F1 fans slam rigged German Grand Prix

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The German Grand Prix was rated the worst race in three years by F1 fans.

F1 Fanatic has conducted post-race polls on what fans thought of Grands Prix since 2008. The German Grand Prix, which Fernando Alonso won after team mate Felipe Massa was ordered to let him pass, received a lowest-ever rating of 3.74 out of ten.

Over 3,500 fans responded to the poll after Sunday’s race and one-third gave the race the lowest possible rating.

There are the ten least popular races according to F1 fans since the start of 2008:

Ten worst races, 2008-2010 (click to enlarge)

Here’s a sample of the comments left by fans about the German Grand Prix:

Massa was robbed by his own team. Makes a mockery of calling this a race. He deserved the win and it would have been fantastic a year after his accident for all F1 fans, no matter which team they support, to celebrate his come back.

This is exactly why the rules changed and Ferrari should be disqualified for openly giving team orders. They would have had a one-two without team orders and the best driver would have won – fair and square.
Shala

Typically, a race this dull would get a 5 from me. But Ferrari Team orders absolutely kills any credibility of this "race".

1/10

Now [we] will see for sure how neutral Jean Todt is as FIA President.
rmac293

I rated one – I think there was little in the way of battles. Temperature probably played a hand in this with it being cooler allowing the option to last longer.

Then of course we were robbed as fans of any chance of a race with the team orders.
Mark Skeet

I voted one, but only because zero wasn’t an option. That wasn’t a race. There was no race to rate. As an F1 fan, I feel cheated. Ferrari owe me the last two hours of my life back.
Ajokay

2010 German Grand Prix

    Browse all 2010 German Grand Prix articles

    Author information

    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    72 comments on “F1 fans slam rigged German Grand Prix”

    1. Am not surprised frankly. Shame on the oldest F1 team for stooping so low…

    2. Actually, with Singapore 2008, at least this race is one of the “Top 10” that’s going to be remembered!

      1. Ah, but that race was rated a lot better (remember, quite a lot of action and a suprise winner), the one here is for Singapore last year.

    3. 4 of the bottom 10 are in Spain? 3 of which are at Catalunya. Jinkies.

      1. True and Valencia is even better than Hock :-)

    4. Your sampling of 3500 also substantiates the reliability of the polling that only 6% rated this GP highly – and, if you split the ratings into three opinions, approximately; half rated poor, third rated ave, tenth rated good.

      So, F1 has some work to do in sorting itself & the teams out. But moreover, what reception are Ferarri going to get and how comfortable will visitors in Ferarri hospitality be. But, as for spectator and viewer ratings of the next GP…?

    5. Also interesting that all the Spanish GPs are in the list, hardly surprising though.

    6. That’s a really good sample – and worldwide, too!

      Interesting that Ferrari are always held up as poster boys of the soul, the history, the tradition of F1.

      Well, those stats say that when soul, history and tradition gets a 1-2 finish, the chances are it was a rubbish race.

      And how many of those were won by a certain extravagantly-eyebrowed Spaniard?

      1. Time is hard to pay back but I get the point and agree. I’m just glad I wasn’t there watching the race live. If I was, I would’ve asked for a ticket money refund. Nevertheless for the Ferrari fan stuff I would’ve bought.

      2. No, it’s a terrible sample. Self-selecting polls are not scientific and do not produce substantive data. It’s reasonable to say that this race was poorly appreciated by F1 fans, but citing statistics about it is largely irresponsible.

        1. I think that’s a bit of an over-reaction which focuses on one weakness (admittedly one I’d address in an ideal world but, realistically, it’s out of the question for the time being) while ignoring the strengths of the data.

          I’m not pretending this is a detailed scientific study, it’s a simple rating of whether people liked a race or not.

    7. well if we all wish hard enough just maybe Alonso will break down and Massa gets his dew rewards and wins, bit like what happened with Webber and Vettel at Silverstone.

      at least that would make possibly 1/2 of us happy.

      im going to be wishing hard.

      1. Except for the fact that Massa doesn’t have the pace to match his teammate. I’m disappointed with the way Alonso won the German GP as well, but it doesn’t mean that Massa will have a lot of ‘due rewards and wins’. He doesn’t deserve much this season, and I dont think he will get any wins.

        1. Well, he would have a win if the German GP wasn’t rigged… so that’s a bit unfair isn’t it?

          Of course if the same things happens again, you will be quite right!

    8. The conclusion of Germany 2010 being the worst race in the recent three years is not quite legitimate due to the fact that we realized what happened in Singapore 2008 much later. If we knew about the crash-gate instantly after the race, it would surely mark a new historic low in the ranking.

      Otherwise some people may think that F1 fans actually rate Piquet’s deliberate crash higher than recent events in Germany.

      1. Singapore 2008, even with the fixing, was still quite an interesting race…

        1. Actually it was very interesting without knowing of the scam, but maybe even more interesting when knowing about it!

      2. The result for Singapore 2008 would definitely have been different ‘had we known then what we know now’. But had another poll been down after the facts had came to light, that would only have reflected the scandal and not anything else about the race. So I think that one was a bit of a lose-lose situation.

        1. But you could say the same of this race Keith. Many people commented that they would normally rate a race of this caliber a 5 or so, but gave it a 1 based on their disappointment with Ferrari much as they would likely have posthumously rated Singapore 2008 a 1 if a later poll had been given. Because of that I think the pole could be viewed as a bit skewed.

          1. True, but at least this way the polls are all happening at the same time so whatever the biggest stories immediately after the race are, they’re likely to reflect them.

            1. True, but at least this way the polls are all happening at the same time so whatever the biggest stories immediately after the race are, they’re likely to reflect them.

              Fair enough.

      3. Cyclops raises some good points for sure.

        I am very surprised that anyone still retrospectively(!) regards Singapore 2008 as a reasonable race.

        How, internally, the FIA regard the involvement of ALONSO in both events (2008/2010) we are unlikely to know.

    9. Deserved that rating too, it was quite dull, and then I just lost all interest after Massa let Alonso past.

    10. Its not an accurate representation of what the fans thought. I can tell you now that more than two thirds of the users on this site are British, and would have rated the races poorly simply because a Ferrari won and the McLaren were not in the mix.

      Other than the fairly common and usual use of team orders (which all teams do – you people just dont like Ferrari or Alonso), the race its self was fairly average.

      1. Thats a bit harsh Jack, there are plenty of Ferrari supporters in Britain, and maybe even Alonso supporters too…….

      2. Now hang on a minute there, if you actually look at the races you will see that half of them were won by British drivers (Hamilton China 2008, Hamilton 2009 Singapore, Button 2009 Spain, Button 2009 Malaysia, Button 2009 Turkey). The rest were poorly rated because they were boring races, not because of who won or because a British team or driver weren’t in the mix.

        I’m getting pretty fed up of people questioning Keith and the readers of this sites bias whenever something is said that annoys them.

        1. I agree, it’s getting kind of old I think, something they need to get over,

          I for one am Australian, and had every intention of rating the race, maybe a 7 or even 8, I really enjoyed it, Not entirely sure why looking back, but I just did.

          But that turned into a one…. so yeah.
          (As it would if any other team did something like that too)

      3. From the comments i have read here, a lot of fervent fans of Ferrari also voted a lot lower than they would have done without this incident and were equally critical of it in their posts.

        And even though the nationality / origin of the fans is not a issue for me, just look back at several posts here in the last weeks (Valencia race reviews), where Keith showed, that actually only little over a third of the visitors are from britain!

      4. I don’t get where this whole “Everyone in Britain supports McLaren” idea came from. There are lots of team based in Britain.

        I also would never rate a race highly because my team won, or low because it finished near the back. I want to watch exciting racing, I don’t really mind who wins if we get that.

        1. I’m a Ferrari fan and I voted the race a 2, whereas I would have probably given it a six or seven up to ‘The Incident’.

          Whilst I don’t doubt that there are people that vote high or low simply because their driver/team won or lost, it’s likely not a very large percentage and therefore not enough to massively skew the average.

          1. Absolutely. People definitely do that though. 145 people voted the race as a 10/10, that’s 6% of all votes. I assume they are Alonso or Ferrari fans. Even if your team wins, there is no way that was a perfect race really.

      5. Tom M in Australia
        29th July 2010, 11:23

        Likewise, I’m British and I support Williams, and am proud to have done so for 17 years.

        I’ll cheer with the best of them when Lewis or Jenson wins, but nothing could beat Frank and Patrick getting back on top! Go Rubens!

      6. I can tell you now that more than two thirds of the users on this site are British

        Where have you got that figure from?

        Traffic statistics show just under a third of this site’s traffic originates from Britain.

        And a poll conducted at the start of the race on the live blog showed 24% of people watching were in the UK:

        https://www.racefans.net/2010/07/25/german-grand-prix-live-blog-2/

        On top of that, you assume that just because a person is of a certain nationality, they’re going to vote a certain way. That is, frankly, a bit of an insulting assumption, as some of the replies above show.

        People who vote on the poll are reminded to “vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.”

        1. Keith, just ignore such comments. If I am not mistaking he/she/it(?) must be a staunch Alonso fan as they reason with their hearts and therefore vastly irrational :-(.

          He/she/it(?) also forgot that more than half of Ferrari Engineers are of British origin, though key posts are now being replaced by some Italians but most workers there are not Italians.

        2. Some are on the internet via a VPN, so not necessarily showing their true physical whereabouts. But I think it could be interesting to see a poll on where F1F users are from and in which order they sympathize with the teams and drivers and if they have more emphasis on the team or the driver. It could also be nice if users beside their username also listed the area they come from, when they post a reply. It can make it easier to “read between the lines” sort of.

      7. I can understand your paranoia, but please don’t jump to such massive conclusions.

        Renault, Williams, Red Bull, Lotus, Virgin, Force India and some of Sauber are all also based in the UK and my experience has been that British F1 fans are, perhaps as a result, a pretty diverse bunch. In fact, I think you’ll find quite a high proportion recognise McLaren’s past mistakes…

        I, for one, just like F1 and don’t support a specific team.

      8. I would make a similar point, but it has nothing to do with nationality. Rather, I think that the more accurate wording would be to speak of what F1Fanatic readers thought, as opposed to F1 fans. Not all F1 fans are F1F readers, and as far as it’s possible that F1F polls are representative of the attitudes of F1 fans overall, it’s also possible that they are not. Well that’s my picky take on it anyways.

        1. It’s a good point.

          I’ve always had the impression that the average F1 watcher cares more about the drivers than the teams and would therefore have been rather put off by the fixed drivers result on Sunday and would have rated the race lower than most people on F1 Fanatic.

          We are a little more aware that the championship is mostly about the teams and that these things do happen (even if they are against it happening).

      9. DON’T LIKE FERRARI?????????????/////
        I AM BRITISH AND LOVE FERRARI……..

        I love the cars,always the best looking on the tracks,I love their history,especially the Golden years with one SPECIAL driver,when he brought them back from the grave.I love the anthem that is played when they are on the podium – I love them to bits.
        If team orders had to be brought into play last Sunday,the 2 drivers & managment could have done it in a less dramatic fashion,but that is not Alsonos style is it?~~Alonso,the theatrical king~~~~..

      10. Well, this non-Brit (USA) still count’s it as a poor race. Not because Ferrari won, but because of the team orders AND the lack of action. Other than the start and a few of the pit stops, there wasn’t a whole lot of excitement.

        Just my $0.02 – YOMV (Your Opinion Might Vary)

    11. yes but alot of people voted 1 out of pure annoyance and frustration right after the race. if you ignore all the ‘1’ votes, the average rating would be around 5-6…

      1. Which would still rate it among the less impressive races in the last 2-3 years and well behind most races this season.

        I voted a 5 which is right about where the race was, as i felt reluctant to do something as extreme as voting 1 for this accident.

    12. graham228221
      29th July 2010, 10:57

      oh please, admittedly the result was a bit dodgy, but was it really that bad in terms of entertainment?

      I’m sure this is hugely skewwed by the number of people giving the race 1-2 ratings, which is hardly deserved!

      1. Well, thats the point of discussion isn’t it? Ferrari appear to think it was good ‘entertainment’ because their ‘fastest’ driver won the race in a perfect 1-2 with his team-mate.
        Those who like watching motor racing are calling it ‘fixed’ since there was never much racing between the two Ferraris, and they couldn’t judge for themselves who was better on the day.
        Add to that the sheerly blatant way the move was handled, and the subsequent back-peddling in the face of the media and you can hardly just call it ‘dodgy’.
        However, unless the WMSC meet soon and discuss it, we will all have to assume that they agree with you about it….

      2. I’m not surprised at all and I think it’s a fair reflection.

        Aside from the battle for the lead, few positions on the track were in dispute. We might have had a race between Button and Webber, but Webber had to back off.

        We’d already seen Alonso have a go at Massa once and it looked like it might happen again. Ferrari, I’m afraid, spoiled our best hope of seeing some action on track by ordering Massa to pull over.

        1. That brings up another point, I’m getting tired of all the ‘backing off’ due to fuel consumption. Just when you think Mark is going to battle Jenson, he gets a message from the crew to back off. Talk about producing poor racing….

          Maybe they should all be required to have a specific amount of fuel. I know the cars get different mpg, but maybe there could be a rule saying they need an extra 5 laps or something…

          1. This is a tricky one and I’m not sure there’s an easy solution to it. Just telling them to put more fuel in the car would be difficult to enforce – and do we really want more restrictive rules like that?

            At its heart I think this problem is just another manifestation of how difficult it is to overtake in ordinary conditions. Teams know they’re unlikely to get passed on the track late in the race, so they lean the engines out (which would leave them vulnerable) in order to be quicker at the start of the race.

            Until we get to a stage where teams are too afraid of being overtaken late in the race to do that, I don’t think there’s another way to fix the problem.

            If anything I’d say the situation has got a bit better this year – last year teams would often start saving fuel much sooner in an effort to get another lap in before their refuelling pit stops to increase their chance of ‘passing in the pits’. Now they’re more likely to run the first half of the race, or so, flat-out.

            One solution might be to copy what they did in Indycars this year, and prevent drivers from being able to change the engine settings in order to save fuel. Drivers would still be able to save fuel using ‘lift and coast’, but it would make it harder for them to achieve and put more of the onus on a driver’s skill instead of just twiddling some knobs.

            1. I think that would be a fair solution. Honestly, I was thinking the same thing during the race: this fuel saving thing is severely annoying (that’s putting it nicely to keep it family-friendly for your blog). I’d much rather a team put a little bit more in there and then make a late charge. If anything, with everyone saving then, it seems like a possible strategy.

              I understand the whys of their strategy, but I can only imagine how many teams and drivers you’d screw up if you made them have to push harder when they want to conserve. Hell, maybe it would force a few cars to run out of fuel before the end. It just seems to me if you’d allow your driver to race and push, the varied strategy could spice up the battles with other drivers.

            2. Yea, I agree Keith, adding extra fuel won’t do it. I guess somewhat regulating the settings is best. I like the idea of the driver right foot being in control of the mpg instead of the knobs on the wheel….

            3. Why not just give each car the same volume of fuel before the race and then each year reduce the volume by a small amount to encourage engine efficiency development ?

              In motoGP each bike gets 21 litres of fuel for the race and the tanks are limited to this size. The bikes are also fitted with a regulator that measures how much fuel is left and automatically increases or reduces the amount of fuel able to be used by the engine to ensure they don’t run out before the end of the race, this also means that the riders don’t have to think about saving fuel; they just race as hard as the bike will let them.

              I know it’s not a perfect solution but I think it would be better than the current situation where we spend up to half of the race listening to drivers being told to save fuel. The drivers would still have to manage the fuel so that they don’t end up losing power towards the end of the race though.
              It would also avoid the situation we had at the beginning of this season when Virgin’s tank wasn’t big enough and there could even be a cost saving if every team had an identical fuel tanks.

            4. beneboy – they could, but they’d have to free up engine restrictions first otherwise it would favour some engines over others to a significant degree.

            5. but they’d have to free up engine restrictions first

              Sounds good to me :-)

    13. I think it says a lot about just how dull the other races were in that they only managed to come in just above a race that stirred up a lot of anger amongst fans, causing them to ‘passion-vote’ a one!

    14. Funny how the China 2008 GP is right in there too (when Raikkonen practically had to park his car to sawp places with Massa).

      1. But that, too, was a dreadfully boring race. What’s more, it gave the impression that the championship was done and dusted because Hamilton dominated it.

        Of course, it didn’t work out that way, which is partly why the race that followed it is at the top of the list!

        1. Funny that it was probably Hamilton’s most commanding drive ever and it gets voted so low.

          Put that in your bias pipe and smoke it Jack Peekoc!

    15. Maverick_232
      29th July 2010, 11:37

      Yep I’m English, I support mclaren, but I would have loved felipe to win in Germany. He’s matured immensely over the years into a brilliant driver and overcome so very difficult circumstances. But his team I feel have let him down.
      Although I’m hoping for a macca 1/2 in every race, every year, I too appreciate great racing by
      others.
      2007 aside, I’m finding very difficult to appreciate fernando alonso.

    16. you know the funny thing is,just a few races earlier Fernado ran Massa of the track in the pitlane in China,and from I what I recall everyone everywhere condoned this action- Fernada had been stuck behind the championship leading but slower Massa for so long-so many races-Fenando had no choice but to drive Massa of the cicuit, well this was bound to happen.

      1. That was different, we praised the opportunistic nature of the move (I certainly did), and it was a pass on track for position, not an ochestrated move. No one would have rated Germany 2010 as a 1 if Nando had passed Massa in a legitimate, on track move.

        1. I just dont see running your team mate of the track in the pitlane, who’s the wdc points leader on a circuit thats as big and wide and provides ample opportunity for clean overtaking for a skilled driver as China does as opportunistic.Just my thoughts anyway.

      2. That was legal. Big difference.

        1. cigarettes are legal?… yes and there not good for anyone… yes i accept it was legal though morally bankrupt

          1. and thats rich coming from me

    17. How long can the effing Spanish grand prix last? This is ridiculous, the races there are always terrible. Something needs to be done.

    18. I don’t remember how I voted, maybe 3 or 4.

      I didn’t think it deserved a 1. Luckily I voted on monday, so my anger had faded a bit. The majority of the race was pretty dull, with only the possibility of a race between the Ferraris or Button/Webber to look forward to. This would have made for a 5-6 before the ‘incident’.

      After that, I turned the TV off. There was no point watching the end of the “race” as it was no longer a race. It was a processional finish, and completely ruined from that point on.

    19. I am not surprise, in 10 years of F1 watching I think this is one of the race I didn’t wanted to see the highlights.

    20. I just rated the race without the Ferrari fiasco. But I can understand people giving it a low rating, as they feel cheated. It could have been such a fun battle, as it was for a few corners midway the race. Oh well.

      1. yeah i think i gave 5 or 6 ,wasent the best race but a bit of racing BUT in hindsight i would rate it prob 10/10 for historic moments,up there with the history making first ever 6 car grand prix in 05

        1. Well,thats why we watch is’nt it

    21. Alonso may be a quick and gifted driver, but I’m really beginning to question him as a Man. Yes, that is Man with a capital ‘M’. After the events of Singapore 2008 came to light, he still said he deserved that win. He didn’t; anyone with a modicum of integrity would say that while the results show he was the winner, it was an undeserved win. Could you imagine how his reputation would’ve changed if he returned his winner’s trophy?

      Same with the German GP. It was an undeserved win. A driver with integrity would be able to admit that rather than going on robotically about how “every win is special”. I can’t believe he has the gall to say “this is ridiculous” on the team radio when he couldn’t pass Massa! How dare you feel that you’re entitled to win the race when you can’t even overtake your (supposedly inferior) teammate win the same equipment? A world champion? Alonso’s no world champion in my book.

      Massa has class and integrity in spades. See Brazil 2008. Alonso’s just a brat.

      1. Yes, yes, and yes.

        Well said.

        1. Yes, yes and very much in agreement.

          At the moment ‘team orders’ improve a teams championship prospects without much detriment – bar the loss of a few bucks that only amount to mere fraction of the budget and the impeded driver only forfeiting a few points.

          How about; when a team deliberately moves one driver ahead of another (actually on the track) to gain championship points, the decision should be made with the knowledge that the 2nd driver will be penalised by twice (or more?) the points gained?

          A 2nd driver having mechanical problems / wear & tear in play are no excuse or they must drive through the pits.

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