2010 has been a season that will go down in the history books as one of the closest ever with Sebastian Vettel winning the championship by only 4 points with 4 drivers being in contention by the final race (and 5 in the race before). Indeed the podium in Abu Dhabi was made up of the 2008, 9 and 10 champions, 2 of whom at some point were (are in Vettel's case) the youngest world champion, which shows how F1 is developing in the 21st century. It's been a season where overtaken has more than doubled (even if figures have been blessed by the new teams) but as we have seen, racing at the front has been just as intense and has sometimes reached breaking point with memorable incidents at Turkey and Silverstone.
The championship contenders
Sebastian Vettel - Despite winning the championship in the last race, question marks are still raised by his overtaking ability and had a poor pole to win ratio, but despite continued allegations of favoritism in Red Bull, (most of which could be vindicated like the front wing saga at Silverstone) has shown himself to have more raw race speed than Webber.
Mark Webber Will be left thinking that he has blown his best chance at the title and many will feel he wont get another one, battled against the tide throughout the season, but stupid mistakes like Australia and Korea proved fatal to his championship hopes and a poor weekend in Abu Dhabi put paid to his hopes. A shame for the gritty Australian who showed strong pace this season with strong wins at Spain, Monaco, Britain and Hungary, but he isnt getting any younger and question marks still remain over his future at Red Bull
Fernando Alonso - Started and ended the season strongly but an extremely poor summer left him too much work to do, but still pulled it back in autumn and even lead the championship going into the final race but a poor strategy left him bogged down behind Petrov, unlike the others he had the full support of the team and this was never more apparent than at Hockenheim in summer when Massa controversially let past Alonso so he could win the race and left many people believing Alonso wouldn't be a worthy championship winner despite stunning drives at Monza, Singapore and Korea.
Lewis Hamilton - A mixed season by his standards, great wins at Turkey, Canada and Spa were tempered by poor races at Monza, Singapore and Spain. While he drove the car to the limit and often beyond, too many DNFs proved to be his downfall, outperformed team-mate Button, but not to the levels predicted before the season started. He also dispelled the myth that he was hard on his tyres with the new rules.
Jenson Button - Suprised many in the close season by leaving Brawn to join McLaren, but this decision was vindicated very early on with 2 victories in Melbourne and Shanghai, remained in the title hunt all the way until Brazil and was more than a match for Hamilton. Qualifying was a weak point for him however which often left him too much to do in races, strong pace towards the end of the season showing that both Mclaren drivers will be competitive in 2011
The midfield
Mercedes - pulled off the coup of the century by prizing Michael Schumacher out of retirement to partner Nico Rosberg, but 2010 was one to forget for the 2009 champions, Schumacher was out of sorts all year and questions raised about his participation in 2011. Rosberg outperformed the car and impressed finishing just behind Massa in the championship, but with Mercedes focusing on 2011 early on, they are sure to be back at the front next year.
Renault - most improved team of 2010 with Robert Kubica often battling at the front for podiums, established Renault as one of the best of the rest up with Mercedes. Petrov still has much to prove with mixed performances. A strong performance in Abu Dhabi will go some way into keeping his seat for 2011 but he needs to improve yet.
Williams - Very mixed season, started poorly, improved in summer, and bar a pole position in Brazil, ended the season poorly. Rubens Barrichello shone for the team by driving the team forward with good performances in Valencia and Hungary while Nico Hulkenberg shocked everyone with pole position in Brazil but has some way to go yet before he proves himself as a star of the future.
The rest of the field
Sauber - Strong pre season promise but a shocking start to the season with more DNFs than finishes but Kobayshi underlined his talent with a strong second half to the season, the highlight being a bold strategy in Valencia and a late overtake on Alonso. A poor season for De La Rosa who didn't have the speed all season who was later replaced by Heidfeld who was fairly anonymous. Strong base for improvement in 2011
Torro Rosso - While an improvement on 2009, points were still hard to come by with Alguelsari getting the bulk of them and looking like he has a future in F1. Buemi continues to flatter to decieve and outpaced by his team-mate this season. Need to do better next year to avoid being outpaced by Lotus HRT and Virgin
Lotus - Best of the new teams in 2010 and winning the bet with Virgin. Heikki Kovalinen looks re-energized and drove the team forward and on occasions to the outside of the points, even getting into Q2 once. Trulli less so, whenever there was a problem with the car, more often than not the problem was on Trullis car. Will benefit next year with help from Red Bull but a legal fight over name ownership will cloud matters
Virgin - Started the season with too small a fuel tank and a car designed entirely from the windtunnel, while the jury is still out on whether that is the best method of designing a car, they made it to the end of the season and have a base to push on in 2011. Glock and Di Grassi were solid without being spectacular which is the most they could have been expected to do. Finished behind Lotus which means Branson loses the bet with Fernandez
HRT - Achieved a small miracle by making it to Bahrain, another by simply making it to Abu Dhabi, Senna and Chandok showed early promise, but HRTs need for money lead to Yamamoto getting a run in the team and then Klien at the end of the season, agreed a deal with Toyota to use the 2010 car next season (http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/14112010/ ... ently.html) and hope to compete with Lotus and Virgin next year
Overall
The best season ever? Well.... possibly, Red Bull still had the fastest car by a mile and there were still quite a few processional races with poor racetracks that we all agree shouldnt be on the calender (Singapore Valencia Hungary), and the issue of team orders still lingers in the air, but overtaking doubled this season which is a strong positive and that going into the final race 4 drivers were still in the hunt for the championship, and with the field looking even closer next year, the racing should be even more intense, I for one cant wait for March 11th 2011!
The championship contenders
Sebastian Vettel - Despite winning the championship in the last race, question marks are still raised by his overtaking ability and had a poor pole to win ratio, but despite continued allegations of favoritism in Red Bull, (most of which could be vindicated like the front wing saga at Silverstone) has shown himself to have more raw race speed than Webber.
Mark Webber Will be left thinking that he has blown his best chance at the title and many will feel he wont get another one, battled against the tide throughout the season, but stupid mistakes like Australia and Korea proved fatal to his championship hopes and a poor weekend in Abu Dhabi put paid to his hopes. A shame for the gritty Australian who showed strong pace this season with strong wins at Spain, Monaco, Britain and Hungary, but he isnt getting any younger and question marks still remain over his future at Red Bull
Fernando Alonso - Started and ended the season strongly but an extremely poor summer left him too much work to do, but still pulled it back in autumn and even lead the championship going into the final race but a poor strategy left him bogged down behind Petrov, unlike the others he had the full support of the team and this was never more apparent than at Hockenheim in summer when Massa controversially let past Alonso so he could win the race and left many people believing Alonso wouldn't be a worthy championship winner despite stunning drives at Monza, Singapore and Korea.
Lewis Hamilton - A mixed season by his standards, great wins at Turkey, Canada and Spa were tempered by poor races at Monza, Singapore and Spain. While he drove the car to the limit and often beyond, too many DNFs proved to be his downfall, outperformed team-mate Button, but not to the levels predicted before the season started. He also dispelled the myth that he was hard on his tyres with the new rules.
Jenson Button - Suprised many in the close season by leaving Brawn to join McLaren, but this decision was vindicated very early on with 2 victories in Melbourne and Shanghai, remained in the title hunt all the way until Brazil and was more than a match for Hamilton. Qualifying was a weak point for him however which often left him too much to do in races, strong pace towards the end of the season showing that both Mclaren drivers will be competitive in 2011
The midfield
Mercedes - pulled off the coup of the century by prizing Michael Schumacher out of retirement to partner Nico Rosberg, but 2010 was one to forget for the 2009 champions, Schumacher was out of sorts all year and questions raised about his participation in 2011. Rosberg outperformed the car and impressed finishing just behind Massa in the championship, but with Mercedes focusing on 2011 early on, they are sure to be back at the front next year.
Renault - most improved team of 2010 with Robert Kubica often battling at the front for podiums, established Renault as one of the best of the rest up with Mercedes. Petrov still has much to prove with mixed performances. A strong performance in Abu Dhabi will go some way into keeping his seat for 2011 but he needs to improve yet.
Williams - Very mixed season, started poorly, improved in summer, and bar a pole position in Brazil, ended the season poorly. Rubens Barrichello shone for the team by driving the team forward with good performances in Valencia and Hungary while Nico Hulkenberg shocked everyone with pole position in Brazil but has some way to go yet before he proves himself as a star of the future.
The rest of the field
Sauber - Strong pre season promise but a shocking start to the season with more DNFs than finishes but Kobayshi underlined his talent with a strong second half to the season, the highlight being a bold strategy in Valencia and a late overtake on Alonso. A poor season for De La Rosa who didn't have the speed all season who was later replaced by Heidfeld who was fairly anonymous. Strong base for improvement in 2011
Torro Rosso - While an improvement on 2009, points were still hard to come by with Alguelsari getting the bulk of them and looking like he has a future in F1. Buemi continues to flatter to decieve and outpaced by his team-mate this season. Need to do better next year to avoid being outpaced by Lotus HRT and Virgin
Lotus - Best of the new teams in 2010 and winning the bet with Virgin. Heikki Kovalinen looks re-energized and drove the team forward and on occasions to the outside of the points, even getting into Q2 once. Trulli less so, whenever there was a problem with the car, more often than not the problem was on Trullis car. Will benefit next year with help from Red Bull but a legal fight over name ownership will cloud matters
Virgin - Started the season with too small a fuel tank and a car designed entirely from the windtunnel, while the jury is still out on whether that is the best method of designing a car, they made it to the end of the season and have a base to push on in 2011. Glock and Di Grassi were solid without being spectacular which is the most they could have been expected to do. Finished behind Lotus which means Branson loses the bet with Fernandez
HRT - Achieved a small miracle by making it to Bahrain, another by simply making it to Abu Dhabi, Senna and Chandok showed early promise, but HRTs need for money lead to Yamamoto getting a run in the team and then Klien at the end of the season, agreed a deal with Toyota to use the 2010 car next season (http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/14112010/ ... ently.html) and hope to compete with Lotus and Virgin next year
Overall
The best season ever? Well.... possibly, Red Bull still had the fastest car by a mile and there were still quite a few processional races with poor racetracks that we all agree shouldnt be on the calender (Singapore Valencia Hungary), and the issue of team orders still lingers in the air, but overtaking doubled this season which is a strong positive and that going into the final race 4 drivers were still in the hunt for the championship, and with the field looking even closer next year, the racing should be even more intense, I for one cant wait for March 11th 2011!
not really and i'd never attempt to name one.
Never mind, I was never any good @ Geography.
