso was driving for the team. The bank remained with the team even when the Spaniard departed in acrimonious circumstances."

They had the nerve to stay when FA departed after LH sent him to the door to a less than stellar stay at Renault.

 

Bingo.

In fact I remember Alonso haters making the argument in 2010 that Ferrari only hired Alonso because of all the Santander money he brought.

Well, Fernando took care of those comments in race 1 for the Scuderia.

 

Some of us are not the biggest fans but we dont resort to ridiculous language and due give credit where credit is due. I for one never expected Felipe to have the same results with FA. I understand he might be replaced sooner than later. The team's call. I respect what Felipe has done and certainly what FA has done this year and last with a car that does not like hard tires to say the least.

 

You don't like my post don't reply, I have seen many of yours posts that I think are pretty nonsensical but I have stopped myself from replying, put me on ignore, as I am going to do the same to you. Ok?

 

Its your life.

 

Just watched it too. Not great but not a snoozefest...those are when Vettle disappears and I fall asleep on the couch.

Rubens had a HELL of a run from dead last to 12th. Tremendous run in a POS car.

MB

 

Rubens saved the race for you?
And didn't even finish in the points?

 

I remember Patrese admitting he had upped his conditioning to deal with Mansell as a teammate and it paid off (for a while).

On another note, interesting comments from the BBC boys regarding Seb while being consoled/molested by Bernie.

"Always good to make friends with Bernie". "Yes, it worked for Nelson and Patrese, didn't it ?"....

 

I don't care that he can't beat Vettel, but with no Vettel in the race, he should have won it.

 

Or at the very least put it on the podium.

I wonder how he feels about himself: He sits in the best car of the grid, his super team mate is out and all he does is 4th?

As a driver you have a million excuses if you sit in a mediocre or just not the best car. But if you have the best there is and your team mate just proved once again that the car would have walked away with the victory and you come home empty handed, where does that leave you?

One day his career is over and he'll think back on all the rides he had. There were many crappy ones and not scoring anything in those is just how it is. But he'll think back of this season and all the missed opportunities to put something shiny into his trophy wall. Today was definitely one such day.

 

Agreed. He has been a massive disappointment this year.

 

Rubens is in his next to last race -- and he knows it. If he's only got a few chances to have a chance to impress or he's retired. It ain't gonna work though.

Rubens had a great career but it's time to put the next Vettel in an F1 seat. Same for Massa I'm afraid. The sport needs some fresh blood and excitement.

 

You're right.
I hope Rubens accepts it in time for a home race goodbye.

 

Maybe the Redbull is not as good as we think it is. Maybe Vettel is just that good. In f1 you can have a decent driver with the best car and win. I rate Webber as a good driver, he should have no problem winning if he had the best car.

 

I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist, but as outspoken as Webber was last year, plus with what went down with not disclosing his bicycle injuries to his team, etc, I believe there may have been some sort of small penalty put on Webber by the team. It wouldn't take much to do so without it being obvious - maybe a few extra kilos of fuel, a quarter psi of tire pressure, or any other slight compromise in the setup. Not enough to sabotage his races, but enough to make Vettel untouchable, while still enabling Webber to bring home valuable constructor points by consistently finishing in the top 4 or so.

Maybe to some it seems crazy, but this is F1! It's hard to believe that, given his superb season last year, he'd suddenly become discouraged after Vettel wound up taking the crown in the final race. Not to take anything away from Seb's remarkable season, but I find his absolute dominance over his teammate a little suspicious (just look at the margins on the qualifying laps, and how easily he would pull out of the DRS danger zone in only the first few corners of most GPs).

 

I remember in the BBC commentary someone said that Vettel was the only driver that went to visit Pirelli in the off season to find out about the changes and such. I really think Vettel is just that dedicated, hard working, and just plain fast!

That video of his face and eyes during qualifying was awesome!