The Official 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS***

My boss just showed me a clip he recorded on his BlackBerry, he was also at the Brawn garage and he was there when Jenson came back and was celebrating the title, it's so awesome! :D He actually was kind of pushed aside by Jenson as he was hugging someone, haha. He also said Kimi was super mad regarding the petrol accident. He'll tell me more later when we have time, ooo I cannot wait!

marcl Wrote:
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> Kimi this year from Hungry is driving like the
> kimi of old, he is one of my drivers of the year
> thats for sure.


I have never been a Kimi fan, but he has driven brilliantly this year. Probably along with Rosberg, who has quietly been incredible, driver of the year.

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Rosberg has actually been disappointing for me. He tends to go backwards from a good qualifying position.

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In terms of driver of the year, its very hard to say, because very few drivers have had consistently good performances throughout the year.


Kimi was quite poor in the first half of the season, and Massa seemed to be ahead of him again, but since Massa's injury, Kimi has been incredible.

Rosberg had a good run of results in the middle part of the year, but has also had some very inconsistent and poor performances

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X (@ed24f1)

Driver of the year for me has been Sebastian Vettel. Some awesome drives this year, some great quali laps in pressure situations, and he's shown he's developing into a well-rounded driver too and learning from his mistakes.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/2009 05:44PM by EC83.

EC83 Wrote:
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> You do have a good point there, Kimi's form, or
> relative lack of, after he won the 2007 title was
> odd. Normally you expect a driver to be stronger
> and better after he's won a title, whereas Kimi
> seemed to lose focus.
> The situation with him at Ferrari just seemed to
> stagnate after he won the Championship.
> I think a move to another team would give him new
> goals and would fire him up more than a move to
> WRC would.

You people forget too fast...2008 was an odd year for a lot of drivers. Up till the Hungarian GP, Kimi was still very much alive in the championship fight. Only after that did he start to lose the battle and at that point, it seemed Ferrari was very much putting its weight behind Felipe. If that was due to them wanting to give him the championship after Kimi had his, I dunno, but I never saw Kimi getting that much support. Once Ferrari did give him support, he improved a lot and got 3 podiums in the last 3 races, one of each should've been a 2nd if not for Massa.

So maybe he didn't have a brilliant year, but to be honest, neither did Massa or Hamilton.

Joe_Satriani Wrote:
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> EC83 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > You do have a good point there, Kimi's form, or
> > relative lack of, after he won the 2007 title
> was
> > odd. Normally you expect a driver to be
> stronger
> > and better after he's won a title, whereas Kimi
> > seemed to lose focus.
> > The situation with him at Ferrari just seemed
> to
> > stagnate after he won the Championship.
> > I think a move to another team would give him
> new
> > goals and would fire him up more than a move to
> > WRC would.
>
> You people forget too fast...2008 was an odd year
> for a lot of drivers. Up till the Hungarian GP,
> Kimi was still very much alive in the championship
> fight. Only after that did he start to lose the
> battle and at that point, it seemed Ferrari was
> very much putting its weight behind Felipe. If
> that was due to them wanting to give him the
> championship after Kimi had his, I dunno, but I
> never saw Kimi getting that much support. Once
> Ferrari did give him support, he improved a lot
> and got 3 podiums in the last 3 races, one of each
> should've been a 2nd if not for Massa.
>
> So maybe he didn't have a brilliant year, but to
> be honest, neither did Massa or Hamilton.

Yeah, the general standard of driving amongst the title contenders in 2008 was terrible. And considering that Kimi when on top form is quite capable of owning both Massa and Hamilton, that they both had dodgy seasons themselves and still beat him, emphasises the fact that Kimi wasn't performing to his best in 2008. I'm a big Kimi fan, but there's no denying that his 2008 season was way below his average, and he screwed up a lot by his standards.
That's meant as a comment, not as a criticism of the guy. As Dave says, all drivers go through phases like that.

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Driver of the year?

Lewis or Button IMO.

Button scored points in all but one GP where he was involved in the first lap incident at Spa, won a hell of alot more races than the other drivers and of course is the champion.

Lewis, down at the seasons start, still as quick as ever a few races later with improvments he picked his head up and has destroyed Heikki and any question of it "just being the car".

I would also vote Massa before his accident. Like Lewis he put the car in places it should not have been. Something we have not seen from Massa until then IMO.

Vettel has been qualifying king, but he's made crucial mistakes and has not displayed the ability to win a race from an undesirable posistion the way Jenson, Rubens and Mark have IMO.

i think my vote has to go to Lewis though. Button did let his head down and pressure did get to him, he was quick in the races but he compramised his races by poor qualifying. Lewis has been epic lap after lap.

Disapointments were Bourdais, Nakajima and Grosjean.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

EC83 Wrote:
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> Driver of the year for me has been Sebastian Vettel.

Possbily the same here. The only driver who was still in the hunt at the end, and he had some very poor unreliability. Most of Webber's year was the same, but a couple of weak performances showed Vettel as just about the stronger of the 2 overall. Button's had none of that unreliability and was very poor in the 2nd half of the season, while Barrichello was too inconsistent and all-over-the-place in the first 3rd of the season.

Rosberg's improved immeasurably from his first couple of seasons, and this year was a very consistent points scorer.

Hamilton's attitude at the start of the season was appalling, and lie-gate didn't help. Alonso's season was hard to measure, but didn't stand out as much as 2008. Kimi only really came alive after Hungary. Fisichella was excellent... until he followed his heart and moved to Ferrari (not something I can fault him for, but it tarnished his year).

Vettel or Rosberg for me, with Rosberg probably just about edging it, though he didn't have the pressure of Vettel.

I pretty much agree with Gav on everything except for Rosberg. Some of his performances were looking great, but come the end of the race he was never there.

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Jenson is selling his veyron for 900k!

[cars.aol.co.uk]

He has been for months. It's only back in the news because he's world champ, so the price will now go upwards.

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