Debate: Did the best man win?

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Never before in the history of F1 have three drivers finished so close to each other after the final race.

With just one point separating the Kimi Raikkonen from Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso at the end of the season, any one of them may feel this should have been their year.

So, did the best man win the title?

Photo: Ferrari media

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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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38 comments on “Debate: Did the best man win?”

  1. I think so. At the beginning of the year Kimi seemed a little off form at times, but later on, and when the championship was at stake, he was able to do absolutely everything he needed to take the title. I wouldn’t hesitate for one moment to say he’s the best driver Formula One has right now.

  2. Well, assuming it’s Kimi, yes, I believe the best man won. Remember he was 17 points behind with 2 races to go. Even Schumi last year was tied already with Alonso with 2 races to go. So the scale of Kimi’s comeback cannot be emphasized enough.

    However, we’re not even sure if Kimi IS the champion already. So did the best man win? We don’t even know for sure who won yet!

  3. another lewis fan
    22nd October 2007, 8:37

    i don’t feel too dissapointed that lewis did’nt win (how long has kimi been tryin to do it?)but at least the spantard did’nt win!but lewis has had a phenomenal year can’t deny that he will have learnt alot from this year and i can’t wait for march 16 2008 lewis’s time will definately come kimi won’t have that title for long!

  4. Yes Kimi deserved it. Not just for the comeback. He won 6 races this season, 2 more than anyone else! That’s pretty good going.

    Massa was flattered and Kimi disadvantaged at the begining of the season because of the change to Ferrari / Bridgestone. Since he’s been on top of that, he’s gone from strength to strength.

    Good for result for Kimi, good result for the sport. Presuming all of this appeal goes away.

  5. Yes, Kimi definitely deserved it after a fantastic comeback. He wasn’t my favourite choice to win, but he spanked McLaren good and proper yesterday.

  6. He got the most points & wins, therefore he deserved it…

  7. I would say yes, the best man won. Most points, most wins as mentioned above already. But also when taking into consideration that it took him almost half a season to get comfortable with the the new car and new tyres … Another thing – he won the title for Ferrari in his first season with the team, and in the season, where Ferrari suffered quite a bit with their reliability and did not have a number 1 driver till more less the last couple of races …

  8. Yes, Kimi has certainly deserved this championship victory. While the two McLaren drivers fought amongst themselves, Kimi just got on with it and took the title right under their noses.

    I mean, from 17 points behind in 2 races remaining, that is simply amazing!

    But it is not certain that Kimi will remain champion. McLaren appeal may rob Kimi of the title.

  9. well at least hamilton didnt win,even considering the amount of points wich he benefited from the FIA.neither alonso nor hamilton should have win,so its a good result.but still take in consideration that without some polemic decisions made by the FIA alonso would have won the championship.

  10. The REAL CHAMPION is Felippe Massa. That boy flies when he’s in front and his sporting gift to Kimi should never be forgotten!
    And Kimi did make known his thanks PUBLICLY, so should we.

  11. Of course the best man won.
    Some people fight between themselves, and others more intelligent work together to beta them.
    Forza Ferrari,

    Ricardo.

  12. Massa: you showed what a true loser you are. Signed on with Ferrari for the next several years, we now know that you are content with never being in first place because you’ll always be a second tier driver at Ferrari. In front of your home fans you had to sacrifice a sure victory for a teammate. Which kind of exemplifies the way your career will play out the next three years. Giving up your spot. Some call that “teamwork” while others call it being “charitable”. I call it being satisfied with a fat paycheck and not giving a damn what happens on the track. Enjoy it, Felipe, because you’ll always be a second place driver.

  13. I too I’m afraid Felipe did a Coulthard (with Mika, remember?) But I believe Felipe has more guts than DC ever had.

    Kimi, what a way to win a championship!!! Amazing.
    Lewis, well, the inexperience had to show sometime.
    Alphonso, I’m so glad he didn’t win. Now he can go cry-baby at his home or at renault. Hopefully McLaren will retain him and won’t let him race.

    The fuel thing – If they didn’t disqualify McLaren drivers over the spy saga, why should they disqualify BMW and Williams drivers over some temp thing wich they can’t even agree on?

  14. of course the best man won!!
    mclaren only fight for the title cheating, shame on them!!
    justice has been made ! the mclaren drivers were lucky not being thrown out of the competition!!
    best driver in 07 was kimi!!

  15. 6 wins to 4… That is 50% more success than the nearest competitor! Kimi is the World Champ… Make that “Kimi is MY World Champ” and he earned it fair and square… Period.

  16. No doubt at all! It’s really an unforgettable season for kimi in ferrari and he deserve to win the title for his great determination.

    But if world champion goes to Hamilton by stripping the BMW and Williams driver’s points then it is not worth to watch F1 racing any more in future.

    Mclaren should feel shame to get this kind of championship title.

    Ron Dennis – think!think!

  17. also starring
    22nd October 2007, 18:01

    Hamilton is “The Youngest looser in F1 history” courtesy of Ron Daddy Dennis.

    Ron, please, step down, Mercedes, the sponsors, and your team deserve a better leader.

    …and yes, Kimi deserves it. That was what Ron was looking for: Equality. 109 for Alonso, 109 for Hamilton. That’s equality. Congratulations Genius!!

  18. I think yes, Kimi is, today, the best driver, but I also think this was perhaps his last chance. I think that even though Alonso will take a lot of performance with him if he leaves McLaren, Ron Dennis and Hamilton with a posible Rosberg will still do a great job next year. Massa will want to win too, and get the favor back (People are used to seeing the Brasil guys being overtaken, but Massa has fiber, you could see he was about to burst in anger because he had to let Kimi pass. He´s more on the Senna/Piquet side, though not as competent.). Alonso will have a great year wherever he goes, even Toyota, I´d say. And the BMW´s will come flying next year, so I wouldn´t doubt that Heidfeld (Or even Kubica, why not?) is a title contender too. So, good for Kimi that he took the chance, its gonna be harder next year.

  19. Kimi has also been on the podium 9 times in the last 10 races. Without technical problems in Nurburgring it might be 10 straight podiums.

  20. For sure! Kimi deserved thw Championship!

  21. Given that the points system was changed to stop Michael Schumacher winning, isnt it justice that the person who won the most races wins the title?

    Cant we have a system like Moto GP where a win counts for something!
    As Raikkonen won the title with 110 points, he could have been beaten by someone who hadnt even won a race!
    Bring back the old points system, Schumacher the great has gone now!

  22. Kimi:
    Best driver this season, in and out of the car. I don’t want to echo everything else said before (wins, points, etc…). Great character, did the talking with his racing.
    Ferrari was the best team – they even had design secrets to McLaren who couldn’t make it. And they did treat drivers equally, until there was a reason to probably give advantage to one.

    Lewis:
    Great talent.
    Time will show if he is anything more. Like Button when he started, only in a better car. Bit too arrogant for someone that was spared 4 punishments (Hungary, Japan, spy-gate, Brazil training). He had full support of his team against a 2-time world champion.
    Comparing him to the all time greats (on previous blogs) is not even conceivable.
    About records: Schumi had more than 1 win on every 3 races, in 15 years racing (91/250)! Let’s review in 2021!

    Alonso:
    What a driver! By far the most exciting racer! Aggresive and pleasure to watch! So proffesional after all that was thrown at him. Shame that he didn’t have support…McLaren messed it up big time. As it’s proved now, he only needed 1 point…with a team that wasn’t behind him, apparently.

    and lastly, (not a driver, but he played a role)
    Ron Denis:
    Lost all respect for the guy. How humiliating to have FIA to observe if he would treat his team equally. It’s impossible and naive to think that he wasn’t aware about the spy-gate. And quote: We are racing against Alonso – (hmm, he forgot that Alonso was in McLaren?!?) ..and not against Kimi!!
    Good Job!

  23. Best man won for sure – for the simple reason he managed to hold his act together throughout in a way the competition did not. Massa’s goodwill was expected but not required – my impression is that, in race trim, Kimi’s driving is more effortless than Massa’s and he, Kimi, drives with plenty of latitude. During the season he has shown many times he can produce fastest laps at will – again, I’m talking of race trim, when it matters most.

    As for Lewis his sensational talent is undeniable, though it seems he alone is responsible for the fiascos in China and Brazil. In China he had several laps before pitting to realize just how bad his tyres were – still he parks in the gravel in the pitlane. In Brazil, he panicked off track when he saw Alonso pass. Later on, though proof positive is not yet in, he switched off his own car. Already during live coverage, replays from the onboard camera shows his left thumb sliding across the steering wheel as he turns left seconds before his car slows down. It may well be he slammed it into pitlane mode! But proof is not yet in – I guess time will tell on Youtube or elsewhere.

  24. AmericanTifosi
    23rd October 2007, 1:05

    YES! Kimi deserved this so much. Remember 2003? 2005?

  25. BrendaninBrazil
    23rd October 2007, 3:30

    @ Johannes – “Massa’s goodwill was expected but not required…” – without his “goodwill” Kimi would have been second & Alonso would be World Champion. Massa admitted on Brazilian TV tonight that he was ordered to let Kimi past, so if you want to talk about cheating, my understanding is that team orders are now illegal & so that is cheating! Kimi drove well all season with the support of his whole team. Alonso did just as well without team support(or TEAM ORDERS!) so I thyink he deserved the title.

  26. @brendaninbrazil – 1) “team orders” is a legal term in F1 and forbidden, teamwork is not and exists in all teams 2) how can you be sure massa would have been no 1? raikkonen caught up with him well before the last pit stop and put in fastest lap times whenever he felt like it, just like he did many times during the season – I’m not saying massa did not assist, he did, but the answer to the hypotethical question about positions if massa had raced for real is also hypothetical to say the least

    as for maclaren they deserve very little as a team this year cos they cheated bigtime, as for alonso as a driver he couldn’t even steal enough points from hamilton in the last 2 races despite hamilton’s complete meltdown so why on earth should he be champion?

    finally, a mclaren wheel –
    http://www.mclaren.com/features/technical/interactive_steering_wheel.php

    lewis made some very strange thumb movements upper left by the menu scroller and pitlane-button seconds before his car slowed down

  27. Niki Lauda has recently declared in an interview about Alonso for the Brisith channel, ITV, the following: “This is not normal education. Maybe in Spain they don’t educate themselves in these villages where he comes from, but all these things I do not understand.”

    I do not care what he can say or not say about Alonso. What he cannot do is generalize regarding a country like he did, and in a commment more appropiate of the nazi past of his homeland country, he just insulted the whole population of Spain. Alonso comes from Oviedo, a medium-sized city. In terms of population is about the size of Southampton (close to 250,000, a little more than a village, I should add). What I do not understand, Mr. Lauda, is why someone that criticized the “Education” of a whole country, uses in the interview two times the word **** and once the word ****. I do not understand either how biased your comments against Alonso are. I am not asking you to support him. I am asking you to be objective, and treat the situation like it deserves.

    Maybe you are sour because you cannot understand why someone like Alonso complains so much about Daddy Dennis being so pro-Hamilton. Maybe is because Daddy Dennis treated you the same way he did with Hamilton. The year you won at McLaren it was clear you were the new toy for Dennis, and like he did for Hamilton, he went all the way to make sure Alain Prost did not get away with it. You won by half a point. Alonso had the same points than Hamilton. It is a copycat.

    Now I understand, why your nickname is “the rat.” I thought it was because of your teeth, but you proved me wrong.

    This is the source of the interview:
    http://www.itv-f1.com/Feature.aspx?Type=General&PO_ID=41081

  28. well, mr lauda had a screw loose for quite some time now – what a jerk – and it’s on ITV too, home of hamilton-groupies mr allen & al – go figure – I for one feel for FA, having to put with the janus-faced mr dennis: “we are racing alonso” (rd himself) / “policy of treating both Fernando and Lewis with complete equality and fairness” (statement on mclarens website)

    what a shambles, mclaren – and I used to love that team

  29. BrendaninBrazil
    23rd October 2007, 4:35

    @ johannes – A driver being told by his team to let his team mate past & win the driver’s title may be understandable from the teams point of view but is unmistakably the type of situation that the rules against “team orders” is directed at. No team cares which driver wins & which comes second unless it impacts on the drivers championship because 1 2 for a team is no difference in the manufacturer’s table regardless of the driver’s positions! If Kimi had raced & passed Massa fairly on the track I’d have no problem, but not even the most biased Ferrari fan could deny Massa did what he was told(as he himself admitted on Brazilian TV tonight!). This just shows that outlawing team orders is stupid & doesn’t work. But they are the rules at the moment & under those rules Ferrari cheated to get Kimi to win.

    As for Alonso – he did a great job all year driving for a team that obviously wasn’t supporting him. Team orders one way or the other at McLaren this season at any race would have(as it turned out) decided the championship in their favour but I don’t think there is any doubt that neither driver would have agreed to them. I am with you in that I used to love McLaren but am ambiguous at best towards them after this season.

    HereÅ› hoping next season is won by the best driver with the best car – no question!

  30. What is clear is that the best team won.
    Luckily they didn’t have an Italian good pilot, so they did not care about where their pilots where born.

  31. The best man never wins. If he did, then why would our girlfriends and wives be stuck with our dumbasses? My point being – the question is a foolish one.

    As long as the person with the most points (and maybe wins) gets the championship, then I’m satisfied.

    The off-season has a lot of promise though.

    1. Where will Alonso end up?
    2. Will McLaren be able to address their reliability issues, and more importantly, can they hang with Ferrari on the fast circuits?
    3. Will Williams pull a magic chassis out of the bag? One that can cause BMW to look in their mirrors?
    4. Will BMW catch the McLaren/Ferrari train? They’re the best of the rest but the gap is large.
    5. Will Mark Webber find a way out of his Red Bull hell?

  32. Hey Sean you are correct on the first part!!!
    You are asking the million dollar questions Maybe you should ask one at a time.
    my answers (just opinions)
    1. Renault
    2. No on the reliability thus no on the second part
    3. Yes
    4. YES

  33. I didn’t finish
    5. NO

  34. For sure! and congrats to the team JOB WELL DONE. Massa what dedication.
    Conratulations to the head of McLaren for getting results on all his efforts! He worked so hard at it and got got perfect reward for his efforts.
    Alonso -great guy (I am Ferrari fan)earned much respect.
    Mr. Lauda what a mouth this is century 21 what kind of a champion are you?

  35. Nice questions, Sean.

    1. Renault
    2. Good question… Reliability cost titles in 1999, 2000, 2003, 2005, and now, 2007. Ultimately, yes. After all, they were reliable in almost all the races. Just not the last 2.
    3. Sadly, no. Just not enough budget. But watch them shine when Toyota merge their operations with Williams…
    4. No… not yet, anyway. Expect a win from them in 2008, but not much more.
    5. No. For the simple reason that Red Bull is on the way up. Watch how both they and Toro Rosso were shining these last few races.

  36. @johannes: yep, found hamilton’s strange actions on the steering-wheel on youtube,

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=y8DGh7Yh5V8

  37. Absolutely, the best man won it fair and square. In fact, he kept his head down after he finally became one with his Ferrari at Indianapolis. In the last 3 races, Kimi hardly made any mistakes whereas the others did.

  38. Speedo, the video was posted here ages ago, and unlike the Youtube link it hasn’t been deleted:

    Video: Did Hamilton cause his gearbox problem?

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