Start, Interlagos, 2012

2012 rated the best season of the last five years

2012 F1 season review

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The 2012 F1 season was the best of the last five years according to F1 Fanatic readers.

The results of F1 Fanatic’s regular Rate the Race polls produced the highest average score since they began in 2008.

Top of the list was the thrilling season finale in Brazil, which was rated the best race of the last five seasons.

Rating the races of 2012

F1 Fanatic readers were invited to rate every race out of ten during the season.

Here are the average scores for each race in 2012:

The final three races of the season were among the highest-rated as the contest for the championship between Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso went down to the last lap of the last race.

The only other race to appear in the top four was the European Grand Prix, which saw a superb win for Alonso from 11th on the grid. While last year’s race was the lowest-rated of the season at 3.8 out of ten, this year it scored 8.7.

At the opposite end of the sale processional races in Korea, India and Monaco were among five Grands Prix to score less than six out of ten.

F1 Fanatic readers having been rating the races since the beginning of the 2008 season. The results for the 20 rounds that are still on the calendar can be seen above, arranged in the order they were run this year.

The average ratings for each season reveal 2012 was rated slightly higher than last year:

YearAverage rating
20086.651
20096.316
20106.759
20117.23
20127.367

Top ten races, 2008-2012

RaceRating
2012 Brazilian Grand Prix9.449
2011 Chinese Grand Prix9.241
2011 Canadian Grand Prix9.095
2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix8.854
2012 European Grand Prix8.784
2012 United States Grand Prix8.772
2008 Brazilian Grand Prix8.756
2010 Canadian Grand Prix8.668
2012 Chinese Grand Prix8.648
2010 Australian Grand Prix8.638

The gripping season finale in Brazil set a new record as the highest-rated race of the last five years. Of the 835 votes cast, 536 rated it ten out of ten. It’s only the third race to get a higher rating than nine out of ten.

Reflecting the quality of the season we’ve just had, five of this year’s races feature among the best races of the last five years. F1’s return to the Unites States for the first race at the Circuit of the Americas ranks sixth overall.

This year’s lowest-rated race, the Korean Grand Prix, ranks eighth from bottom on the list.

Over to you

How do you think the 2012 season compared to the previous four years of Formula One? What did you think was the best race of the season?

Did you think the racing was better or worse this year – and if so, why?

Have your say in the comments.

2012 F1 season review

Browse all 2012 F1 season review 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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89 comments on “2012 rated the best season of the last five years”

  1. Do I think the racing was better or worse this year?
    Mix feeling, we saw great moves made by champions, but in the other way we’ve seen so many crashes and contacts this year. So, in terms of skills it wasn’t the best-ever year, but in terms of show it certainly was!

    So, as the question is about racing, my answer is no, even though I adored this season.

    1. The first half of the season was brilliant especially, so many different teams capable of springing a surprise and getting a win or a podium. But I would have liked to have multiple drivers still in the hunt for the championship at the end of the year like 2010. That would have made the last couple of races even more exciting.

      There have been the odd dull race, but the majority have been entertaining and the new US track certainly was one of the highlights of the year I thought.

    2. @jayfreese – I agree about the racing; sure we’ve seen some great wheel-to-wheel racing (Kimi Räikkönen provided that in spades) but we’ve also seen some careless GP2-like manoeuvres, especially from Maldonado & Grosjean. Perhaps that is just rookie inexperience however; as Martin Brundle has said a few times the younger drivers should look up to Alonso, Räikkönen, Button and even Vettel & Hamilton – all of them have done some great overtakes this year!

      I feel though that DRS has robbed us of a certain element of tension in close-combat: it is no good to see a driver breeze by with a 20km/h+ speed advantage and have made it by before the braking zone. Also, I feel the rules on defence are unnecessary: they are (in general) professional racing drivers and they know what they are doing, so to police what they can do in defence I feel is unnecessary.

      I think DRS works in certain places (like Abu Dhabi where there’d be little overtaking otherwise) but on tracks like Spa it ruins it slightly.

      Sorry for getting slightly off topic towards the end!

  2. I still belive the 2011 Chinese GP was highly overrated, even back then. Today, if we compare the results with recent races, it makes no justice.

    But well, it’s a matter of opinion, of course…

    1. Today we think it was overrated but that day we first witnessed Pirelli as most important focal point in terms of strategy with lead changing hands, Webber charge from 17 to 3, Rosberg leading the race for a good time, which we hardly witnessed in preceding seasons.

    2. @fer-no65 Rewinding 12 months, one persuasive reason put forward (by @sato113, @debaser91 and others) for China being related so highly because it was the first of the ‘Pirelli era’ races:

      https://www.racefans.net/2011/12/28/rate-race-results-2011/comment-page-1/#comment-919929

      1. @keithcollantine yeah, I know. But I remember around that time I didn’t feel it was a race worth of a 10, or a 9… and some people strongly disagreed with me :P. Some are arguing about it below here, too.

        I always compare the races I watch with my all time favourite races, so I give an accurate rating considering how much I enjoyed it. China was far from my top list at the time…

        1. @fer-no65 – I also have a feeling that the fact Vettel didn’t dominate had an influence in the outcome: people were already starting to get tired of pole-flag victories so Hamilton’s win was a welcome break for many!

    3. For me the 2012 Abu Dhabi GP is overrated.

      1. @f1mre – I didn’t feel it was at the time but now that I’ve witnessed the 2012 Brazillian GP it pales in comparison!

  3. I think it was more of a mix of 2010 (with processional racing but nail biting championship battle ) and 2011 (with nail biting races but one sided championship). Roll on 2013!

  4. Interesting insight – I wonder who in the F1 world reads your stats Keith? Probably worth a fortune to some.

    2012 has ridden roughshod over the trends that were starting to appear (e.g. Valencia down in every year except this one), but still some good stuff in there. Is there anyone who is qualified in trying to analyse this kind of stuff out there? Would be interested to hear their thoughts. Looks to me like the stretch Singapore to India is always a bit low each year (although I wonder if we project our feelings about the championship nearly ending onto those races…)

    1. Nobody is.
      You can see trends, but you don’t know demographics and drivers people support which Does have an impact – at least I can admit it influences my score by at least half a point.
      To name a few…

    2. Data like this, direct from fans, is always useful. As with all statistics, they are influenced by many things, but they do give useful information if analysed correctly.

      With regards demographics, I think there are 2 important points to take into account.
      1) The readers of this site tend to be the hardcore F1 fans. There are not many casual fans on here. This will obviously affect the ratings given.
      2) This is a UK site, and I would hazard a guess that the majority of those on here are from the UK (although Keith may be able to give better insight into this).

      There are obviously other factors to consider, but a decent statistician would be able to use this data to good effect.

      There is one thing I would like to add. I agree with the ratings, as defined, that the races this year have been some of the most compelling to watch in a long time. However, I would definitely not say the entire F1 season has been that great. Part of what I watch F1 for happens in the background, in the technical developments. This has been sadly lacking for quite a while. The best we have had recently were the double-decker diffuser and the initial introduction of KERS. This is the area I would like to see F1 working on, allowing more freedom to innovate within the framework of the rules. As it stands, a large chunk of my interest in the sport is tailing off.

      Hopefully the engine rule changes will help with this are, but I doubt it. I suspect the engines will be developed over the first season then left alone.

      1. @drmouse F1 Fanatic is for F1 fans regardless of their nationality – it is not aimed specifically at readers from the UK or anywhere else.

        However as the site is written in English it’s not surprising that around a third of users on the site come from UK IP addresses. Though of course that means the majority are not – there’s a sizeable chunk of US visitors, for example, and with America back on the calendar hopefully that will grow. Here’s a recent breakdown:

        https://www.racefans.net/groups/f1/forum/topic/where-f1-fanatic-readers-are-from/?topic_page=5&num=15#post-72133

        1. Thanks @keithcollantine. I know the site is not written specifically for UK users, but it’s nice to see that more are coming in from elsewhere.

          The point stands, however, that more are from the UK than from any other individual country. This will skew the stats, although probably not as much as I thought.

          1. @drmouse – I am Scottish and try to be impartial to national pride whilst voting: traditionally we have a rivalry with the English so that would influence my voting against Hamilton for example but I always vote with my head (or at least I try)!

  5. Indeed, it was the most exciting seasons for a while. Sadly, it got a bit boring (for me) towards the end. Now, I don’t know if it was the circuits (Yeongam and Buddh come to mind) or Pirelli’s decision to bring in “conservative tyre choices” or maybe a combination of both. But the unpredictability of the first half of 2012 was something to behold, and it’s something that will remain in my memory for years to come.

  6. 2011 Chinese Grand Prix is rated the 2nd best race of the past 5 years.

    lolwut?

    1. Mark’s drive from the back of the grid?
      Hamilton’s pass on Vettel around the outside, muscling Button out of the way.
      Button going into the wrong pitbox.
      ‘s all I can remember off the top of my head.

      1. People don’t remember how good that race really was.

        1. Not saying it was a bad race but there have been much better ones through the past 5 years. Germany 2008, Spa 2009, Australia 2010, Canada 2010, Canada 2011 and around half of the 2012 races were a lot better than it in my opinion.

          To be honest, I think the only reason I think people voted for it so much is because it was the first race in a while that Vettel hadn’t won.

  7. This is how I rated each race this season:

    AUS 6
    MAL 10
    CHI 8
    BAH 9
    SPA 10
    MON 8
    CAN 9
    EUR 9
    BRI 7
    GER 9
    HUN 7
    BEL 9
    ITA 8
    SIN 7
    JAP 8
    KOR 6
    IND 4
    ABU 9
    UNI 10
    BRA 10

    I think that the Spanish Grand Prix is my race of the year. I love underdog triumphs and this must be one of the best ones of all time. It involved a very tense fight for the lead and I didn’t really believe that Maldonado could do it until he crossed the finish line. I remember that I was applauding at that moment and I don’t do that often, while watching F1 on TV!

    1. I was:

      AUS 7
      MAL 9
      CHI 8
      BAH 8
      SPA 10
      MON 5
      CAN 8
      EUR 9
      BRI 7
      GER 7
      HUN 6
      BEL 7
      ITA 7
      SIN 6
      JAP 8
      KOR 6
      IND 5
      ABU 9
      UNI 10
      BRA 10

      However, because I voted for a Brazil 10, I’d probably have to take the others all down by 1, but at the time they were those ratings.
      Spain too was one of my highlights. I just had a bit of everything. Some great overtaking, a huge battle for the lead, with a slightly slower car in front being chased down but the underdog driving brilliantly to a victory, even after losing out at the start, Hamilton’s charge from the back, and displaying he can protect his tyres when he needs to. One of the greatest races really. I too found myself applauding.

    2. AUS 7
      MAL 10
      CHI 8
      BAH 7
      SPA 5
      MON 3
      CAN 8
      EUR 9
      BRI 4
      GER 7
      HUN 1
      BEL 9
      ITA didn’t find
      SIN 5
      JAP 7
      KOR 6
      IND 4
      ABU 8
      USA 9
      BRA 10

        1. AUS 8
          MAL 9
          CHN 9
          BRN 8
          ESP 8
          MON 5
          CAN 8
          EUR 10
          GBR 7
          GER 8
          HUN 5
          BEL 8
          ITA 8
          SIN 6
          JPN 6
          KOR 4
          IND 5
          ABD 9
          USA 10
          BRA 10

  8. A-Safieldin (@)
    3rd December 2012, 12:19

    Best season of my few years viewing F1, however I do wish we could have the same results without DRS or the technically less eventful cars of today. For example EBD’s last year were a real treat for geeks such as my self however it did make the races quite boring. Maybe the dumber a Motorsport gets the more entertaining it becomes. Cough **NASCAR** cough, cough.

  9. I have one issue with this article as I think we (the f1fanatic readership) are guilty of grade inflation.

    I think people are more likely to score races higher now than in the early years. Either that, F1F’s expanding audience now includes more people more likely to score races highly (e.g. casual readers may be more likely to hand out 10s).

    I’ve noticed this trend over the last two seasons now. By way of an example, the USA 2012 scored higher than than Brazil 2008. I appreciate some people may have their reasons for preferring this year’s race in Texas over the closest championship finale in F1 history, but I don’t believe a majority of people share that view.

    More likely, I think today’s voters in are generally more likely to score 9 or 10 than the 2008 cohort.

    1. I’d be interested to see the results if we had a chance to ‘re-rate’ the top 10 – or to pick our top three (in order) from amongst them.

      As it is, if a race is “very good” then it will collect a lot of 10s and it becomes hard to compare to other “very good” races. However if the top 10 were the only races being considered, people would start to think “if Brazil is a 9, maybe Austin should only be an 8…” and so on.

      1. Absolutely, I am sure Brazil 2008 would be 1st or 2nd. Plus a few more races from 2010… maybe less from 2011.

      2. The problem with any rerating is that it is much harder to give a gut reaction to a race from earlier seasons which is how I vote – straight after the race.

        I think TomEC1 is right though, with only Brazil 08 featuring from the early seasons of rankings, would it score 0.7 less than Brazil 2012 if it had been now? I guess there are a couple of factors at work, one of which is ‘bedding down’ our understanding and expectations. In the early days perhaps a 5 was thought to be an average race with scores above and below 5. In reality we would now tend to see 5 as a very poor score, with the worst races still scoring above 5 on average. The season average in 08 wasn’t all that higher than 5 but the average has increase significantly since then.

        I also think inflation is caused when we see a great race and then realise that having voted, say, 8 for the last race then we must vote 9 or 10 because this race was better. Each time we see one of the best races we have ever watched we need to keep ranking higher and higher and we are now getting close to the limit with a 9.4 average. If we see a better race than this in the next 5 years most users would not be able to vote any higher since most already picked 10.

        1. Totally agree. Also as F1F’s readership has changed and expanded over the last five years, we now have a different set of people who have to judge what 1 to 10 equates to.

    2. Every teammember at McLaren Has to vote high, so they all have to vote – to support Martin Whitmarsh’ view: with DRS there’s better racing.

  10. Top 5 for Valencia. Not bad for a “boring” circuit.

    1. @oskar

      Not bad for a “boring Number two Spanish” circuit.

      I have that fixed for you. :)

  11. For some reason I still think 2011 Canada was better than 2012 Brazil. And for me this season’s races rank as follows: 1. Brazil 2. Malaysia 3. Canada (best dry race).

    For me the US GP was a bit overrated, i think a lot of people rated it that high just because it was the first race at COTA.

    1. ..and the fact that Hamilton won. I agree with you, I couldn’t believe the high ratings of the USGP.. it really wasn’t that special looking at it objectively..

      1. I personally loved the USGP. It was such an close battle throughout between Hamilton and Vettel to finish less than a second between each other, 40 seconds ahead of Alonso, in a dry race. It’s one of those races I’m going to remember through their careers because they just demolished everyone else.
        Plus there was a lot of passing through the field, quite a few outside the DRS zone as well. Definitely one of my highlights of the season!

  12. 2011 China GP the second best race?????? ***????

    Most highly over rated race ever! How this race can get ANYWHERE near Canada 2011, let alone beat it, is absolutely beyond me!

    I’ve also seen Hamilton’s pass on Vettel in that race rated as one of the best of the season. Again – ***????

    Are people even serious?

    1. @nick101

      I’ve also seen Hamilton’s pass on Vettel in that race rated as one of the best of the season.

      Not here it wasn’t:

      https://www.racefans.net/2011/12/25/sebastian-vettel-voted-f1-fanatic-driver-year/

      1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        3rd December 2012, 13:09

        @Keith-Collantine I actually find it really strange that people thought that Lewis didn’t drive well in 2011.

  13. So the 1-10 scale really does go from 5-10. Thought so.

    1. Just like IMDB

    2. @ajokay Over 2,000 votes were cast in the 1-5 range this year, so people are using both ends of the scale.

      But I’d hate to think what traffic on the site would be like if races consistently received 5/10 or less!

      1. 2,000 votes under 5, wow. How many votes in total were cast this year – must be somewhere north of 10,000?

        1. Yep: 14,017 (bear in mind you have to log in to vote).

          1. So about 14% of the votes weren’t a passing grade, including maybe 1-2% that vote ‘1’ if their favourite driver doesn’t win. I think that’s fair because imo only 10% of the races (Korea and India) were truly worth sacking.

          2. For this year, I really agree with @necrodethmortem. Even the races voted a 5 were IMO of quite the standard seen in the many years.

            And does it really matter what rating the races get, as long as we can compare, I think it reflects that the last 3 years have been great F1 with exiting races, an exiting championship and this year we had both for most of the year.

      2. @keithcollantine Well several of those 1-5’s were mine. There were a small minority of races this year that I really did think were dull. Obviously it’s brilliant we’ve had 3 very good races to end the season with. The Brazilian race was the best I’ve seen for several years. Probably since 2009. I saw my dad at the weekend and he said “Wasn’t that American race (and track) fantastic?” Good news from a casual fan.

  14. So, the three races that Button won this year were also the three highest rated races in his championship winning year. Neither are obviously related to each other, I just thought it was a nice coincidence.

    1. No way to refute that though. It would be nice if Keith did a statistic of ratings when a British drivers win compared to the races where they don’t. Obviously other factors play a hand, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they scored higher.. just one form of bias which has to be taken into account…

      1. I don’t see what relevance the coincidence @philereid pointed out has to whether people rate races where British drivers win higher.

  15. Valencia & Abu Dhabi up there amazing it’s it! What a season it has been.Just hope F1 can carry the momentum.

  16. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    3rd December 2012, 13:00

    How could the Hungarian Grand Prix be 4th from the bottom when it was such a nailbiter with the 2 Lotus cars chasing down Hamilton incessantly who won off pole?

    1. @freelittlebirds
      Because the race itself was boring and overtaking was virtually impossible.

      1. @kingshark Raikkonen proved that himself. He was faster than Hamilton but just unable to make a move.

      2. ‘overtaking was virtually impossible’

        How is that a bad thing?

    2. @joey-zyla – there is a threshold in my opinion of great suspense due to the difficulty of overtaking and it actually being impossible. It isn’t good when there is no on-track action as think persoanlly: as has been said Räikkönen hunted down Hamilton but simply couldn’t pass, likewise Vettel was clearly faster than Button but couldn’t pass.

  17. Interesting graph. Over the last 5 years, some circuits really stand out with high grades. The common classic circuits as Melbourne, Montreal, Silverstone, Spa and Brazil really provide the most entertaining races!

    1. The common classic circuits as Melbourne, Montreal, Silverstone, Spa and Brazil really provide the most entertaining races!

      yet interestingly they very rarely provide as much overtaking as people tend to believe.

      statistically the classic tracks (Spa, Suzuka, Silverstone & Monza) tend to feature far less overtaking than the newer ones yet most fans seem to believe the opposite.

      1. Overtaking does not equal entertaining. Who told you that?

  18. I think that’s an accurate reflection with 2010 not far behind. We had the luxury of a real lottery at the beginning of the year but once things started to get sensible we were treated to a fight for the championship right down to the wire. I think the only thing I can fault this season for is the disappoint that Mercedes provided once again and the lack of any success post-Spain for Williams.

  19. Valencia & United States GP were both better than Abu Dhabi this year. I think like Valencia because it is usually a boreing race, when they do have a decent race people score it higher.

    Still I think this was by far a much better season compared with 2011 but it was very close compared with 2008 & 2010

  20. I’ve averaged out the ratings for each circuit here and arranged in order of highest score. Note that Japan and Germany include ratings from two different circuits (but I’ve included them anyway). I’ve also excluded India and US as they haven’t had sufficient races in my opinion to be included in such as list.

    Can: 8.45
    Bel: 7.84
    Aus: 7.72
    Bra: 7.71
    Chi: 7.47
    Ita: 7.42
    Bri: 7.22
    Abu: 6.84
    Mal: 6.79
    Hun: 6.79
    Ger: 6.7
    Mon: 6.6
    Jap: 6.57
    Kor: 6.54
    Sin: 6.24
    Spa: 6.18
    Bar: 5.82
    Eur: 5.49

    (Ind: 5.37)
    (US: 8.77)

    As expected, most of the classic circuits (and China) come out on top, with Monaco and Japan being the notable exceptions (the Fuji race was actually rated higher than this average, so we can blame Suzuka for the latter). Despite getting some stick, Hungary has a solid mid-table position mainly due to it never scoring a ‘bad’ race. Abu Dhabi is surprisingly high also, especially when compared to the other night race.

    1. Interestingly, Hugary is one of the very few races to have never (at least the last 5 seasons) scored below a 6, while in my view it is one of the ‘worst’ circuits. Probably I am biased or my opinion is based on older seasons (the Schumacer era).

      1. I thought about how most of us used to dislike that track too when lately people seem quite fond of the track.

        I guess the fact its put up surprise winners for Button, Kovalainen, and some very nice races in the last couple of years have really shown off well on the track.

  21. Could you upload a reversed graph where the horizontal axis is the rating and vertical is the venue?

  22. F1 – a simple Formula – “safety cars and rain.” :D

  23. Valencia was a mind-blowing race, as were Sepang and Interlagos.
    Austin and Abu Dhabi were slightly overrated. Abu Dhabi’s two long DRS straights did not help in making the racing better while Austin was expected to be this eventful right after it was found out that the track was too slippery.

  24. Interesting to note that from the top ten from 2008 onwards races were won by the following:
    Button -3
    Hamilton -3
    Rosberg, Alonso, Raikonen, Massa -1

    None of the red bull wins feature in that list.

  25. I think 2012 has been a great year for racing but this site has been equally great in keeping us up-to-date with all the news and articles. In terms of the time and effort you put into this site, this has got to be your best years yet! :-) Seriously. I’m so glad I found this site. Thanks for your hard work! I hope you’re ready for next year (after a deserved break)! lol

  26. Malaysia was rated 8.542 not 8.452 :) So we have 14 races over 7 (including Bahrain, because it was hugely underrated thanks to the protests).

  27. Median race ratings per season (should give a measure of each season’s ‘typical’ race(s)):

    2008 Turkey (6.8), Japan (6.66)
    2009 Abu Dhabi (5.9)
    2010 Malaysia (6.7)
    2011 Italy (7.494)
    2012 Italy (7.64), Belgium (7.467)

  28. I didn’t actually think 2012 was that great of a season, I can think of many of the 40 years I’ve been following F1 that were better in many ways.

    In terms of great championship fights, exciting moments & proper racing I’d put 2000, 2003 & 2005-2010 well ahead of 2012.

    1. im totally with you on that to be honest.

      while everyone was going on about the great racing earlier in the year i honestly was left scratching my head wondering what everyone was on about.

      95% of all that “great” passing we saw this year was boring to actually watch as it was all way too easy due to drs or the silly pirelli tyres.
      most the time the drs passes were easy, uncontested straght line highway passes that were totally dull & unexciting to watch & much of the tyre relayed passing was the same, one driver totally defenseless on old tyres making the pass inevitable & boring to watch.

      for me there was practically no real racing this year, the proper overtakes were few & far between & there wasn’t the sort of real hard fought, flat out racing with real exciting overtaking which i love to watch & which is the main reason i’ve kept watching f1 for so long.

      i’ll watch the start of 2013 but in all honesty if it goes the same was as 2012 did i’ll just stop watching as its all getting way too artificial & way too much ‘show’ for my liking.

      1. meant to add that i started watching the indycar series this year for the 1st time in many years & found that series to be far more interesting/exciting to watch than i did f1.

        they didnt have silly gimmicks like drs or tyres that fell to pieces yet put on consistently exciting races which featured real racing. every overtake was really exciting to watch & there were none that were too easy, uncontested or guaranteed.

        when they introduced there so called push-2-pass system late in the year it didn’t do what drs often does & drive cars clean past, it wasn’t a guaranteed thing & didn’t make things too easy. it worked like drs probably should & did just enough to assist the chasing driver to get a wheel alongside, leaving him to fight hard to do the rest & complete the overtake. and since the lead driver could use the p2p to defend you saw real fair & even fights, it works so much better than drs does to create real exciting racing rather than just dull passing.

  29. @keithcollantine i remember a few years ago you did the same summary article of rate the race results, but you discounted scores of 10 and 1 in order to remove any ‘fanboyism’ or rage votes. perhaps you could do a quick recalculation of this season?
    i believe there were too many people voting 10 for ‘perfect’ race this during this year when they were far from ‘perfect’. thanks.

  30. Of the races I saw, I give would have given the following ratings:

    BEL 7
    ITA 10
    SIN 8
    JPN 8
    KOR 7
    UAE 10
    USA 10
    BRA 10

  31. Why did ANYONE dare vote Monaco 5 or lower?

  32. I think the 2012 season started strongly, but it kind of flat-lined once the teams got on top of the tyres, and it was pretty much brain-dead from Singapore until Abu Dhabi, when it finally came alive again. But I still feel that it was a fairly weak end to the season, simply because Vettel dominated so much of the last part of it, and in the end, the boring races like India proved to be more important to the championship outcome than the exciting ones like Austin. I still feel that Brazil was perhaps a bit too chaotic for its own good, because watching it in review, everything tended to happen at once. The start was frantic, the middle was flat and the end was frantic. I don’t think it’s a good thing when you have to pay more attention to the timing screens in order to understand what is going on than to the actual racing.

  33. fact: Brazilian GP had 147 passing moves, record in F1 history!

  34. A flying start from McLaren in Oz, who then fell away slightly only to return at the end of the season.
    First wins for Rosberg, Maldanado and Kimi (MkII).
    The unpredictability of who Grosjean or Mad Mal will crash into next.
    Fernando cruising nicely until Red Bull got back to Asia.
    A last race that is voted the best of the last five years.
    All the drivers that started the season finishing it too.
    Me actually going to Brazil for the finale.
    Yes. It’s been a pretty decent season.

  35. The half of the 2012 season I saw on the BBC was good, but the best in the last 5 years…..hmmmmmm…..no

    1. There was something bugging me about the photo above of the cars going through the Senna Esses.
      And it is please please the FIA do something about the side plates? at the end of each front wing.
      The huge wings are bad enough, but the great big bookends is getting to much :-/

      1. Please please the FIA do something about the side plates?

        I believe that in 2014 the FIA are reverting back to the pre-2009 front wings, both for less downforce and possibly also as a secondary reason to prevent so many punctures. I think it’ll be for the better!

  36. i feel the FIA is really working hard to make every gp competitive for all of us. never befrore show by smaller teams..nice job..i think sauber and force india have been the highlights this year apart from the big things. i see that F1 is more realistic now then ever before and that’s the reason we enjoyed so much in 2012.
    apart from that all the new circuits have been designed by this one guy who has made them terrible. so the vintage circuits are the highlights still and will be in the near future.

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