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Good news, I really hoped he’d get a seat. And there’s worse in life than having to drive a MP4-12C

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24 : Karthikeyan : soundly beaten by de la Rosa, not helped in any way by his car.
23 : Petrov : disappeared from the radar, constantly behind Heiki
22 : Massa : Even taking in account the late resurgence, Massa is nowhere near Alonso, or any 5 cars behind Alonso. If one of the top 4 team car is being dreadful, chances are it will be his. I’ve come to worry when people try to overtake him. He has sometimes been a sitting duck and his driving has verged on the dangerous side
21 : Glock : Sorry, the guy is talented, but I don’t feel the fire is burning anymore
20 : PDLR : Difficult to shine in such a car. Seems to be doing a decent job, as usual.
19 : Pic : Has done better than the other number 2 drivers at Virgin / Marussia.
18 : Schumacher : I know he wouldn’t be that far behind but for the last race. But let’s be honest : he is not going to win anything and he is taking the place of a young driver. Being that good at his age is great, but you need to be the best to stay.
17 : Jean Eric Vergne : Quali problem, decent race. Shame the car seems dreadful.
16 : Ricciardo : decent qualit, race problem. Shame the car seems dreadful.
15 : Senna : A slow slow start. Outshone by Maldonado. Seems to have picked his act out, and I can’t wait the rest of the season
14 : Maldonado : A great win (nay, a brilliant win)… But the car seems so much better than that, and so many errors ! When he gets alongside another car, I cringe. I wouldn’t want him in my team, despite the clear to see speed.
13 : Heikki Kovalainen: still trying, and he is the one bringing one of the bottom three team cars places where they shouldn’t be. I really hope he gets a decent car next season. It is a true waste. He does seem to be enjoying it though, and that I can only applaud.
12 : Nico Hulkenberg : A slowish start, difficult to put him anywhere really. No big mistakes, no stellar performance
11 : Di Resta : A solid start, difficult to put him anywhere really. The car seems nimble sometimes, and the worse thing on earth other times.
10 : Button : I am going to get so much flak for this, but since the first race, where he sat in the best car of the field by a mile and a half, it has been downhill to trully disappointing.
9 : Kamui : Ok, maybe a bit high, but you have to love the guy, and he is not getting so much beaten by his great team mate as I thought he would be. And by god I will miss him when formula one will have turned its back on him.
8 : Rosberg : At last, the win ! I have to say it was long overdue. Some less than stellar performance are pershaps due to the car, but well, you can’t honestly put him any higher until Brawn sorts his mess out.
7 : Grosjean : The boy has got talent. The boy has got what it takes. The boy has the car. The boy has brought this car really high when he did finish, I have many hopes for him for the second half of the season. If only he could finish more races. You don’t beat Raikkonen on one lap if you are a slouch.
6 : Perez : The boy has got talent. The boy has got what it takes. The boy hasn’t got the car.
5 : Vettel : Harsh, I know, but fact is, he is being realed in by Webber and hasn’t produced the magic yet. But again : solid performances and drives. Happy seeing him fighting it out. But today, if I should rank who merits the title, I wouldn’t say : Vettel.
4 : Raikkonen : Bringing in the points and staying in contention. less impressiv, and still slower on one lap (WHAT ?) than Grosjean, but the smart money in the team is on him for the championship position (and the championship ? That’s the Enstone’s team job, he will do what needs to be done).
3 : Webber : Now hat’s much better. Has to work on his starts and he keep on the good job.
2 :Hamilton : The man has been great. A treat to see following last year. A shame he has been very unlucky until now. If McLaren sort themselves out and Hamilton carries on like that, no matter how genius Alonso is this year, he will win the championship.
1 : Alonso : Do I have to say more ? He has been on the lucky side at times, but you don’t lead emphatically the championship with arguably the fourth car on the grid by luck. He has been tremendous and is in the form of his life. Saying this about a 2 time world champion is scary enough for his opponents. May be flattered by Massa’s terrible form, but some of his drives have been great to see. I am no fan at all of the man, but if the championship was won on merit, I’d give it to him.

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Best Moments :
* China’s race
* Seeing Monaco GP with grandstands tickets
* Vettel’s Qualifying lap from Bresil

Worst moment :
* TF1 (french TV) doesn’t show the end of Canada Grand Prix
* “Maintain the gap”
* Uncertainty after Perez and to a lower degree Petrov’s crashes at Monaco.

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An intermediate level between difficult and expert.

Maybe I’m alone with that problem, but : I always race with no traction control. So the gap between two modes should be at first only a problem of the other cars being quicker. But to that you have to add that your car physics are more realistic and it is way harder to have good timings in the first laps (plus tyre degradation is a misery). After an hour or so of practice on a track, my time in expert drops compared to the same situation in difficult.

So you have two effects : the adversaries go faster while you struggle much more. Plus no flash backs! I get bored in difficult, and frustrated in expert.

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I’m French, so I believe my phone will be able to access 3G network in Monaco. I don’t recall tommy’s article. My tweets are not public anyway, but i guess I could create an additional account. But as you say, I guess it will be rather difficult in Monaco. Thanks for the advice, I’ll try to find the aforementioned article.

As for the camera, I have a low end EOS Cannon SLR camera. I also have two great lenses (up to 300mm zoom and down to 10mm wide angle) that have traveled with me everywhere for the past two years. (I only went digital 2 years ago, I’m still in my twenties but haven’t grown much hobby wise since high school)

As soon as I know which stand I’m in, i’ll write it here.

Thanks for the advice about beer, but I already had this aspect under control!

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Great, I was worried about that, I have some decent sized lens (nothing professionnal, impossible to take a picture without being seen and taking pictures would be, for me a big part of the enjoyment. That and hopefully finally accomplishing the convertion of my wife to a F1fanatic.

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” OK, this doesn’t help my opinion, but Massa has been beaten by Alonso often too, but you don’t say he’s a bad driver, do you? ”

I didn’t rank Massa high based on this year form either

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Shouldn’t be doing this as I have tons of work to do, but here goes, and upwards:

#1 Lewis Hamilton : I’m a fan, but here’s why : He did one BIG mistake at Monza. Appart from that, he is the very fast guy who gets the job done and wins even if his car isn’t up for it. He has grown a lot recently and I believe if ever McLaren was to give him a title contender car, we might have a boring 2011 year.

# 2 Fernando Alonso : Not a fan. He’s quick, has been faultless in the second half of the season. His car wasn’t the best either, and he did a great job. However, I am baffled by how poor his first half of the season was. He is probably the best opponent Hamilton can have in the top team.

# 3 Vettel : He is fast. If ever he manages to win by actually doing some overtaking and in a lesser car, I’ll grant him an “equal to Hamilton and Alonso” status in a blink.

# 4 : Rosberg : Incidently, it seems he has mostly been 5th on the finishing line. That’s 2 to 4 places higher than what his car theoretically should have given him.I for one don’t believe the Mercedes was vastly superior to the Renault. He is one very solid driver and I can’t wait for Mercedes to up their show so we can see him tusle with the other top cars as an equal.

#5 Kubica : A shame his team mate was Petrov, we might have been able to better see were he stands had he got a real push by his number two. Great moves and a very decent season from him. Here’s to Renault being a title contender next year

#6 Webber : He was so good up to Silverstone. Whatever happened to him in the last 4 races is baffling. Overall, a great year, but then again, it is easy to have great results in a Newey RB in 2010.

#7 Kovalainen : Great year. He was a joy to watch. I hope Lotus steps up next year

#8 Button : I can’t stand the racer : he has too often seem content with letting Hamilton push the RBs-Ferraris while he kept after his tyres. But it did bring him solid points. He has shown he is a very good driver. But he is a world champion : he should be a great driver. Good and reliable isn’t enough. Prost managed to outpace his team mates while using the same tactics.

#9 Sutil : great start of the year, degraded with the car in the end

#10 Kobayashi : I don’t know if I rate him high because he is enjoyable to watch or just good, but I for one am happy he stays.

#11 : Barrichelo : Should be higher really, but with Hulkenberg not delivering, it is difficult to judge. Solid year would be a good sum up.

#12 : Glock : Had a great year, always seemed the one to be able to bring a surprise result, only to suffer from his machine’s reliability. Would be ranked higher if he had completed more races without a glitch (yeah, the long debate on best driver vs best results…)

#13 : Massa : Ouch, very very bad second half. The last race was torture. I actually wondered if he had retired. When the car is not up for it, seems to struggle badly !

#14 : Hulkenberg : Disappointing. Great result in Brazil, but that’s not enough.

All the others have had either too bad cars or too bad years to be there. Petrov was my disappointment of the year. He was my tip for “first to retire” award. Good defensive moves and a good resurgence by the end of the year are not enough for him to justify his seat.

Schumacher will probably be way better next year as proven by the last races, but seriously, most of the year, he has been very disappointing.I am very happy for him though : He seems such a happy man now ! A joy to see in the paddock, still a bit of a let down on the track.

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