The weirdest season ever?

[Brogan]

Has there been a weirder season than this?

• Brawn buy Honda for £1 and win 6 of the first 7 races
• McLaren/Lewis Hamilton are given a suspended ban for deceiving stewards
• A race is halted due to bad weather and half points are awarded
• FOTA is formed and almost splits from F1, twice
• The FIA reveal that in addition to the extra money Ferrari receives, they also have a technical veto over the other teams
• The FIA threatens to sue Ferrari
• Ferrari threaten to counter-sue the FIA
• Max Mosley is forced out announces he is resigning....oh no he isn't, oh yes he is
• A driver is sacked mid-season with possibly another one on the cards
• Red Bull become the best car on the grid
• Felipe Massa is injured and forced to sit out several races
• McLaren don't get a win until the 10th race
• Ferrari's best finish is a 2nd place in the same race
• Renault are banned for 1 race due to a badly fitted wheel coming loose on the circuit
• BMW pull out
• Michael Schumacher makes a comeback replacing the injured Felipe Massa
• Another driver is sacked mid-season

I think that just about covers it

And we're still only just over half way through

 

[bogaTYR]

and when you think how many of those things happened on the same day, then it gets even weirder.

schumie back, now i have seen it all. almost wish i hadn't burnt my ferrari t shirt

 

[FB]

It's a shame what has been happening on the track hasn't matched the action off.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Oh yes, this has been a weird one alright however my nomination for weirdest season ever must be 1982.

1) Niki Lauda returns with Mclaren to fund his struggling airline.
2) Then leads the drivers into a strike at the opening GP of the season.
3) The FOCA-FISA war reaches a ceasefire as a result of the concorde agreement.
4) The FOCA teams then boycott the Italian GP
5) Pironi disobeys team orders to take the win in Italy
6) Villeneuve goes out on a damp track to try and beat Pironi's time at Zolder 2 weeks later and is killed after hitting the back of Jochen Mass
7) Ricardo Palleti is killed after ramming the stalled Pironi in Canada
8) Pironi, leading the championship, has a horrible crash himself that ends his F1 career
9) Piquet and Rosberg are banned for running under weight
10) Rosberg wins the title by taking only one win
11) 11 different drivers win the 16 grand prix.
12) Carlos Reuteman retires a few races into the season
13) Five different drivers lead the Monaco GP in the last 5 laps.
14) John Watson sets a record for winning from the furthest back on the grid.

There must be more bizarre things that happened that season but I can't remember them all. There is a good book about the actual season just called 1982. If I can dig it out of the book cuboard to refresh my memory I will put a review up in scrutineering.

 

[Brogan]

Good call c_a_t.

I knew most of those things but forgotten they had all happened in the same season

 

[teabagyokel]

1982. These drivers got on to the podium:

1. Pironi
2. Rosberg
3. Watson
4. Prost
5. Arnoux
6. Patrese
7. Lauda
8. Tambay
9. Cheever
10. Piquet
11. Alboreto
12. Reutemann
13. Mansell
14. Villeneuve
15. De Cesaris
16. De Angelis
17. Laffite
18. Andretti

[http://www.statsf1.com]

That's 18 drivers with 9 constructors: Ferrari, Renault, McLaren, Williams, Brabham, Ligier, Lotus, Tyrell and Alfa!

That is a record. There were only 7 drivers on podiums in 2000 and 2002.

26 drivers were in the points in 1982 for 14 constructors. If we include Schumacher there are only 22 drivers this year.

Alain Prost won the first two Grand Prix. Afterwards no-one won consecutive Grand Prix. No driver won more than 2 Grand Prix, with 11 Grand Prix winners, although Renault dominated the pole!

It was, from the statistics, mad!

If you remember, I did the World Champions on countback a while ago. On race wins, there was a tie of 5. Of those 5, 3 had equal amounts of second places. Pironi won because he had 2 third places to Prost's 1 and Watson's 0! It was the only year where there was even a complication in getting a result!

I'd say it was slightly nuttier than this year!

 

[cider_and_toast]

Right, that's it, It's official. Bro was spot on. This is the weirdest season ever.

Nelson Jnr gets the boot and then puts the boot in on Flavio
Nelson Snr is linked with buying the BMW team (wonder who he'll put in one of the cars)
Michael's comeback could be under threat because of Tyres.
Williams are kicking back against FOTA
The Ferrari engined Torro Rosso team kick back against Ferrari.
RBR join in with the Ferrari bashing.

The crazy world of F1

 

[Brogan]

And the best part is it's only just over half way through

 

[bogaTYR]

just to shift some attention to what happened on the track:
first win of webber
first win for a KERS powered car
closest qualifying times ever
the 15th season since 1994 without a fatality (previous record 8 years)


and one other snipbit:
Jaime Alguersuari became the youngest ever Formula One driver at the age of 19 years and 125 days, breaking the record previously held by Mike Thackwell.

 

[Brogan]

With all the latest stuff concerning:

Schumi coming back and then withdrawing due to a neck injury sustained in a motorbike race
A driver who hasn't driven for 10 years steps in and qualifies a Ferrari in last place for the first time
Renault's ban being overturned (for commercial reasons it would seem)
Piquet's race-fixing claims
6 different winners in the last 6 races
Force India getting a pole position and a podium

Surely now there's no doubt?

 

[FB]

I was thinking about this the other day (my life really is that sad) and one of the main differences I see between this year and '82 is that all the drivers who won races in '82 were ones you would expect to be on the top step, compared to this year with journey men such as Button and Webber winning.

What chance another WDC with only one win? Unlikely as I think Button's lead means Ruby, Vettel and Webber need wins to catch him but you never know. Maybe Flabio is planning to have Button punted off at the 2nd corner at every race from now on to enhance Alonso's chances of points

 

[Speshal]

Re: 2010 - Summary

Is this the season with the most "in season" driver changes in modern F1 with 25 drivers starting races?

(including Kobyashi)

 

[teabagyokel]

Re: 2010 - Summary

I believe 1994 had an astonishing 46 drivers, including a whole range of pay-drivers, two driver fatalities, one former World Champion as a guest drive and a 14-team entry list, injuries, bans for the eventual Champion and a whole range of Simtek drivers!

It'll never happen again. We hope.