Formula 1 2012

The 1 and Only Lady Gaga

How many of you guys watch F1, and who do you root for? For me, I'm all for Red Bull Racing and Sauber :)
This season proved to be most exciting so far, now it's mostly Vettel VS Alonso.
The recent Korean Grand Prix proved to be mildly entertaining IMO, with the whole Grosjean VS Hulkenburg battle which ultimately shifted to Hulkenburg's favour after taking advantage of Grosjean's attempt to overtake Hamilton. Speaking of Romain Grosjean, what do you guys think about his tendencies (Along with Pastor Maldonado) to get involved in all sorts of accidents? Although most people think that he should go back to driving bumper cars, IMO he's quite a good driver, just too aggressive.
 
watch it but the last couple of races have been boring and on at odd hours for me so haven't watched them. Grosjean is getting way too much of a bad rap and in the long run that may come back to haunt him, becoming too much of a careless driver. he is a possible future world champion for sure imo considering how good he has been in his rookie season, but he has a bit of a way to go in terms of honing his race craft still. it will come though!
 
Love Formula One, was debating whether or not to make a thread about it myself! Was going to wait till next season and do a huge ass thread.

Championship looks like it is slowly slipping towards Vettel over anyone else. Alonso still has a chance, but I just don't think he will be able to pull it off with how much RB have improved over the last few races. McLaren are out of it. Ham has no chance now, better just get him out and develop the car for less Tyre wear for next season to work with Perez too.
 
Kimi Raikkonen has been the most consistent driver so far, he has yet to retire in this season and has only finished out of the points once, so despite not winning a single race he currently stands 3rd in the Driver's Championship. Now if only Romain Grosjean can ease up on his aggression, that would most certainly pull Lotus up from 4th to 3rd or 2nd in the Constructor's Championship, because apart from his tendencies to crash in the first few laps, Grosjean's performance is pretty remarkable, especially for a rookie. Sauber too has produced decent results from Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi, they just lack the consistency of Red Bull. Apart from the 3 new teams that have a grand total of 0 points, the only team that has remained under the radar is Force India. I love the fact that like half the teams this season all stand a chance to produce excellent results, 10 years ago it was the total opposite with the whole Ferrari domination. One word to describe 2002 season: B-O-R-I-N-G.
 
Toro Rosso and Force India are probably the only cars, apart from the bottom three teams, who haven't had the pace to win a race this year. Really impressive year for Perez, Kobayashi has unfortunately had some bad luck. Its getting harder for me to believe that Webber is a better driver than Vettel... but I'll keep deluding myself. Shame he got punted off at Japan. I'd really like to see Kovalainen move somewhere else next year, he really deserves better than Caterham, he is quite underrated due to his time at Mclaren.
 
Coronis said:
Toro Rosso and Force India are probably the only cars, apart from the bottom three teams, who haven't had the pace to win a race this year. Really impressive year for Perez, Kobayashi has unfortunately had some bad luck. Its getting harder for me to believe that Webber is a better driver than Vettel... but I'll keep deluding myself. Shame he got punted off at Japan. I'd really like to see Kovalainen move somewhere else next year, he really deserves better than Caterham, he is quite underrated due to his time at Mclaren.
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Force India are at least consistent in the midfield, Williams on the other hand... with Pastor Maldonado around it's going to be hellish for them, heck even Romain Grosjean is better because at least he's more consistent and scored 3 podiums. In fact, Force India are ranked higher than Williams in the Constructors standings. Heikki Kovalainen on the other hand... although it's a long shot perhaps he may move to Sauber? Since Hamilton is moving to Mercedes and Perez is moving to McLaren, that leaves a vacant spot for Sauber with the departure of Michael Schumacher.
 
The Indian Grand Prix has just ended, damn I feel quite sorry for Sergio Perez with such an untimely tyre puncture that costed him a place in the points :/
Both Lotus drivers must be pretty ticked off as well, with both Raikkonen & Grosjean constantly getting irritated by their inability to pass Massa and Hulkenburg respectively. It must be double the irritation for Grosjean because it's the exact same person who kept holding him off in the previous race. With Sebastian Vettel's 4th win in a row though, it looks like the title is his already :/
 
Unless ferrari come out of nowhere and Alonso does some Blinders, it looks like Vettel will be heading to his third world title.

Texas might be something very different to what we've seen before, I've driven it on F1 2012 and it seems like the first sector is crazy active with corners everywhere. I don;t think there will be that many overtaking spots... First corner and somewhere around the bottom of the lap too maybe.
 
Never cared about racing at all, but since I'm part of the University of Texas marching band, I'll be at the race in Austin! So might as well find out who's who and what-not. So... anyone more knowledgeable know what or who to look out for? (Seriously, I know absolutely nothing about F1)
 
Focus said:
Never cared about racing at all, but since I'm part of the University of Texas marching band, I'll be at the race in Austin! So might as well find out who's who and what-not. So... anyone more knowledgeable know what or who to look out for? (Seriously, I know absolutely nothing about F1)
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Err right now we're approaching the end of the 2012 season... it's pretty much Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull VS Fernando Alonso of Ferrari with 2 races left, but Vettel has the edge over Alonso as of now, with a 10 point lead.

Recently the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has ended, and Sergio Perez has just made Romain Grosjean and Mark Webber his victims by trying to overtake Paul Di Resta... 4th time in a row he failed to score any points, and 11th this season; he could have so done so much better if only he were more consistent.
 
I don't like Raikkonen... Hamilton had him beaten in Abu Dhabi too if the car hadn't of broken :( 10 points between the two title contenders.... Still Alonso is the one with the mountain to climb against Vettel. Alonso has to win at the next 2 races to stand a chance really.

I really do not know who to support for the title, I don't really like either of the guys. At least they are both happier than Raikkonen though >_>
 
F1 F1 F1 <3

I'm praying that it does indeed rain in Brazil this weekend, I desperately want Alonso to beat Vettel and besides retirement I think that is the only way. There's no doubt that Vettel is good, if not a great, but the triple world champion tag definitely belongs to Alonso first. Of the current field I pretty much support Raikkonen, Alonso, and Hulkenberg.

How would you guys rate the drivers this year? I'd say, in order, something like..

Alonso, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Vettel, Hulkenberg, Perez, Maldonado, Button, and then "everybody else" at a somewhat uninspiring level. The top four have been in a class of their own all season. It's probably favouritism that I put Alonso and Raikkonen in the top two but Alonso has been magnificent. I don't think the car is as bad as people make out but for him to consistently be on the podium from awful qualifying positions, it's incredible. Raikkonen has finished in the points in every race apart from China (where he dropped from 2nd right at the end as the tyres fell off the cliff). I thought Grosjean looked good at the start of the season, I still think he is... but Raikkonen's ability to pick his fights and consistent race pace (a la Fernando) is pretty unbelievable. Hamilton, despite my dislike, has undoubtedly outperformed Button, especially in quali. Vettel is also clearly a fabulous driver, but I haven't seen anything awe inspiring from him all year outside of quali. He's won where Red Bull were dominant, and picked up points elsewhere - other people have won when they haven't been dominant. Alonso had 7 podiums in the first 13 races, Vettel had just 4. I know Alonso was also somewhat lucky early on too (Malaysia and Valencia), but Vettel with a fast but not dominant car just isn't the same driver. It's only since Singapore (with "the" Red Bull update) that Vettel has become the real threat to the championship (6 podiums out of 6).

Also fuck Di Resta, Hulkenberg has been magnificent in the second half of the season and has totally outclassed him. If Vettel ends up at Ferrari in '14, maybe Hulkenberg will nab a spot at Red Bull if Webber retires also, leaving two spots. Though I doubt Red Bull will take on two new drivers in one season, so either their "Vettel is staying with us in '14" is actually true despite the obvious Vettel-Ferrari hype and expectation, or they will keep Webber another (disappointing..) year. Otherwise I can't really see a top team opening for him.. :(. I think Perez will be like Button v2 at McLaren, very consistent with a few wins here and there - I can see him being a challenger in '14 but probably not next year. Maldonado has just shown pace that Senna clearly doesn't have, despite being a tool.

The championship has recently had a tendency to produce awesome last races when it goes to the wire ('07, '08, '10). Let's hope this is the same..
 
http://youtu.be/gQgE4PpXAMs what a video.

And yeah imo Hulkenberg proved why he is a future world champ in Brazil. Vettel won legit and that's cool, but there is a lot of promise in the field that he won't just win the titles for the entire decade, unlike in the Schumacher era.
 
twash said:
F1 F1 F1 <3

I'm praying that it does indeed rain in Brazil this weekend, I desperately want Alonso to beat Vettel and besides retirement I think that is the only way. There's no doubt that Vettel is good, if not a great, but the triple world champion tag definitely belongs to Alonso first. Of the current field I pretty much support Raikkonen, Alonso, and Hulkenberg.

How would you guys rate the drivers this year? I'd say, in order, something like..

Alonso, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Vettel, Hulkenberg, Perez, Maldonado, Button, and then "everybody else" at a somewhat uninspiring level. The top four have been in a class of their own all season. It's probably favouritism that I put Alonso and Raikkonen in the top two but Alonso has been magnificent. I don't think the car is as bad as people make out but for him to consistently be on the podium from awful qualifying positions, it's incredible. Raikkonen has finished in the points in every race apart from China (where he dropped from 2nd right at the end as the tyres fell off the cliff). I thought Grosjean looked good at the start of the season, I still think he is... but Raikkonen's ability to pick his fights and consistent race pace (a la Fernando) is pretty unbelievable. Hamilton, despite my dislike, has undoubtedly outperformed Button, especially in quali. Vettel is also clearly a fabulous driver, but I haven't seen anything awe inspiring from him all year outside of quali. He's won where Red Bull were dominant, and picked up points elsewhere - other people have won when they haven't been dominant. Alonso had 7 podiums in the first 13 races, Vettel had just 4. I know Alonso was also somewhat lucky early on too (Malaysia and Valencia), but Vettel with a fast but not dominant car just isn't the same driver. It's only since Singapore (with "the" Red Bull update) that Vettel has become the real threat to the championship (6 podiums out of 6).

Also fuck Di Resta, Hulkenberg has been magnificent in the second half of the season and has totally outclassed him. If Vettel ends up at Ferrari in '14, maybe Hulkenberg will nab a spot at Red Bull if Webber retires also, leaving two spots. Though I doubt Red Bull will take on two new drivers in one season, so either their "Vettel is staying with us in '14" is actually true despite the obvious Vettel-Ferrari hype and expectation, or they will keep Webber another (disappointing..) year. Otherwise I can't really see a top team opening for him.. :(. I think Perez will be like Button v2 at McLaren, very consistent with a few wins here and there - I can see him being a challenger in '14 but probably not next year. Maldonado has just shown pace that Senna clearly doesn't have, despite being a tool.

The championship has recently had a tendency to produce awesome last races when it goes to the wire ('07, '08, '10). Let's hope this is the same..
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Grosjean and Maldonado, especially the former, are pretty good drivers... just very aggressive and that causes them to be in all sorts of trouble. I have my reservations about Perez though, he only scored in 7 out of the 20 races in this season; it's like he just started malfunctioning in the second half of the season :/ I think the McLaren team could have found someone better... let's see how he will perform next year, hopefully it will be better than Heikki Kovalainen.

phalanx said:
Vettel won legit... apart from schumacher just letting him by then?
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That wouldn't have mattered, Vettel was charging; he was working his way from last place to 6th place... the Red Bull car is much faster than the Mercedes, it would have eventually found a way around Schumacher even if Schumacher wanted to stop him... and even if he did manage to prevent Vettel from passing, he would still be 7th, and win the title by 1 point.
 
Yeah, the only way Schumacher letting Vettel through could have mattered was if Kobayashi could have caught up whilst Vettel was being held up, and potentially overtaken. The Sauber had a noticeably better straight line speed than Vettel's Red Bull yesterday so this was always a possibility, but Vettel probably would have overtaken Schumey regardless of whether or not he let him through anyway.

Would have loved to see Alonso take the title this year since he was easily the best driver in the championship. The fact he led the championship for the first half of the season with the terrible f2012 and then still managed to keep in championship contention against the blatantly superior red bull in the latter half says it all really; he had everything you need to be a triple world champion except for a good car. As much as I dislike Hamilton you can't help but feel sorry for him. 3 retirements from pole didn't only kill his own chances at the championship but also fucked over Alonso a ton. If Hamilton won Singapore then Alonso would have taken the championship in the end, but eh thats just what the sport comes down to half the time.

Already looking forward to next season. Hopefully teams will be using this new "modesty plate" thing everyone is talking about, the platypus noses are ugly as fuck
 
PenguinX said:
Yeah, the only way Schumacher letting Vettel through could have mattered was if Kobayashi could have caught up whilst Vettel was being held up, and potentially overtaken. The Sauber had a noticeably better straight line speed than Vettel's Red Bull yesterday so this was always a possibility, but Vettel probably would have overtaken Schumey regardless of whether or not he let him through anyway.

Would have loved to see Alonso take the title this year since he was easily the best driver in the championship. The fact he led the championship for the first half of the season with the terrible f2012 and then still managed to keep in championship contention against the blatantly superior red bull in the latter half says it all really; he had everything you need to be a triple world champion except for a good car. As much as I dislike Hamilton you can't help but feel sorry for him. 3 retirements from pole didn't only kill his own chances at the championship but also fucked over Alonso a ton. If Hamilton won Singapore then Alonso would have taken the championship in the end, but eh thats just what the sport comes down to half the time.

Already looking forward to next season. Hopefully teams will be using this new "modesty plate" thing everyone is talking about, the platypus noses are ugly as fuck
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I wouldn't say that Red Bull are THAT much better than Ferrari, Red Bull still has their fair share of problems regarding reliability, causing Vettel 2 races (Both the European and Italian Grand Prix) that he could have otherwise scored, in addition Alonso had quite a lot of external factors that gave him a shot at beating Vettel, such as the whole Massa gearbox incident and the collision between Hulkenburg and Hamilton... if that had not happened then Alonso would have no chance of winning the title. Speaking of the collision between Hulkenburg and Hamilton, I feel that the penalty for the Force India driver was total bull; it was a mere racing incident caused by the lack of grip due to the rain... Hulkenburg has proven to be a most gutsy driver and he should have been on the podium if not the outright winner of the race; it's quite evident from being able to hold his own against the McLaren drivers despite being in a rather average Force India; his skills are resurfacing after winning the A1 Grand Prix by a substantial margin in 2006-2007.
 
Shame Hulkenberg wasn't able to get a win/podium. Was easily the best race of the year, IMO, and one of the best races I've ever seen. Raikkonen finished a lap down... only driver to finish every race, and completed all laps bar one. I think he was probably the most deserving driver to win this year, shame Lotus didn't quite have the pace all year. Hamilton..... what can I say? Losing multiple guaranteed wins, due to no fault of his own, he would've been right up there. As for Alonso and Vettel, both were very good throughout the year. Alonso made the best of all his opportunities, rarely made a mistake, but Ferrari never seemed to have the pace of McLaren and Red Bull. Vettel, was totally dominant in some parts of the year and was fairly consistent throughout the rest. Alonso probably more deserving than Vettel but, in the end, its not just the driver, its also the constructor. Majorly successful period for Red Bull, am looking forward to next year.
 
Coronis said:
Shame Hulkenberg wasn't able to get a win/podium. Was easily the best race of the year, IMO, and one of the best races I've ever seen. Raikkonen finished a lap down... only driver to finish every race, and completed all laps bar one. I think he was probably the most deserving driver to win this year, shame Lotus didn't quite have the pace all year. Hamilton..... what can I say? Losing multiple guaranteed wins, due to no fault of his own, he would've been right up there. As for Alonso and Vettel, both were very good throughout the year. Alonso made the best of all his opportunities, rarely made a mistake, but Ferrari never seemed to have the pace of McLaren and Red Bull. Vettel, was totally dominant in some parts of the year and was fairly consistent throughout the rest. Alonso probably more deserving than Vettel but, in the end, its not just the driver, its also the constructor. Majorly successful period for Red Bull, am looking forward to next year.
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Actually the top 4 teams all had the pace to win, it all comes down to the driver... Raikkonen was the most consistent driver this year, but Grosjean too has proven to be very feisty, his qualifying performances speak for themselves; if only he could tone down on his aggression that would have certainly helped Lotus to become 2nd or 3rd in the Constructor's Championship because his tendency to crash out at the first corner of the race is seriously detrimental to both him and his team.
 
They had the pace to win at a few races but generally, they didn't have the pace to consistently win races throughout the year. The only teams that really did were Red Bull and McLaren, for different periods.
 
Awesome end to the season to be honest. Really enjoyed the race in Brazil. Wasn't any shenanigans really. Both Ferrari and Red Bull had chances to "knock" each other off the road and neither took them which was great to see. Hulk took me totally by surprise but he really had that Force India hooked up. Was genuinely on the same pace as the McLaren's until he slipped into Ham... And got a penalty which was totally stupid imo.

In terms of the lower drivers, Hulk/Di Resta have been similar all year. Senna pretty much had Maldanado beat (Apart from Maldanado's freak win in Spain). Grosjean is definitely talented, but just needs to work on that spatial awareness a little bit. Too many crashes early in races really put a damper on his whole season. Perez is already off to McLaren and it looks like Koba is leaving us :( Sauber were def the dark horses of the season by far, 3 podiums for the team was a great result.

Can't wait for next year :D
 
Coronis said:
They had the pace to win at a few races but generally, they didn't have the pace to consistently win races throughout the year. The only teams that really did were Red Bull and McLaren, for different periods.
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Grosjean and Raikkonen combined had a total of 10 podium finishes, which I believe should suffice... and this does not count the potential points Grosjean could have claimed if he didn't have the tendency to crash out at the first corner. In fact, Lotus has more than double the points that Mercedes has (303 to 142) and Mercedes is ranked right after Lotus at 5th place. The inconsistent teams here would be Mercedes, Sauber and Williams, especially Williams because of Crashtor Moldy Old Pasta (LOL I couldn't resist, I think he's worse than Grosjean) who can somehow win a Grand Prix but yet only be 15th in the Driver's Championship.
 
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