F1 Fanatic readers rate the last 50 races

Posted on

| Written by

The “rate the race” polls have been a popular feature on F1 Fanatic since they were introduced at the start of the 2008 season.

Since then almost 100,000 votes have been received. The results have been compiled below to show what you thought was the best of the last 50 races – and which was the worst.

50. 2010 German Grand Prix – 3.74/10

It’s no great surprise to see which race comes out as the least popular of the last 50 Grands Prix.

Felipe Massa may not have been quite as quick as team mate Fernando Alonso at Hockenheim this year – but he got into the lead and Alonso couldn’t find a way to take it off him.

Sadly an absorbing battle for victory was abruptly cut off when Ferrari gave Massa a coded instruction to let Alonso pass. Race over.

2010 German Grand Prix review: Controversy as Alonso wins manipulated race

49. 2008 European Grand Prix – 3.977/10
48. 2008 Chinese Grand Prix – 4.446/10
47. 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix – 4.587/10
46. 2010 Spanish Grand Prix – 4.919/10
45. 2008 Spanish Grand Prix – 5.085/10
44. 2009 Turkish Grand Prix – 5.276/10
43. 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix – 5.284/10

42. 2009 Spanish Grand Prix – 5.33/10

There have been three races at the Circuit de Catalunya in the last 50 Grands Prix and all of them are ranked in the bottom ten.

It’s hard to argue with the track’s reputation as an overtaking-free zone. Until recently it at least had a couple of interesting corners at the end of the lap, but now they’ve been turned into a slow chicane, which serves only to make the race take even longer.

The 2009 instalment was decided by Jenson Button using a different fuel strategy to Rubens Barrichello. If there’s a less interesting way to win a race I haven’t seen it.

2009 Spanish Grand Prix review: Button wins again with the old two-stop

41. 2009 Singapore Grand Prix – 5.336/10
40. 2009 European Grand Prix – 5.355/10
39. 2008 Bahrain Grand Prix – 5.364/10
38. 2010 European Grand Prix – 5.454/10
37. 2009 Monaco Grand Prix – 5.504/10
36. 2008 French Grand Prix- 5.548/10
35. 2009 Japanese Grand Prix – 5.58/10
34. 2008 Malaysian Grand Prix – 5.738/10
33. 2009 British Grand Prix- 5.755/10

32. 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – 5.794/10

For the mind-boggling amount of money spent on Abu Dhabi’s F1 track, it couldn’t buy an exciting race. Which was hardly surprising given how the dreary circuit failed to live up to its spectacular surroundings.

A promised battle for victory between Lewis Hamilton and the Red Bulls fizzled out. But there were a few highights: the last-lap scrap between Jenson Button and Mark Webber, and Kamui Kobayashi’s pass on Button after his pit stop.

2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix review: Vettel leads a Red Bull one-two in finale

31. 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix – 6.202/10
30. 2010 Monaco Grand Prix – 6.217/10
29. 2008 Singapore Grand Prix – 6.302/10
28. 2009 Bahrain Grand Prix – 6.42/10
27. 2010 Hungarian Grand Prix – 6.654/10
26. 2008 Japanese Grand Prix – 6.66/10
25. 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix – 6.684/10
24. 2009 Chinese Grand Prix – 6.69/10

23. 2010 Italian Grand Prix – 6.759/10

Not all good races are packed with overtaking. This one had tension in spades as Fernando Alonso piled the pressure on Button for lap after lap.

Elsewhere, a novel strategy helped Sebastian Vettel to fourth while Mark Webber did the bulk of the day’s overtaking.

2010 Italian Grand Prix review: Alonso beats Button to Monza win

22. 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix – 6.808/10
21. 2008 Turkish Grand Prix – 6.816/10
20. 2009 Italian Grand Prix – 7.049/10
19. 2009 German Grand Prix – 7.096/10
18. 2008 German Grand Prix – 7.18/10
17. 2010 Singapore Grand Prix – 7.194/10
16. 2010 British Grand Prix – 7.203/10
15. 2008 Australian Grand Prix – 7.609/10
14. 2008 Belgian Grand Prix – 7.736/10
13. 2008 Canadian Grand Prix – 7.809/10

12. 2009 Belgian Grand Prix – 7.852/10

One of the great ‘underdog’ races of recent times (along with Vettel’s 2008 win at Monza in ninth place).

Giancarlo Fisichella started from pole position but couldn’t repel Kimi Raikkonen at the re-start following a huge first-lap crash.

Fisichella never let the Ferrari out of his sights, chasing Raikkonen around every corner of the sublime 7km Spa-Francorchamps track.

2009 Belgian Grand Prix review: Kimi Raikkonen edges Giancarlo Fisichella for win

11. 2009 Australian Grand Prix – 7.937/10
10. 2010 Turkish Grand Prix – 7.984/10
9. 2008 Italian Grand Prix – 8.153/10
8. 2008 British Grand Prix – 8.164/10
7. 2008 Monaco Grand Prix – 8.177/10
6. 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix – 8.309/10
5. 2010 Chinese Grand Prix – 8.326/10
4. 2010 Belgian Grand Prix – 8.368/10
3. 2010 Australian Grand Prix – 8.638/10

2. 2010 Canadian Grand Prix – 8.668/10

If there’s one characteristic that marks out a good race, it’s unpredictability. That’s usually something you associate with wet races, but here was a dry race that had just as many twists and turns.

There was overtaking throughout the field. The lead changed hands on the track and in the pits. Somehow even a Toro Rosso got in front at one point.

So you don’t need rain to make a great race. But whatever they’re paved the track with at Montreal, can please they send a few tonnes of it to the Circuit de Catalunya?

2010 Canadian Grand Prix review: Hamilton heads McLaren one-two in Montreal thriller

1. 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix – 8.756/10

However exciting a race can be, the thrill is amplified when a championship hangs in the balance. And it increases exponentially as the laps tick down and the result could still go either way.

The 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos was a masterpiece of unscripted tension. It came about on one of the world’s great racing circuits thanks to two sprinklings of rain and a down-to-the-wire championship showdown between Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa.

Two astonishing twists in the final three laps changed the destiny of the world championship first one way, then the other. As fresh rain fell in the closing minutes, most of the drivers changed to intermediate tyres.

But Timo Glock gambled on staying on grooved tyres. By not pitting he moved ahead of Hamilton, who was now fifth and could not afford to lose another place.

As Robert Kubica un-lapped himself Sebastian Vettel pounced – and took fifth place. With two laps to go, the destination of the championship switched from Hamilton to Massa.

But the rain continued to fall and in the final two laps Glock was struggling badly. Even so, it wasn’t until Hamilton reached the final corner that he took fifth place back and the championship along with it.

It’s hard to imagine how any race could out-strip that one for drama, but with four rounds to go this year and five drivers still in the running for the championship, perhaps we will.

2008 Brazilian Grand Prix review: Lewis Hamilton is champion in epic climax to final race

Thanks to everyone who’s participated in our ‘rate the race’ polls over the past three years. I wonder if the races at the top and bottom of the chart will have changed in another 50 races’ time?

Last 50 F1 races as rated by F1 Fanatic readers
Last 50 F1 races as rated by F1 Fanatic readers (with trendline)

Images © Red Bull/Getty Images, Ferrari spa, Renault/LAT, Toyota F1 World, Ferrari spa, Force India F1 Team, Red Bull/Getty Images, Ferrari spa

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...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

125 comments on “F1 Fanatic readers rate the last 50 races”

  1. Great to see so much of 2010 in the top ten. This season has just been epic. No other word for it. Epic.

    Montreal certainly the best race this year and Brazil 2008 just had a script that if Hollywood wrote it you’d laugh and say how ridiculous it was.

    1. I noticed that, half of the Top 10 are form this year.

      Another thing I noticed is that no race scored a 9 on average, which I suppose goes to show Keith’s “don’t rate on the result” plea still goes significantly unnoticed. At least it’s a common trend that doesn’t see good races plummet just because Team X or Driver A won.

      Also, 7 of the top 10 were rain-affected at some point. It says a lot for the case for reducing grip in F1 (simple aero, hard tyres), even if some of the races were even better for the mixed-up-grids (I suppose that’s a plus for reverse or random grids, but what an awful idea!)

      1. If you reduced the grip it would still be constant and it wouldn’t change anything, its changeable conditions, and changeable and unpredictable grip levels that makes for these unpredictable races, not simply low grip levels.

        1. Montreal wasn’t changeable though, it just wreaked havoc on tires.

          1. But it was unpredictable…

            The teams had no idea what was going on! Chaos! Mayhem!

            Brawn was running up and down the pits yelling that it was the end of the world, Kimi refused to play because the other kids were mean and someone (as a bit of a practical joke) decided to switch Schumacher’s pedals around… unfortunately the issue still hasn’t been found…

            Or at least that’s how I imagined it…

        2. Most of the fun from wet races comes because the drivers can’t go at 100% because they have less grip than usual. Obviously the track being slippery helps but a lack of grip produces the same effect, as we saw with the McLarens struggling out of the corners in Singapore at the end of the soft tyres’ life.

          Nothing can ever truly replicate a wet race but reducing grip would go the furthest. It’s unfortunate that the only way to replicate the mix of strategies would be to have tyres that wear out too quickly, because to have low-grip tyres you’d probably have to make them insanely hard. Either that or ask the tyre supplier to intentionally produce a tyre that was rubbish in all areas, and why do that?

      2. Personally, I thought Melbourne and Spa were the best races so far this year ahead of Canada, with Melbourne being the best. But it seems there are only a few votes between them. :) What a fantastic season of F1 this has turned out to be – and I can’t say I predicted that after Bahrain.

        1. I’d like to see that list with the ones and possibly the twos removed, I mean Canada got it’s fair shair of 1’s for some reason and we all know thats madness.

          It’s true though, best season ever.

          1. Send me a link to your avatar! I haven’t seen that picture yet. :P

          2. awww I saved it off some link somwhere, I think theres a link to it in the Singapore pictures thread?

          3. I’d like to see the list without 1’s and 10’s. This way we could eliminate the extremes and have more balanced view.

    2. Also great see how many of the top races have been won by Lewis Hamilton :)

      1. All of mclarens wins this year are in the top 10! good job McLaren

    3. miguelF1O (@)
      2nd October 2010, 1:47

      yes i cant believe that 2008 brazil is the best cause it was too staged to dramatic and no racing at all glock let lewis pass on the last 2 corners was almost an scandal

      1. see that’s what I’ve been saying for years, but everyone seems to think it’s some sort of conspiracy theory haha

        1. doesnt have anything to do with this but had to put it out there.. bumped into mark webber in melbourne last night!! it was amazing. he took some time to have a chat with me. it was awesome!!!

          1. Wow, now that is something special. Any supprising news from him?

          2. @BasCB nothing too exciting.. just wished him luck for the championsip! asked him what he actually thought of seb and lewis, he laughed it off

          3. Well, i suppose that is to be expected, but you still asked him.

  2. whatever they’re paved the track with at Montreal, can please they send a few tonnes of it to the Circuit de Catalunya?

    And Korea!

    1. Thinking about it Korea should be very Montréal-esque. Zero rubber will be down on the circuit, making for high degradation. Korea might be a classic just yet.

      1. But will that be just a one time affair or something we might see consistently? Well provided it happens.

        It would be a shame to watch the next few years and everyone says, “Remember how awesome 2010 Korea was and be stumped as to why future Koreas were not so.”

    2. … and all the other circuits. Whatever that mix is the FIA should require all circuits to add a new top layer of Montreal mix asphalt.

  3. Great article :)

    Some sort of ranking of historical races might be interesting

  4. Nothing much to say. just wanted to thank you for the compilation! :)

  5. nice one Keith, fully support that suggestion:

    So you don’t need rain to make a great race. But whatever they’re paved the track with at Montreal, can please they send a few tonnes of it to the Circuit de Catalunya?

  6. I think Singapore 2010 was really pretty interesting. With the small gap between Alonso and Vettel at the last few moments of the race :)

    1. There was a one more interesting with Alonso and Michael at Monza, when Alonso hold off michael for more than 10 laps with a much slower car (renault). I dont remember the year but was either 05 or 06, with this last being the most probable.

  7. Is it possible to add a color or something for (partly) wet races?
    That makes it probaly easier to judge circuits by the ratings

  8. Any chance we can get average scores per track?

    1. As there’s only been two or three races per track it’s not really worth it. It’s pretty clear from the chart the races at Catalunya and Valencia haven’t been popular, and the Interlagos ones have.

  9. Suprised no one has comented on number 50!
    Germany was a debacle and the following WMSC meeting and there ruling on Ferraris illegal but alloawble swapping of the lead with team orders.
    The FIA should look at this result and realise what mistake they made in not punishing Ferrari properly.
    I have ahorrible feeling Alonso will this years championship with Ferrari International Assistance!
    We, the fans did not enjoy it!!!

  10. Sound_Of_Madness
    1st October 2010, 14:03

    No offense or anything else intended, but has anyone noticed that the 5 top 2010 circuits are the ones Macca won?

    1. Do you expect anything else, this is a mainly British site so we love it when Hamilton wins and when Alonso rigs races, naturally ;)

      1. …..and hate it when Alonso….

      2. this is a mainly British site

        33%, actually:

        Where F1 Fanatic readers are from

        1. Keith, is there a way you could map the locations of readers to either the teams they like or drivers they support? Would it have to be three separate polls? Or a survey online somewhere? I just think it would be neat to see a spread of reader opinion.

          1. I would like to be able to do that, am giving some thought to it. If anyone has any suggestions how, do say!

          2. Perhaps a suggestion, Keith: since some of us support more than one driver/team, maybe have a poll for which teams a person supports and allow two votes per person. Then a poll for which drivers a person supports and allow 3 votes. I feel like that would give a good cross section of where the loyalties lie for readers of the site.

          3. Have tried it before but with that sort of poll you often get people posting links to them on other sites where fans of a particularly driver/team congregate and that skews the voting massively.

            Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to have the traffic, but for the purposes of understanding what regular readers of the site think it’s next to useless.

            One time I did do that and it seemed there wasn’t any noticeable external interference was in 2008 when we polled on favourite team. The result was very close with no one team getting more than 17%. BMW were top (17%) followed by Williams (16%), Ferrari (13%), McLaren (13%) and Red Bull (11%).

          4. Well that stinks :/. It’s a shame people can’t practice some self control on these things.

        2. That’s quite interesting Keith. I knew it was a really diverse site, but there are F1Fanatics everywhere!

          1. That’s my point :-)

    2. Well lets explore that a little bit. First of all Singapore 2009, a McLaren victory and a very low rated race, but thats besides the point.

      This year, Mclaren have often not had the fastest car, so their victories have tended to come when circumstances are mixed. China Australia where wet, an lets face it, damn exciting and overtakey, Canada was just incredible due to the tyre degredation and the Belgian I wouldn’t personally have rated so high but still, it was a damn fine race.

      Redbull victories often get rated low because they just cruise from pole to flag, and Ferrari victories, well obviously I hated Germany + Bahrain, nowt to do with bias there, an I gave Monza an 8 for the tension.

      1. Sound_Of_Madness
        1st October 2010, 15:36

        It was not intended as a trolling thing or what, just a random trivia fact.

        The fact it is a British site (33%…) may has a bit to do IMO, not much. In an Italian site of course I would expect the ratings to be the other way round.

        1. When you say “it is a British site”, I don’t know what you mean. For every one reader from Britain there are two from somewhere else.

          It’s an F1 site. It’s in English, which obviously limits it to people who can read English, but that’s it.

          Perhaps a conversation that’s best left to that forum thread.

          1. Sound_Of_Madness (@)
            1st October 2010, 15:57

            Mostly British, compared to other nationalities (not as a whole, but specific)

          2. No, it’s mostly not British. The largest single group of users is British, but that’s not the same thing.

          3. “There are a plurality of British users.”

            Happy?

          4. That’s fine too. Still not convinced it’s significant, though…

          5. I’m British but in the USA. I wonder how many non-UK readers are ex-pats. Its probably balanced to some degree by the non-British readers in the UK.

        2. Don’t worry no accusations of trolling. All I;m saying is circumstances have genuinley turned it this year so that mcLaren seems to win the most exciting races.

        3. 33% of the readers of this site may be British but they all have their own mind.

          For example, not all Brits like McLaren. Not all Brits hate Ferrari.

          Hell, not all Brits even like British drivers!

          The fact that a third of the readers are British is irrelevant, frankly.

    3. Actually, if you look at the top 10
      1. HAM champion
      2. HAM wins
      3. BUT wins
      4. HAM wins
      5. BUT wins
      6. BUT champion
      7. HAM wins
      8. HAM wins
      9. VET wins
      10. HAM wins

      There might be some sort of pattern, there…

      1. How’d Vettel sneak in there?

        1. Because it was his spectacular first win, for Toro Rosso the underdogs.

          1. Yeah I know why it made the top ten, I was making a joke about the bias many seem to think exists for Button and Hamilton victories. If not for Vettel it would’ve been proof positive that the poll was rigged ;-)

      2. i was thinkin that, hamilton has won 5 of the top 10 races, he was fighting his way through in Italy ’08, China ’10, and Aus ’10. Was pretty calm in Brazil ’10 and was the focus of Brazil ’08.

        1. Was pretty calm in Brazil ’10

          Clairvoyant?

          1. haha sorry, i hope not!! i ment Brazil ’09. i have to read things b4 posting in the future.

      3. Yeah, like the kid’s the most exciting thing on four wheels since Senna ?

        1. To be fair I can see why people would see a pattern. but looking at them races they were genuinely gripping.

          I’m British but not massive on Mclaren at all, for the record.

  11. I don’t see how anything could top Brazil 2008. Ever. Just remembering how I was while I was watching the race is making me excited.

    1. I would say that Brazil 2007 comes close ;)

  12. Another interesting way to analyse these rating would be by circuit (Catalunya bad, Montreal good for example), by point in the season (later races maybe get higher rating), number of overtaking manouvers (the more the better probably) and eventual race winner (could show if F1Fanatic readers are biased in any way).

    1. Bias is cancelled out by looking at China 08 and China 10.
      British drivers won both, one was early in the season yet scored one of the highest rating (10, Button) and one was late in the season and got a very low score (08 Hamilton). If there was any bias favouring Brits all the time that race which was totally dominated by Hamilton would have been a higher rated race.

      The sceptic/cynic side of me wonders if China 08 was a low scorer because Ferrari pulled the old switcheroo between drivers ;)

      1. If Alonso wins the championship, he would not deserve it because he cheated, what is happening to formula one, china 8 was Massa s race.

  13. When I first saw that headline I read it as ‘F1 Fanatic readers HATE the last 50 races’! (Not in capitals obviously, but I dodn’t know how to write in itallics on here!)

    1. Use the simple i tag standard html brackets. When you comment a line shows up just above the dialogue box that says “allowed tags.”

  14. So the bottom ten is
    Tilke track, fixed race
    Tilke
    Tilke
    Tilke
    Spain
    Spain
    Tilke
    Tilke
    Tilke

    The top ten, by contrast, has only two Tilkes and one of them is there because the RBR’s crashed into each other. The other is there due to major rain-lottery. The ranking is not about the track, but is this a coincidence?

    Case closed.

    1. To be fair the results are often skewed, like Tukey 09 in the bottom ten. Thats more to do with the fact that Button had just clinched his 6th victory of 7 races and didn’t look like stopping. That race was alright by the standards of that year, not sensational but alright.

      1. I agree the championship has a bearing but I can’t for the life of me remember anything interesting happening in that particular race.

        I remember Barrichello had a bad start and made a couple of passes… and that’s it.

        1. Barrichello made his passes, Lewis was in a few fights. Vettle caught up to the back of Button, an should have got passed, Webber got past him through strategy. It wasn’t the most memorable race ever, a solid 6 if ever there was one. But still maybe a 5’s what it deserves, it is of course all subjective.

    2. Very good point.

  15. Would be interested to see what the season averages are, if anyone has/can put those together?

    Looking at the chart it seems that 2009 was overall of less interest, although the effect maybe subtle.

  16. I love all your graphs Keith. It makes me feel like I’m doing some important management job while I view them at work.

    right, back to the techie stuff….

    1. Exactly. Like we should all be sitting at a long table in a board room. Keith would be pointing at parts of the graph with an extendable pointer.

  17. I loved the top 3 races in this list, and many others! I’m surprised Britain 2008 is only 8th.

    But I wonder if Suzuka 2005, which was full of overtaking (mainly due to the poor qualifying and varying levels of progress through the field by Kimi, Fernando and Michael), would have beaten the rating of Canada 2010?

    I thought Fisichella would have won comfortably!

    It certainly wouldn’t beat Brazil 2008, but it’s surely the 2nd most dramatic race since the Hakkinen – Schumacher battle in Belgium 2000 (especially Alonso’s passes on Schumacher and Raikkonen’s on Fisichella).

    1. I wonder if Suzuka 2005, which was full of overtaking (mainly due to the poor qualifying and varying levels of progress through the field by Kimi, Fernando and Michael), would have beaten the rating of Canada 2010?

      I think so. That race had everything going for it apart from the stewards telling Alonso to let Klien past and then changing their minds after he already had…

  18. Perhaps it says more about who the readership of F1Fanatic support, and where they’re from; as 7 of the top 10 were British driver winners (5 of them Hamilton), and 2 of the remaining 3 were races when British drivers became World Champions.

    Makes you think about how much “your driver” winning (or equally DNFing) skews your opinion of the race, doesn’t it.

    1. I’m not convinced because when I look at this list I see a load of boring (or otherwise inferior) races in the forties and a some memorably great ones in the top ten.

      Take China 2008: Hamilton won and it moved him closer to the championship so by your reckoning it would have been rated highly.

      But it was an absolutely stinker of a race and deserves to be 48th.

      1. Funnily enough it was another race where the Ferrari cars switched places, though most agreed with what took place there.

    2. If you look at Hamilton’s podium strike rate, his appearance as winner of popular races since 2007 is no anomaly. He’s heard the music 34 times in 67 events, winning 14. Among other active drivers, Alonso has 10 wins in the same period, Massa has 9, Webber 6, Vettel 7. The other high scorer in the period is Button with 9, another Briton, so there you go.

      Italy has the best anthem, but its been God Save the Queen very much of the time.

      1. Italy has the best anthem

        That thing is manic and insane! I love hearing it though ’cause it literally makes me laugh out loud.

        1. What I find interesting is that that anthem is temporary, (correct me if I’m wrong) and has been so for over 40 years now…

          I believe it was brought in after WW2 until they could find something more suitable.

  19. When I read of the 2008 Brazilian GP I can see it in front of me. Poor Felipe ;(

  20. The race in the top ten are exclusively McLaren/English victories. Meh…

      1. The best races are unpredictable and usually rainy – McLaren is the best in such conditions. And the drivers too.

        1. Yeah! the voting is obviously dominated by rainy and unpredictable people!

    1. Ferrari won #1 .

      1. That paled in comparison to who won the championship.

  21. 2008 Brazilian GP was simply epic. But of course, without the championship battle, it wouldn’t have been that interesting. Its kind of an unfair advantage of being the season-finale.

    Great to see the 2010 Australian GP ranked third. It was also similar to the 2010 Canadian GP where drivers opted for differing strategy (Webber and Hamilton). Surprised to see the 2009 Chinese Grand Prix ranked as low as 24th!! It was a great race IMO.

  22. Clearly there’s a British bias but that’s to be expected, I’m sure the same poll taken in a Spanish language site or Portuguese site would have slightly differing results.

    Of the top 8, 6 British winners and 2 British drivers crowned as champions.

    Still interested reading and super graphs as ever.

  23. What a surprise… British site, British poll, British audience voting their favourite British wins right to the top.

    I give this poll a 1/10.

      1. Please Keith, I have much respect for your articles, so don’t patronize me with a survey that “may” show the diversification between the readers of f1fanatic.

        Honestly, when the likes of Belgium 2010, Monaco 2008, Italy 2008 and Turkey 2010 make the top 10, you know things are out of order. I would add Brazil 2009 to the list, but I commend Button’s spectacular drive to his championship, in what was a very unexciting race.

        Otherwise it is as obvious to me, as it is to everyone – there is a strong British influence on the outcome of your poll.

        As I’ve said before, I do respect and enjoy your work, and I was definitely not here to troll. I simply cannot tolerate Pro-Hamilton and Anti-Alonso articles, which seem to be the common trend on UK based F1 sites.

        1. In Keith’s defense,

          The best races are usually the ones with rain in it. And since 2007, Mclaren have always had the best car in the wet. So it is unsurprising that they have ended up winning most of the wet races. Thus, the best voted races happen to be Mclaren wins.

          I am not completely rejecting your theory that there is a huge British bias here (33% is still a huge percentage of the readership), but it is not as pronounced as on websites such as planet-f1 where Hamilton and Button are considered nothing less than Gods.

        2. If I recall correctly, a German driver in an Italian car won the 2008 Italian Grand Prix. There weren’t any Brits on the podium either, and in that race Alonso beat Hamilton.

          Oops.

        3. Things are out of order because Monaco 2008 is in the top 10? Did you even watch that race? Wet/dry conditions, BMW v Ferrari v McLaren, Force Inida nearly on the podium. It was most exciting Monaco GP I’ve seen in 20 years. And no, I’m not British.

        4. Errr, Turkey was a fantastically dramatic race, tension throughout, forty laps of 4 cars racing nose to tail at an incredible pace compared to the rest of the grid, culminating in two spectacular climaxes, how can you not appreciate that? That was Grand Prix racing at it’s very best. It would have been that good if the positions where reversed.

          Belgium 2010 probably doesn’t deserve it’s spot but it was a fantastically enjoyable race none the less, so really that’s the only race in the top ten that can afford to drop a bit but still it was action packed.

  24. I have watched multiple places where races are rated. Here it seems that races are closer to each other. One place had one race rated 2,54.

  25. Keith,
    Great article. I would like the see the first chart with different color bars for each year. It would help make, it more obvious which were good or bad years, especially when the formula changes drastically in 2013.

    Could you break the trend line to show the trend within each year?

    Do you think the overall trend is due to better racing or is it just due to the increasing popularity of your site?

    I always see more different analysis on your site, keep up the great work you and your team are doing.

  26. When I turn on the TV on Sunday morning and see rain drops on the FIA helicopter lens circling the track, I get a special feeling of excitement welling up in me, and this data proves why!

    Actually though, 2010 has been truly awesome all the way thanks to the teammate rivalry. Sometimes watching the drivers’ body language after the races (Turkey for sure) has been as interesting as the races themselves.

  27. Brazil 08 was a race to remember certainly, my number 2 would be Brazil 07. The two mclarens were poised to take the drivers championship, but the teams driver equality played against them during the season. both driver ended the year with the same points, as Kimi took the Laurels at the end by a single point after overcoming a major points deficit.

    This year we still have so many option for the championship it will certainly be another year to remember

    07-The Iceman finally takes the crown he deserved after two failed attempts
    08-Hamilton clinches the title in an epic last corner thrill
    09-Brawn GP- the Cinderella story of the team that almost never was.
    10- still to be decided

    1. (yeah I now Brazil 07 is out of the count down, but it was a great year too)

  28. Keith,
    Could you manipulate the figures and produce a table or graph showing the popularity of each race track.

    From a quick inspection I see Australia and Brazil at the top and Spain and Europe at the bottom.

  29. Nice work Keith, it does allow to see what people in other part of the world thinks about this races when they are rated. I agree with the best race but not too much about the worst race.

    But Canada GP 2010 is probably a race that many will remember for a long time in their life.The European race in Valencia & the Spanish GP aren’t the best places on the calender to go & watch racing, but the saddest thing is that dispite having a very good rating Turkey is failing to attract people.

  30. I guess there’s nothing you can do to stop people downvoting a great race like Belgium ’08 in the wake of certain decisions by officials. But even if that race was “flawed” in your opinion, you have to concede it was one of the best races we’ve seen in years, and surely it would be in the top 10 without the Lewis fanboys voting 1 on it.

    1. To be honest, the main race was incredibly dull. Hamilton spun early and from then on the gap to Raikkonen stayed the same. After the stops the gap increased but sill stayed the same throughout the stint until the rain. It had an epic ending but 90% of the race was boring.

      After all the “I voted 9/10 because Ferrari won” comments at Monza this year, it’s a bit rich to talk of fanboys.

      1. I replied to your comment but I accidentally hit cancel reply before posting… so my reply is somewhere on the next page.

  31. Singapore 2010 shows as Tilke ‘ s circuit offer overtake opportunities ( see Webber and Kubica ) . I also love Monaco and Belgium 2008 but I’m agree : Brazil 2008 it’s really an amazing races at the end of a thrilling championship . But I’m sure that also Abu Dhabi 2010 ‘ll give us emotions ’til the last lap .

    1. eh, not really, Singapore showed itself to be a great event and a poor circuit. It was exciting due to a punctured tyre and a crash.

  32. Really shows the difference between tracks conducive to good racing and new tracks… I mean tracks not conducive to good racing.

    Brazil places 1 and 6. Australia places 3, 11 and 15. Belgium 4, 12 and 14.

    And Valencia 38, 40 and 49. Bahrain 28, 38 and 47. Malaysia 25, 34 and 43. Take the rain away from the last two Chinese races and it would be here too.

    1. You missed Canada at 2 and 13! No 2009 race unfortunately.

  33. 2008 Brazil grand prix was a sad day for f1 in my opinion and although the race was exiting, for me its up there with the worst gp races ever austria 2002(barrichello letting shumi pass on the line), and 2010 german gp (massa lets alonso pass). Unfortunately brazil 2008 will always be remembered for Glocks amazing “move out of the way” right on the last corner to gift Hamilton his one and only world title, giving birth to many theories on y this had happened after the race. Of the 20 yrs following every gp race, my favourite GP was without a shadow of a doubt Nurburgring 2007 when a rain drenched race was an epic with several drivers crashing out on the same corner of the same lap (I advise any1 who hasnt seen it to try and see it)

    1. Can’t you guys give it a rest?

  34. top 10 are won by Lewis or Jenson=> what an british web site.

  35. “The 2009 instalment was decided by Jenson Button using a different fuel strategy to Rubens Barrichello. If there’s a less interesting way to win a race I haven’t seen it.”

    I disagree with that: there was nothing wrong with fuel strategies. And a less interesting way to win a race ? Very easy, race # 50: Germany 2010.

  36. Maybe you thought it was boring. I didn’t.

    There were large periods where nothing happened at Brazil 2008, between the start and the exciting last few laps, but I don’t cite that as a reason why it shouldn’t be considered the most exciting race. Of course it was exciting. But Spa ’08 was incredible too.

    Maybe you and some other people can only get excited about a so-called “uneventful” race when it’s the last race of the season and a title decider, but not me.

    The race was exciting enough by itself. It’s the most exciting track on the Formula One calendar by far, and everyone knew going into it that Raikkonen had to win to have any chance of realistically staying in the title race, and if he didn’t finish, it was over for him. He had won the race three previous times, so expectations on him were high. And then, the wet weather affected the first few laps of the race, with Hamilton spinning. Then Raikkonen took the lead and you say that was the moment it became “boring”, but we knew it could rain any moment which could potentially change the whole race, and we were told rain was expected. I found the whole race gripping. Eventually it did rain, only a few laps from the end, which led to one of the most exciting battles for the lead seen in years, including spins, and Hamilton having to go off track to avoid running into a backmarker. Then eventually Hamilton took the lead proper, and Raikkonen hit the wall, and Hamilton had to crawl around the last lap of the race on a wet track on dry tyres, at a snail’s pace, to win.

    I don’t see how you can say that is an “overrated” race. It was a lot more memorable as an on-track fight, than the battle over 5th place which Hamilton eventually won.

    As a pure racing fan, it’s terrible that some people only regard that race as “the one where Hamilton got screwed”…

  37. Gotta like the Americas for producing the top two races on the list! And each continent is represented here. I was at the thrilling Montreal race, and what a fantastic five days in a great city. And Brazil 2008 was tension filled right up to the final well timed (for Lewis) rain shower! Must be something special about the time zone that both of these cities share.

    ps. Bernie, we need more a couple more races over here.

  38. agree with Long…

  39. the best truly deserves its place… i had never been so excited watching an F1 race as i was in that last set of corners…truly epic

  40. I would have to say, China was the best race of the season. Crashes! Overtakes! Rain! Drama! everything going on. Melbourne and Canada follow closely with Belguim and Turkey tied in fourth.

  41. themagicofspeed (@)
    27th May 2012, 22:56

    Dont ever remind me of Brazil 2008. I had to be physically stopped from destroying my television, such was my anger.

Comments are closed.