F1 Fanatic

Best Moment:

Button winning in Australia.

At the end of last year there were so many threads on forums all over the F1 community describing Button as one of the least deserving champions ever, that he only won because he had a dominant car etc. Then Australia 2010 happened. Changeable conditions, an inspired tyre change and a bit of luck allowed Button to win his first race for McLaren against his highly rated teammate, Lewis Hamilton. A fantastic race, with a fantastic result.

Worst Moment

There were three huge crashes of note in 2010. Schumacher and Liuzzi at Abu Dhabi and Webber on Kovalainen at Valencia are the obvious ones, but for me the most terrifying and potentially dangerous moment happened to Buemi in practice session 1 for the Chinese Grand Prix. I don’t think i’ve ever seen the entire front end of a car collapse like that, and he was lucky that with the large run off area he escaped unharmed. Hopefully the first and last time I see that happen.

Best moment? Hulkenburg’s pole. Absolutely unbelievable to see that unfold.

Worst moment? Ferrari ruining what would have been the moment of the year.

Best Moment:- The Red Bull Collision in Turkey, Magic!! I jumped up to my screen and cheered on my knees, my 2 year old niece copied me and shouted “c’mon Lewis!” haha love it.

Worst Moment:- Penultimate lap in Spain for LH, that really killed me that considering i am a LH fan. There could of been others as well such as Australia, Italy and Singapore but it has to be that one day in Catatlunya.

Worst moment: Ferrari issuing team orders in Germany.

Best moment: watching Alonso get stuck behind Petrov for 40 laps in Abu Dhabi. The universe always settles the score.

So many great moments this year. Others have already mentioned Webber at Monaco – an awesome drive properly celebrated – and Hulkenburg’s wonderful pole in Brazil. Loved the way he did two pole laps in a row. So I’ll go for Button vs Hamilton in Turkey – a skilful battle made more exciting by the threat of what had happened minutes earlier with the Red Bulls.

Worst was much easier to pick: Webber’s smash in Valencia. What was sickening for me was not the way he somersaulted, but the speed he smacked into the barrier with the car just a toboggan by this stage.

Worst Moment – the Ferrari switcharound in Germany springs to mind obviously, but that’s more of a ‘bitter’ moment for me. Or just a ‘massive shame’. I’d have to say Webber’s flip really got me out my seat in fear for a split second, which was a horrible moment. It’d have to be that.

Best Moment – Australian GP. To be honest either of Jenson’s victories, as he was 2-0 on Hamilton despite everything that had been said against him.

EDIT: In addition, Kubica’s Monaco qualifying and the way he drove that car round the circuit was awe-inspiring, forgot about that.

I find it hard to name one single best moment this year, it was so full of twists and turns, so maybe the best moment is thinking back to the far from enjoyable start (FOM failing to show us the passes that did happen) in Bahrain, with a shock of RBR running away with it and being amazed at Chandhok actually getting to drive the car on Saturday and Sunday.
On to Australia where Button won (who expected him to do that this year?), to the tense battles for pole between Mark and Seb, with the great race in China (a first on that track), then on to Webbers magic Monaco win, the Turkey race – a real turning point in the season for RBR troubles, the great dicing for the lead from McLaren and Lewis first win.

And when we thought it couldn’t get any better, we had Silverstone with Mr. no. 2 driver winning, we had Canada. We had Ferrari being best in Italy, how long is that, great to see the Italians go wild! Hungary gave us another race to remember, although Vettel slept through it.
And we had the thrill of Korea, and how it turned out to be an exiting event, not to mention the amazing pole laps of the Hulk in Brazil and Petrov holding back Alonso for 40 laps in Abu Dhabi.

Then we had a lot of scares, with Buemi surviving both wheels flying off at high speed, Webber walking away from the flying Bulls backflip in Valencia, Schumacher not losing his head in Abu Dhabi.

The first low was probably the way Anderson and Windsor failed to manage USF1 making it to the start.
And there was the low of Ferrari making Massa give up the wonderfull win a year after being in hospital in Hungary (that would have been one of the best), even worse the WMSC being reluctant to hand out a serious punishment. Kudos to the stewards for actually handing out that fine though.

The whole year has flowed from team to team, whith amazing background stories (Schumi dominating Mercedes, HRT making it to the grid, Virgin getting the fuel tank wrong, F1 2011-2012 tyre supplier, Ferrari messing up their first F-duct, the RBR team rivalry, HRT chairdance, Kimi comeback rumours, and the Lotus – Proton naming row) going on but never dominating the year like the politics only to often did in F1.