No F1 races among FIA’s 12 “moments of the year”

2013 F1 season

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The FIA’s first fan poll for a “moment of the year” from international motor racing does not feature any moments from this year’s Formula One season.

The 12 moments which fans can choose as their favourite include footage from seven different FIA-sanction series. The selection is drawn from the World Endurance Championship, World Touring Car Championship, World Rally Championship, European Rally Championship European Rallycross Championship, European Formula Three and the Karting World Championship.

The 12 videos were selected by an FIA jury. Fans can vote for their favourite on the FIA’s Facebook page.

There are two races still to run in this year’s F1 championship and further rounds remaining in other FIA series such as WEC, WRC and WTCC.

2013 F1 season


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Image © Red Bull/Getty

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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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79 comments on “No F1 races among FIA’s 12 “moments of the year””

  1. Fair enough I think. With the lack of interest on track and the political goalpost-shifting off it, this season of F1 has been one to forget.

    It’s a useful reminder that, although F1 is nominally the pinnacle of motorsport, it has no divine right to be recognised in initiatives like this. If other series provide more memorable moments, then F1 needs to up its game.

    1. Yes, yes. I think FIA also couldn’t use any F1 youtube video for the poll since FOM has the rights for those.

    2. Not to mind that it would be problematic to get Bernie (FOM) to release the footage to be freely available/viewable so people could actually vote on it @red-andy!

    3. Indeed, I can’t really think of any highlights for this year.. The second half of the season has been a real snooze fest. I think a combination of imperious Red Bull/Vettel combo, and way too many pay drivers occupying seats that would be better filled with more exciting drivers has pretty much summed the year up for me. Last year was pretty good, we had lots of midfield teams fighting for podiums along with the usual suspects.

  2. No DRS drive-by passes or exciting tire degredation to vote for?

    1. Award for ‘joke of the year’ right here :)

  3. A clear sign the fans are getting fed up with the state F1 is in with artificial overtaking and redicoulus tyres.

    1. @force-maikel As it says in the article the short list was compiled by a group from the FIA, not a public vote, so I don’t think you can take this as being indicative of fans’ views.

      1. @keithcollantine even worse I would say, even FIA recognizes that F1 is failing as a spectator sport.

        1. my thoughts exactly! Even the FIA knows it´s all a pantomime!!

    2. Joao Pitol (@)
      8th November 2013, 15:46

      Can anyone remember the times before DRS and degrading tyres ?

      We had almost NO overtakes except first lap or in the pits. Remember trulli trains ?
      These days were the most boring in F1 history.

      1. We had almost NO overtakes except first lap or in the pits. Remember trulli trains ?
        These days were the most boring in F1 history.

        It’s funny how you refer to that period as “boring”. I remember those years as the zenith of F1 before the FIA decided to intervene with their draconian efforts to spice up the show.

        I remember a vicious rivalry between Alonso and Hamilton so intense that Hamilton refused to give Alonso preferential placement in quali (going against the team’s instructions). Compared to nowadays, where the rivalry is so tepid that in a race on opposing teams they will try to let the other past in order to gain an illicit DRS (Alonso, Canada 2012; Hamilton Spa 2013).

        I remember a Formula One where Saturday was consecrated entirely to the unabated pursuit of a fast lap, rather than “It’s better if I save tyres for tomorrow”.

        I remember polyvalent rivalries whose battlefields were talent-based, tactical, experiential, emotional, physical and could push drivers to the limits of any or all of these criteria. Now every driver drives well within their limits to acquiesce with the non-compliant tyres.

        I remember when drivers were like motorsporting surgeons, operating with milimetric precision for an hour and a half, conscious of the fact that even the smallest of mistakes could leave them beached in a gravel trap. Now, the drivers are effectively raping the circuits (going over white lines, cutting corners, leaving the circuit to avoid locking tyres, leaving the circuit to keep a position) with no repercussions as the FIA is too ineffective to stop them.

        I remember when the majority of overtakes were exciting (although few and far between) because one driver would be trying his utmost to pass and the other his utmost to defend and when a pass occured, there was no question of its veracity, just appreciation of its quality. Now, we see mundane overtakes accompanied by such comments as: “His tyres are gone, he couldn’t defend.” “He needs to save tyres, he can’t afford to fight at the moment.” “He’s been DRSed. He was just a sitting duck”. “He’s on the [weaker] tyre which leaves him vulnerable to people on the [stronger] tyres” “He’s made the one move to defend. There was nothing else he could do”.

        Before, every overtake seemed like a goal from normal play in football; there was no limit to the ingenuity drivers showed to pull off an overtake. Now an overtake feels like a penalty kick, where the balance is almost insurmountably skewed in favour of the attacker and the result is pretty much inevitable.

        I remember a F1 which could proudly and justly proclaim itself “the pinnacle of motorsport” rather than “the show”.

        I miss that F1.

        1. As @kodongo says, we could miss those days … A Trulli train was at the end a very good defensive driving test, there is not such thing anymore, just fast nursing tyres. But every period has its style …

        2. Michael Brown (@)
          8th November 2013, 17:17

          +9001

          My hopes for the 2014 season went up when Pirelli announced they will bring conservative tires, but then I heard that instead of tire saving, they will be fuel saving. That’s just great. I hope the FIA realize they’re ruining F1 with stupid rules.

        3. +1 COTD. Keith if you dont make this COTD I will be disappointed.

          1. @keithcollantine I agree with @marciare-o-marcire, the comment by @kadongo has a lot of merit and a certain lyricism that is more often found in political rhetoric. I agree with much of what he/she says, but it must be remembered that the only alternative to the current DRS-driven farce is not the boring Trulli trains of history.
            There could have been an alternative. The FIA could have been a little more courageous and done something very drastic to limit to the aerodynamics and ‘dirty air’ creation of the cars and F1 could have gone in another direction completely.
            Instead, they chose the ‘Improving the Show’ type route and introduced Super Mario Cart tricks and tyres made of marshmallows in pursuit of greater TV audiences. If I recall correctly, it was reported here that global TV audiences fell last year. If that’s the case, then res ipsa loquita. The target audience (who are not the fans that understand every facet of F1 racing, but the occasional viewer) have become bored, confused and disenchanted with the sport, and the marketing initiative has failed.
            As a result, the twelve best moments of the year have come from other series, and not from the supposed ‘pinnacle of motorsport’. Pathetic, really.
            I’m off to have a look at these twelve alleged best moments next. I suspect that they all involve cars racing for position – even for the lead, within the confines of the track and without any mention of ‘pit windows’, ‘tyre cliffs’ or ‘delta times’.

        4. Well said @kodongo, COTY for me.

          1. I wish this comment could be loaded on this site so it could be posted with one click as a reply whenever someone posts “F1 was boring before DRS and clown tyres”.

          2. +1, excellent comment @kodongo

        5. @kodongo Amazing comment. You just summed up everything I feel about F1 today vs the F1 I fell in love with. COTD, COTM, COTY.

        6. There are certain points I disagree with.

          I remember polyvalent rivalries whose battlefields were talent-based, tactical, experiential, emotional, physical and could push drivers to the limits of any or all of these criteria. Now every driver drives well within their limits to acquiesce with the non-compliant tyres.

          The implication there is a purely nostalgic view that drivers were always pushing the limits in a race, which has never been true. Granted, the scale of conservation has increased dramatically since the introduction of “designed to degrade” rubber in 2011, but part of the skill as a driver has always been to manage limitations, be it gearboxes, engines, tyres or fuel consumption. In fact, in that sense the early 2000’s were indeed highly unusual.

          On that basis, I have never been bothered by the idea of drivers having to conserve their tyres and in fact I actively support that as a skill. Not to the extent that it is today however – I’m talking 1/2 stop races being the normal limit, not 3/4 stops.

          I remember when the majority of overtakes were exciting (although few and far between) because one driver would be trying his utmost to pass and the other his utmost to defend and when a pass occured, there was no question of its veracity, just appreciation of its quality.

          Though I do agree in principle, overtakes in F1 were just too few and far between due to the “aerodynamic era” we are in. That is a problem of the cars, not the rules. The cars simply should be less dependant on wing-generated downforce which would almost eradicate the problem, then we could have more overtakes than before which were still hard earned. Also, I would increase power outputs: that way traction overtakes would become more realistic without the need for over-influential tyres.

          Otherwise, I agree with your comment.

  4. Well there hasn’t been any real overtaking in F1 for years, nor has this season had any real battles.

    Btw, if the best battle in a racing league is for 6th place, that’s not good. I don’t think anyone cares about 2nd place, let alone 6th.

    1. I take it you haven’t actually looked at the vote?
      Only 4 out of 12 video’s were of battles, and only one was for the lead.

      What is it with people commenting on something they can’t be bothered informing themselves about?

    2. Really? So GRO on MAS, although “illegal” wasn’t a real overtake? What about Kimi passed Schumi at Eau Rouge last year or WEB passing ALO there a year earlier? VET vs. ALO at Curva Grande both 2011 and 2012?

      1. and many more this year aswell…

      2. What about Kimi passed Schumi at Eau Rouge last year or WEB passing ALO there a year earlier?

        Should be noted though that when Kimi passed Schumi last year, Schumi had lost 3rd gear so Kimi had an advantage.

        And in 2011 Alonso had just exited the pits so Mark also had an advantage.

        Both may well have looked spectacular, But neither were really pure/fair overtakes.

      3. @beejis60 I wouldn’t worry so much about people who talk about F1 in absolutes.

  5. whine whine whine whine
    why do some people even still watch Formula One?
    if you’re saying no one single interesting moment has happened this year, you haven’t been watching.
    most likely, Formula One was excluded by default because the FIA would rather hunt down someone who posts a YouTube video of Formula One, than save their own mother from being robbed, and considering all entries are YouTube video’s, it leaves them with few other options.

    1. maarten.f1 (@)
      8th November 2013, 16:23

      why do some people even still watch Formula One?

      @mnmracer and you are here because…?

      1. Because he likes Formula One @maarten-f1?

  6. Frankly the entries don’t excite me either. A truck bumping into the back of another, cockpit video were like just another shot from a race. Wonder who are these FIA jury who selected these entries in the first place.

    Pirelli tires exploding and Alonso missing Perez by inches could have made the list if they looking for destruction derby.

    I would have placed at least one of Alonso’s start this year:)

  7. Rallycross – Battling for glory gets my vote.

    I think that there is no F1 “moment of the year” not because of poor overtakes or tyres, but it’s just that the FIA is promoting others FIA series.

    There’s more good images and shots of cars in motion than proper battles. I really loved the ETRC – Bumpy Ride video and the shot of WRC.

    1. That’s a very good point.
      If Joe Bloggs hears something on the news about Rallycross, or WTCC for example it’s more likely to be new to him. Chances are he’s already heard of F1 and chosen wether or not to watch it.
      Some random vote is not going to bring F1 to many peoples attention.

    2. Then the name of the prize is just wrong. Should be “Great Moments minus F1”.

      IMHO there have being many great moments in F1 this year, Vettel and Webber fight in Malaysia. Lot´s of Alonso starts. At least one move per race.

    3. @jeff1s

      it’s just that the FIA is promoting others FIA series.

      I think that’s probably correct, and I welcome it. I dont get to follow a lot of the other series so it’s good to see some highlights like this, raises awareness etc.

      1. That said, the videos themselves are fairly rubbish

  8. Most of the chosen videos are just worthless ??? Don’t understand the choice there were so much better footages!

    1. Yeah, I didn´t understand why they put the Audi R18 losing the wheel at Brazil. I thing they were better moments than this one.

  9. I guess a montage of tyres exploding at high speeds around Silverstone probably wasn’t positive enough for the FIA delegates. To me that race was the pivotal moment of the F1 season and while not necessarily a highlight in the sense that it was something good, it was the first thing that I thought of when recalling the 2013 F1 season’s biggest moments.

    1. Donuts in India?

  10. That really is the completion of an incredibly depressing circle. Even the FIA thinks F1 in 2013 has been dull. Twelve months ago there were incredible performances from Alonso in Malaysia and Valencia to choose from, a pits to podium drive from Vettel, Hamilton making the most of his one and only chance in Austin and countless mesmurising overtakes from returnee Raikkonen…oh, and a win for “everyone’s second favourite team”…and a pole for Schumacher. What do we have in 2013? Two McLarens bumping into each other in Bahrain and a whole load of delaminations at Silverstone?

    For me, F1 has put on a poor show in 2013. To my mind, it has been ravaged by the implementations of post-2011 F1, i.e. DRS, KERS, rubbishy tyres… Whilst I was initially praising these rule changes, and yes, they made the races in 2011 interesting and to some extent allowed to forget the woefully dull championship scenario, the FIA have got drunk with success after a brilliant year of racing in 2012. A step too far has been taken, both by Pirelli, but also by the FIA in terms of DRS zones, and to some extent by circuit designers, who seemingly feel a layout conjusive to overtaking is no longer necessary as long as DRS is present. The very fact that enjoyed a very similar series to F1, GP2, so much more this year, a series that does not have DRS or KERS, is simply all too a convincing a correlation to disregard. You could also say that series such as GP3, F3, BTCC and especially DTM (OK, DTM has adopted DRS, but it’d be folly to suggest that have had F1 levels of influence upon the races).

    1. I Say DRS is over powered due to the Banning of DRS through out lap in FP and Q in 2013. This lead to making Double DRS zones in every race(Except monaco and Suzuka). But agree on Pirelli though. They went too far interms of softening tire compounds

      1. I Say DRS is over powered due to the Banning of DRS through out lap in FP and Q in 2013.

        Well we had free use of DRS in practice/quali in 2011/2012 & DRS was still overpowered more often than not.

        Only difference in DRS in 2011/2012 & DRS in races in 2013 is the addition of 2nd zones, Something which we were already starting to see last year on some tracks.

    2. Michael Brown (@)
      8th November 2013, 16:45

      I agree. Only allowing the DRS to be used in designated areas in practice and qualifying is a bad decision. If the FIA was so worried about safety with DRS opening in a corner (which is very rare) they should be the ones to make it safer. Safety does matter, but the tracks have so much runoff that they can afford to have DRS available the whole lap. If there’s an issue, they can ban it in specific places, like Eau Rouge.

      When the DRS can be used the whole lap, cars with a better DRS can qualify higher than they normally would. This suits cars with a better qualifying setup, which forces the cars with better race pace to overtake them, which is exciting for the spectators.

      The tires are too soft. Everybody knows that. In 2012 they were inconsistent, but in 2011 they were the best out of these three Pirelli years.

      I think F1 needs DRS more than Pirelli tires. The 2010 Bridgestones with DRS (implemented correctly) would have made the racing closer and more dramatic.

      I’m not even convinced the drivers are pushing. Even qualifying laps are boring.

      1. Even qualifying laps are boring

        This is because the cars have massive amounts of downforce and the tyres are made of bubblegum. If the tyres were much harder and wing area was halved then the cars would move around more at the limit and Q would be much more exciting to watch as pushing a fraction to hard would have the car getting badly out of shape and a perfect lap would have the car just twitching a little going in/out of corners, now pushing to hard just means the tyres are shot for the race.

  11. Aswell in F1 and other series there are plenty of choices that would deserve the award in my eyes.

    Kristensens emotions at Le Mans on the podium could be one of them. Webber and Vettels tiny duel at Malaysia could be one of them, Ogier clinching the title in WRC…

  12. I uhm… I don’t think any of those moments are particularly special to be honest. Some, for instance the Oak art car, are not even ‘moments’. This just smells like an attempt to promote other series to be perfectly honest. Quite sad.

    Anyway, if I were to choose any of those, it’s probably Micky’s jump, simply because that’s the only one I know.

    1. @andae23, regardless of the point of the vote, it’s also true that F1 has had few highlights this season. In the rate the race results for India, someone noticed that Bahrain is this year’s highest rated race, which was not all that special. I think F1 has missed the rain on race day this year. Even Spa failed to deliver after a brilliant Saturday. There’s still Interlagos, of course, though a thrilling championship finale it won’t be this year.

      1. @adrianmorse I agree, F1 has not been very iconic this year – perhaps even boring. But then again, why didn’t they include one of the many spectacular overtakes in the FIA GT Series? Or GP2/GP3?

        1. GP2/3 isn’t an FIA series I’m pretty sure @andae23!

          1. @vettel1 Whoops, I went a bit off topic :P

          2. It’s understandable @andae23 ;)

          3. @vettel1, you may have unearthed the real cause, since F1 and GP2/3 are part of the same organisation.

          4. GP2/3 are owned by Bernie Ecclestone I believe? They are however not FIA-sanctioned events @hohum.

          5. That is the point I am making, Bernie controls F1, Bernie locks FIA out of GP2/3, FIA not keen to promote series associated with Bernie, ok. @vettel1

  13. David not Coulthard (@)
    8th November 2013, 16:58

    I think F1 cars just need to be a bit less reliable. The RB6 was not reliable and MMX turned out to be rather good, perhaps because of it.

    1. @davidnotcoulthard

      I don’t get why people use Roman Numerals, can’t you just say 2010? :-)

      1. Because roman numerals are badass.

        1. lol ;-)

      2. David not Coulthard (@)
        9th November 2013, 1:17

        @full-throttle-f1
        Because of {insert Vettel’s reason for his love of FLAPs here}.

  14. Zantkiller (@)
    8th November 2013, 17:41

    The only moment I think they could use would be Vettel doing donuts.

    To be fair on them I found this year to be pretty ‘meh’ in terms of motorsports.
    And we have sadly had what I feel to be an above average number of fatalities and big accidents across most motorsports this year.

    I just want 2013 to end

  15. All I can say is we haven’t seen Brazil yet – so it’s a bit too early to compile a Top 12 in my opinion. If last year’s race is anything to go by there could be some upsets!

    1. I don´t thing that we would see something interesting in Brazil. Brazil last year was a classic because of the Hollywood-Scripted championship decider. And Schumacher last race. And Hamilton´s last at Mclaren. The championship is already decided so I think Brazil will be boring. Like in 2011. Just rain could save the race. Pray for it.

  16. On a side note, I would be embarrassed to still back up the WTCC desperately in need of a reborn. The WEC will have plenty of new rules but I’m not sure if it will stop it from being an vw bought championship like the WRC. People on the outside heavily criticize F1, but in general most FIA championships need more restructuring.

    1. In what way did VW buy the WRC championship?

      Throughout 2013 they & Sebastien Ogier have done a far better job than there rivals.
      The other championship rivals have made a lot of errors & been very inconsistent over the year, Just as they have been the past couple years when it was Citroen/Loeb doing the winning.

      1. WRC, F1, it is all the same. Sebastiæn – backed by Red Bull – is winning championship after championship. 10 years in a row in WRC, 4 years in F1. And look what happened to Champ Car: Sebastiæn – backed by Red Bull – won four times in a row and the series was abolished!

        1. Sebastian Bourdais wasn’t backed by Red Bull when he was in ChampCar.

          In WRC Loeb/Citroen was only backed by Red Bull since 2008.

          1. I know, I just took some artistic liberties.

  17. The reason F1 didn’t make it was because for me, the clear standout moment of the year was Grosjean suddenly discovering millimetrically perfect spatial awareness in his overtake of Massa in Hungary. Which the FIA then penalised because Massa had effectively forced Grosjean wide by a few mm, despite Grosjean being ahead. It wasn’t just my favourite moment of racing, but the penalty also summed up the FIA’s season too…

  18. Not surprised. This year has been one of the most boring I can remember. Actually a bit depressing. I blame McLaren for thinking too much about the future and not taking the fight to red bull this year. Ferrari were probably doing the same.

  19. some people seem to forget that 2009 also had “real F1 cars”. It sure was the begining of the current generation of cars, but they were “simple” and the races were generally very good IMAO – No DRS, long lasting Brigies.
    That was an awesome year IMO.

    1. Yeah but remember that overtake wasn´t so easy, so the FIA introduced this little thing called DRS that ruins the action on the races. It will be very difficult to the FIA to ban the DRS. I think that the best racing in the DRS era was part of 2011 and the whole 2012. In 2013 DRS showed that it´s really ruining F1´s action.

  20. The whole concept of a fan poll where the fans are not able to pick the most memorable moments seems rather hollow and contrived. A better idea could be for the fans to nominate the most memorable moments in each series and then vote on those to arrive at the most memorable moment for each series. Then a vote for most memorable moment overall. The current method seems designed to have as little fan participation as possible. Brought to you by the FIA, who else?

  21. Please don’t take this the wrong way abut the moment of the year from my perspective was the Williams garage fire after the Spanish Grand Prix. That showed the camaraderie when the other teams not only came to the rescue during the fire, but afterwards as well offering assistance if they needed equipment to race the next event. That is what it is about in my book.

  22. There being videos selections of trivial things like a rally car going over a jump or through water makes me wonder what the FIA jury were thinking. Rally cars have been doing these things for half a century, every season at about every rally, not just Ogier’s Polo, this year. Don’t these people understand what motorsport is about? If anything it should have shown Ogier and VW’s clinching of the WRC title.

  23. Look guys I know it’s depressing ,all I do is go on You tube and watch a few vids of Groupe B Quattros on the 1000 lakes you will then realize there is no exciting motorsport anymore and learn to accept life for what it is.

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