Best wishes of the season to all of you from F1 Fanatic! Here’s today’s round up.
Links
Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:
Analysis: Schumacher top overtaker (Autosport)
Schumacher made 116 passes over the course of 2011. Sebastien Buemi was next with 114.
Vettel excited about new Red Bull (BBC)
“You try not to think consciously about yourself and your success and what you might have achieved. But then when you see you are now at the same step as these guys. It is hard to put into words.”
McLaren’s 50 Greatest Drivers No 14: Gerhard Berger (McLaren)
“In 1988 he was the only non-McLaren driver to win a race with a lucky victory at Monza ahead of team-mate Michele Alboreto.”
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Comment of the day
Prisoner Monkeys doesn’t buy Luca di Montezemolo’s explanation for Ferrari leaving FOTA:
Actions speak louder than words. Ferrari can say they left because they were tired of others having their own agenda ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ but they have also threatened to leave the sport (and on more than one occasion) in an attempt to get their way with the sporting and technical regulations because they believe the sport cannot survive without them and that they other teams (and the FIA) will be too afraid of that happening.
So call me a cynic, but I?óÔé¼Ôäóm not prepared to believe that Ferrari are championing the future of the sport.
Prisoner Monkeys
From the forum
Happy birthday!
No F1 Fanatic birthdays today. If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling, using Twitter or adding to the list here.
On this day in F1
Giancarlo Baghetti was born on this day in 1935.
Baghetti made history in 1961 by winning his first ever world championship Grand Prix, for Ferrari at Reims that year. He died in 1995.
Dan Newton (@dan-newton)
25th December 2011, 0:05
Merry Christmas to all F1 Fanatics
Estesark (@estesark)
25th December 2011, 13:53
And Merry Christmas to F1 Fanatic itself! For a present, I made a modest donation, to say thanks for all enjoyment I have got out of this website. I’m sure it will continue into 2012 :)
babis1980 (@babis1980)
25th December 2011, 18:08
Merry xmas guys.
I would like to say something about this article of autosport with the overtaking statistics.
1st. In the top ten there is none renault engine car. This means two things, that they have the most underpower engine thus their top speed is low so they can’t overtake easy.
2nd. In the top ten there is none renault engine car. This also means that their qualy pace is better than the rest because of their magic engine mapping.
3rd. The championship went to a renault engine car, and the only team exept ferrari and mclaren who get a podium was lotus renault. So this means that the overtaking that took place this season in F1 was in the biggest part pointless because of the drs. Lastly every team who had a efficient drs system for the race had problems in qualy.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
25th December 2011, 18:32
@dan-newton Indeed, thanks! You too.
Sheriff
25th December 2011, 0:17
Merry Xmas to you all.
Matty no.2
25th December 2011, 0:21
Merry Xmas
matt90 (@matt90)
25th December 2011, 0:36
Merry christmas everyone.
Anon
25th December 2011, 1:08
So have yourselves a merry little Christmas now! :-)
David-A (@david-a)
25th December 2011, 1:43
Merry christmas F1 Fanatics :)
sato113 (@sato113)
25th December 2011, 2:08
Merry Christmas one and all!
or ‘Best wishes of the season’! lol.
god bless
Nin13 (@nin13)
25th December 2011, 2:17
Merry Christmas!! :-)
Gagnon (@johnniewalker)
25th December 2011, 2:25
Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, Joyeux Noel !!!!
bananarama (@bananarama)
25th December 2011, 2:41
Frohe Weihnacht!
A little word on a topic from above: one could argue that a substantial amount of those passes were in the first lap and that he only overtook many because he underperformed so much in qualifying but to me its just nice to see him at the top of a statistic again and it shows he still has the racecraft, he “just” lacks the raw qualifying speed to put him in a position where he doesn’t get into trouble so often :-)
BasCB (@bascb)
26th December 2011, 11:13
Exactly what Mercedes analysed as well and its in that article @bananarama! But it did show he was not completely lost in F1 this year.
F1fanNL (@)
26th December 2011, 12:18
One could argue that his excellent starts take away the need to qualify like Rosberg does.
Besides that, if he we’re to qualify right behind Rosberg or even in front of Rosberg and make a great start passing faster cars he would only be overtaken in the race. Just like Rosberg.
From a professional point of view Schumacher should try to qualify better. From a spectators point of view he’s doing fine as it is.
DVC (@dvc)
27th December 2011, 2:58
Sure MS should be qualifying better, but he isn’t doing that badly. In terms of average qualifying position, he was 8th best of all drivers, and Rosberg was 7th best in 2011.
Aussie Fan
28th December 2011, 9:21
One could argue that his ca is setup for the race, not quali, seeing as though he seems to always be faster in the race than Rosberg.
Robbie (@robbie)
3rd January 2012, 17:21
MS had the luxury of being in a car that was a distant 4th in the WCC, with Renault a distant 5th back from them. So he could get away with poor quali spots knowing that NR would not have the equipment to do much more with on Sunday, nor would a Renault or the lesser cars likely give him much of a hard time.
If MS doesn’t get better at qualifying, and if the pack is closer knit, eg Renault is a strong 4th or 5th, he will find himself in some trouble and will pay more dearly for his poor performances on Saturday. More dearly than he already did by having to tangle with cars he should have put behind him on Saturday.
Higher quali spots would have put him out of trouble on some days, and would have seen him ahead of NR in points by the end of the season. Number of passes would only be something to be proud of if he was qualifying where his teammate was and/or outpointed him by the end of the year. To achieve this numbers the way he has is only a backhanded compliment since he didn’t convert such ‘impressive’ performances into beating NR.
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
25th December 2011, 3:02
Merry Christmas to all my friends,enjoy the holiday & stay safe in the winter.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
25th December 2011, 18:32
@wasiF1 I’ve already fallen over once on the ice D:
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
26th December 2011, 2:14
@AndrewTanner oh dear hope you haven’t hurt yourself. Enjoy the time mate & be careful.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
26th December 2011, 10:06
Nah, I only hurt my pride @wasiF1
Joey-Poey (@joey-poey)
25th December 2011, 3:02
Merry Christmas Eve since it’s not Christmas over here yet ;D
xbx-117 (@xbx-117)
25th December 2011, 3:41
Merry Christmas, everyone. Have a good one.
JohnBt (@johnbt)
25th December 2011, 3:49
Merry Christmas to Keith and all.
Faisal Iqbal Roxna
25th December 2011, 4:09
mary christmax to all frieond in englan.
davey (@djdaveyp87)
25th December 2011, 5:09
Merry Christmas Everybody!
Journeyer (@journeyer)
25th December 2011, 5:11
Merry Christmas to you and your families! :)
verstappen (@verstappen)
25th December 2011, 7:47
Vrolijk kerstfeest
It’s always à pleasure to come here, thanks @keithcollantine and all F1F’s
naz3012 (@naz3012)
25th December 2011, 8:27
Merry christmas to all! Obviously; a special mention has to go to keith; it’s been an absolute pleasure reading all the countless articles, analysis and round-ups every day of this year and the past few years too. I can’t begin to imagine the time, effort and hard work that you’ve put in to make F1 fanaric one of the best F1 websites around and you deserve a huge break and at least a drink on all of us :)
So have a very merry christmas and the happiest of new years.
And i don’t think any F1-fanatics will put me down for including them in this; so on behalf of us all, Thanks keith.
Yamashita
25th December 2011, 12:39
Yes, this site made me happy everyday. :)
ed24f1 (@ed24f1)
25th December 2011, 9:01
I don’t understand the Autosport overtaking article, I thought that information was released a few weeks ago and we already knew that Schumacher topped that list?
Fixy (@)
25th December 2011, 9:09
Merry Christmas @keithcollantine and all users!!
DarthRaiden666 (@darthraiden666)
25th December 2011, 9:29
Merry christmas all fellow F1 fans.
Bleeps_and_Tweaks (@bleeps_and_tweaks)
25th December 2011, 10:32
Merry Christmas Keith & all other F1F’s! Thank you again Keith for such a wonderful site.
matt88 (@matt88)
25th December 2011, 11:10
merry christmas dear F1Fanatics :)
Yamashita
25th December 2011, 12:28
Merry Christmas to all F1 lovers :)
icemangrins (@icemangrins)
25th December 2011, 16:05
Merry Christmas fella fanatics. It is great to come back to this site after 2 months with an interesting stat… 116 overtakes.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
25th December 2011, 19:07
Couldb’t agree more with @prisoner-monkeys on the Ferrari, well, LdM issue. He’s just desperate. It’s pathetic. We will respect you much more if you keep your head down and play the game how it currently stands, not how you want it to.
BasCB (@bascb)
26th December 2011, 11:16
I feel pretty much the same about it @andrewtanner and @prisoner-monkeys, Ferrari is doing things that they expect to work out best for them in the short term. How it will pan out for the sport, for other teams or even for Ferrari’s long term has little to do with it.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
26th December 2011, 11:32
Only half of Formula 1 is about beating your opponents on-track. The other half is about beating them in the rules – getting everyone else’s ideas banned whilst safeguarding your own. We saw that at Silverstone this year when all the manufacturers applied for consessions to the OTBD ban, with varying effects.
For their part, Ferrari are better at playing the political game than anyone else, but I suspect Luca’s comments have more to do with a personal agenda. The comments themselves read like a rebuttal, but nobody is criticising the team. Over the past few days, he has said 1) that Ferrari withdrew from FOTA because they weren’t happy with secret agendas, 2a) that they did not insist that the FIA keep the OTBD ban, 2b) that the team willingly gave up any advantage gained from it for the good of the sport, and 3) has maintained that Formula 1 must stay in Europe. All of these happen to be politically-charged comments, and all of them coincide with Luca’s announcement that he will run for office in the 2013 general elections in Italy. So I think that his comments are meant to make headlines in Italy, to get people concentrating on what Ferrari is capable of politically. It’s not the first time he’s done it, either – he named the F150 Italia “to celebrate” one hundred and fifty years since Italy’s unification, but at the same time, it tied Ferrari in to the Italian national identity.
So I’m revising my comments slightly: Luca isn’t out to make Ferrari look good – he’s out to make himself look good by way of Ferrari.
Mike (@mike)
25th December 2011, 21:33
Well, I had a smashing Christmas (Not literally this time) and I hope everyone here did as well!
Thank you for this year and thank you for the next. Because unfortunately you all are stuck with me. :D
F1Yankee (@f1yankee)
25th December 2011, 23:59
woooo i just got home from dinner :)
merry christmas