F1 Fanatic’s best arguments of 2008

29th December 2008, 13:09 by Keith Collantine 14 Comments »

Hamilton catches Raikkonen at Spa, a big argument can\'t be far off...

Hamilton catches Raikkonen at Spa, a big argument can't be far off...

Last month Alan said he had enjoyed the “quality arguing” on F1 Fanatic this year.

So have I, and I thought it would be a good idea to end the year by looking back at some of our best quality arguments…

Biggest row

It goes without saying that Spa-gate was the defining argument of the year. This had everything rolled into one: a dodgy stewards call, FIA-Ferrari conspiracy theories and the ages-old McLaren-versus-Ferrari rivalry.

With over 400 comments, the first article I wrote on the penalty attracted more discussion than anything else before or since.

Lewis Hamilton stripped of Belgian GP win – another asinine FIA decision

Those controversial headlines

Was Heikki Kovalainen lucky to win at Hungary? Throttle disagreed:

How about he drove sensibly, looking after his engine and his tyres?

And I’m told you can’t “lose” Sports Personality of the Year. Antonyob had a persuasive argument:

SPOTY dates back to the 1950’s in Britain, a very different time when our sporting heroes ahd 3 minutes of coverage on Pathe news and everyone used the word “old chap” more often than was strictly necessary. Sport was either played by working class types who were dashed grateful or by the ruling classes who did it for fun.

The PERSONALITY bit was because “winner” was considered too vulgar. Its an anathema, an anachronism but it still carries weight in the UK and Chris Hoy was genuinely overwhelmed. Its nice that not everything has to be about winners and losers but who the public perceive as the best example.

So if Hamilton finishes second again next year, I’ll call him a three-times “runner-up” and not a “loser”. Promise.

Best one-on-one

When we discussed whether Ayrton Senna or Michael Schumacher was the best driver, Steven Roy and Sri took each other on in classic ‘immovable object meets irresistible force’ style:

“Ramming people onto the grass is not grand prix racing. There was nothing exciting about Schumacher putting Hakkinen on the grass at Spa. That was stupidly dangerous and Schumacher should have received a long ban for it.”
Steven Roy

“What would you do, would you wave your opponent by? “So long bud! You take that win/championship. I don’t need it much.””
Sri

By the time they’d finished the discussion had moved on to Lewis Hamilton conspiracies, continuously variable transmission and spygate. Now that’s a quality argument!

Alianora and the rulebook

Why isn’t Alianora la Canta working for McLaren’s legal team? On Felipe Massa’s penalty at Valencia Alianora posted:

I am seriously unimpressed with the way the FIA has handled this. The stewards delayed the decision after the race despite it being obvious that the release was unsafe. The message declaring that might as well have added that Ferrari were going to be given no significant penalty regardless of the visual evidence.

Matters are not helped by the seriously inconsistent way that punishments have previously been handed out for this type of regulation breach. However, the regulations are clear in that there are only four possible punishments for this incident: a drive-through penalty, a 10-second stop/go penalty, a 25-second post-race penalty or a 10-place grid drop. There is no provision whatsoever for a fine to be imposed. (Yes, the FIA have issued fines before, but only when the driver got a DNF immediately afterwards).

If Ferrari did not deserve punishment for the incident, why were they fined? If they did deserve punishment, why didn’t they receive one of the punishments that the regulations say should be given for that type of incident?

All in favour?

Every now and then we actually agree on something. Everyone who posted congratulated the BBC on picking Martin Brundle for their F1 commentary team. Journeyer wrote:

Martin Brundle must have the highest approval rating in F1 today. Is there anyone who is as well-loved as he is?

You’ve got to be kidding me

Glock slowed down for Hamilton? Dumbest conspiracy theory ever.

Spot the codger

One of my favourite comment threads was after the Singapore Grand Prix where we marked the 800th F1 race by trying to find out who had seen the most.

Clive can trace his F1 fandom back to the 1961 Monaco Grand Prix. My 324-race streak (dating back to the 1989 British Grand Prix) is positively pitiful in comparison.

At the time ‘Eddie Irvine’ lamented that in 11 years of supporting different F1 drivers he had not yet seen one win the championship. But this year he was backing Lewis Hamilton…

Read the 100 F1 Fanatic articles with the most comments: The F1 Fanatic Top 100

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