F1 Fanatic’s 10,000th article: 100 of the best so far

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It gives me great pride to introduce the 10,000th article to be published on F1 Fanatic.

Since I set up F1 Fanatic over seven years ago we’ve seen 123 Grands Prix and five different drivers crowned world champion.

To mark this milestone, I’ve hand-picked 100 articles. Some are personal favourites, others were very popular or inspired lengthy debates, others are special for different reasons.

Together, they represent the very best of F1 Fanatic so far. Happy reading!

Grand Prix flashbacks

If I didn’t get a kick out of writing F1 Fanatic I would never have started it back in 2005.

But inevitably some articles are more enjoyable to write than others, and the Grand Prix flashbacks are a definite favourite. History has always been a passion of mine, so researching and writing about the heritage of motor sport is a double pleasure.

Here’s five of my favourites so far:

25 years since Ayrton Senna’s first F1 win at Estoril – A soaking wet Portuguese Grand Prix in 1985.

“He was on it from the word go” – Schumacher’s debut remembered – Former Jordan man Mark Gallagher recalls Michael Schumacher’s F1 debut in the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix.

30 years ago: Villeneuve’s last and best F1 win – A remarkable piece of driving by Gilles Villeneuve in the 1981 Spanish Grand Prix.

20 years since Senna took out Prost at Suzuka – One of the most astonishing and controversial moments in F1 history in the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix.

Prost’s winning comeback in Kyalami – It was Prost versus Senna versus Schumacher at the final South African Grand Prix in 1993.

Keep an eye out for two new Grand Prix flashbacks coming later this month.

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Not short of an opinion or two

I’ve regularly used the site to put my point of view across on matters big or small, controversial or mundane. Here’s a selection of ten comment pieces that provoked debate:

Five years, over 35 incidents: Has Hamilton been treated fairly? – A recurring subject in the comments has been Lewis Hamilton’s treatment at the hands of the stewards.

Fernando Alonso should renounce his Singapore Grand Prix ‘win’ – Nelson Piquet Jnr was ordered to crash in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to help team mate Alonso win the race.

The Bahrain Grand Prix: A matter of conscience – Discussing the vexed subject of Bahrain earlier this year.

The FOTA Fans Forum needs to ask the questions that matter – “It’s supposed to be a fans’ forum, not a fanboy’s forum.”

F1 should fix flawed rules before changing tyres – My view on the Pirelli debate.

The problems with a two-tier championship – I chose this one because it features one of my favourite images that have appeared on the site, created by Neil Davies of Caricature Club.

The track they should build in Austin – Before the track design for the Circuit of the Americas was revealed, my take on what they should have done.

Why the UK government must protect live F1 broadcasts on free-to-air television – This was written in 2009, the subject became a major focus of debate last year.

Why F1 should race on ovals – “Oval racing is poorly understood in F1’s European heartland and viewed with some hostility and derision. But those who trot out tired cliches like ‘it’s easy because you only have to turn left’ should listen carefully.”

F1: not just a sport – One of the persistent debates among, shall we say, “unenlightened” sports fans.

Most comments

Everyone gets to have their say on F1 Fanatic, and sometimes the best writing is to be found in the comments. Here are seven articles that inspired the longest discussions.

Furious Hamilton calls penalties “a joke” – The most-commented ‘normal’ article on the site to date – over 800 responses to Hamilton’s infamous post-race criticism of the stewards at the 2011 Monaco Grand Prix. As Debaser91 summed up in the first of them: “Accusing the stewards of being racist, even if it was joke, hmmm. Not the smartest thing you’ve ever done, Lewis.”

Robert Kubica suffers multiple fractures in Italian rally crash – The shocking news at the beginning of 2011 brought many comments from readers anxious to learn of Kubica’s condition and hopeful he might recover. Sadly, as yet there’s no sign of him making a return to Formula 1.

So much for keeping F1 free-to-air – F1 is increasingly turning away from free-to-air television and putting more races on subscription channels. it happened last year with Sky in the UK and the same has happened in Italy recently.

F1 to split in two as FOTA teams announce their own world championship – During the nadir of the rows over the future of the sport in 2009 it briefly seemed the teams were set to leave Formula 1. Fortunately they pulled back from the brink of a disastrous move after FIA president Max Mosley offered not to stand in the next election.

Hamilton excluded from Australian Grand Prix, Trulli third – Another controversy, again involving Hamilton. This time his belated exclusion from the 2009 Australian Grand Prix.

Webber and Vettel lose one-two finish for Red Bull after collision – The Red Bull pair collided with each other while leading the Turkish Grand Prix in 2010.

Massa ordered to hand win to Alonso – Unpopular team orders at the 2010 German Grand Prix.

In series

From time to time a subject that can’t be adequately covered in a single article. Here are two of the multi-part series run on F1 Fanatic in recent years:

The history of F1′s circuits

One of the early projects for F1 Fanatic was building circuit maps for all the different circuit configurations used over the years.

This was enjoyable if rather time-consuming, though it did serve as the basis for this lengthy series looking at how circuit design has changed:

F1 circuits history part 1: 1950
F1 circuits history part 2: 1951-3
F1 circuits history part 3: 1954-7
F1 circuits history part 4: 1958-60
F1 circuits history part 5: 1961-6
F1 circuits history part 6: 1967-70
F1 circuits history part 7: 1971-4
F1 circuits history part 8: 1975-8
F1 circuits history part 9: 1979-84
F1 circuits history part 10: 1985-9
F1 circuits history part 11: 1990-3
F1 circuits history part 12: 1994
F1 circuits history part 13: 1995-8
F1 circuits history part 14: 1999-2002
F1 circuits history part 15: 2003-2007
F1 circuits history part 16: 2008 and beyond

100 F1 race winners

Heikki Kovalainen’s victory in the 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix made him the 100th driver to win a race, prompting this look back on every other driver who’s won a round of the world championship.

Since then Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber, Nico Rosberg and Pastor Maldonado have joined F1′s roster of winners. These are the first 100:

100 F1 race winners part 1: 1950-1953
100 F1 race winners part 2: 1953-1958
100 F1 race winners part 3: 1959-1962
100 F1 race winners part 4: 1962-1968
100 F1 race winners part 5: 1968-1973
100 F1 race winners part 6: 1974-1977
100 F1 race winners part 7: 1977-1982
100 F1 race winners part 8: 1982-1993
100 F1 race winners part 9: 1993-2001
100 F1 race winners part 10: 2001-2008

Great races

I’ve chosen a favourite race from each of the seasons F1 Fanatic has been running:

Last-gasp win for Raikkonen in sensational Suzuka race – Kimi Raikkonen scorched through the field from 17th on the grid to win the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso performed similar heroics to finish third from 16th.

Alonso triumphs in final duel with Schumacher – At the time it looked like an extraordinary conclusion to Michael Schumacher’s career – but now we know his ‘retirement’ was only a hiatus.

Alonso wins amid Nurburgring chaos – A cloudburst at the start of the race briefly propelled debutant Markus Winkelhock into the lead for Spyker. Alonso eventually won, snatching the victory from Massa in a thrilling late battle.

Sebastian Vettel brushes title rivals aside to win – A star was born at Monza in 2008 as Vettel stormed to victory in foul conditions while the world championship contenders scrapped for the lower points places.

Webber wins in style as Button races to title – Jenson Button concluded an unbelievable year by winning the championship for a team which had been on the verge of closure less than 12 months earlier.

Hamilton heads McLaren one-two in Montreal thriller – Tricky tyres turned to 2010 Canadian Grand Prix into a spellbinding race – and inspired the teams to ask Pirelli to produce more of the same.

Alonso capitalises on Red Bull errors for Silverstone win – Several drivers were in contention for this win, but Alonso prevailed at a slippery Silverstone for his sole win of 2011.

Alonso holds off Perez for superb win in Malaysia – Outstanding performances from both Alonso and Perez made this a race to relish, with a wonderfully tense final stint.

Picture perfect

Three of my favourite image galleries.

Star drivers at the 2011 Goodwood Festival of Speed – My pictures from last year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed featuring John Surtees, Emerson Fittipaldi, Damon Hill, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Rene Arnoux, Eddie Cheever, Bruno Senna, Adrian Newey, Christian Horner and more.

The 2011 F1 season in 100 pictures – A look back on last year’s world championship.

Top ten pictures from the Monaco Grand Prix – The ‘top ten Grand Prix pictures’ series is new for this year and seems to have gone down very well with readers.

Watching testing

The costs of attending events to report on them first-hand means it’s not something I’ve been able to do much of. But being able to work in the paddock has given me some of the most rewarding experiences so far.

The opening weeks of testing last season was a particularly fascinating time. In Valencia there was a rush of car launches and the short-lived mystery about the location of Renault’s exhaust – which was solved when Julien Leroy, taking pictures for F1 Fanatic, snapped it nestling within the sidepods.

After a dash to Berlin for McLaren’s lavish launch came the dreadful news of Robert Kubica’s rally crash. That had a sobering effect on the paddock when the teams reassembled in Jerez, sporting “get well Robert” messages in Polish on their cars.

Here’s some of the coverage from last year’s pre-season testing.

2011 F1 testing diary part one: Valencia
Renault’s radical front exit exhausts pictured
Massa’s Ferrari catches fire during testing
2011 F1 testing diary part two: Jerez

Classic cars

This being Formula 1, the cars are as much a part of the story as the drivers and tracks. Here are features on five F1 cars that were special for very different reasons:

McLaren MP4/1: Carbon fibre revolutionary – A rare step forward in both performance and safety.

Great F1 cars: Williams-Renault FW14B – One of the most crushingly dominant cars F1 has ever seen.

Lancia D50: Ferrari inherit a title-winning car – An unusual and gorgeous racer from the fifties. Originally raced by Lancia, it was later used by Ferrari to win races and world championships.

Banned! Lotus-Cosworth 88 & 88B – Colin Chapman’s controversial and unraced twin-chassis creation.

Life L190 – the worst F1 car ever – On a good day it was 15 seconds off the pre-qualifying pace.

Driver Rankings

The Driver Rankings is a feature that dates back to the very first year of the site. It has led to the creation of other areas like the Driver Form Guides and Driver of the Weekend to track performance through a season.

As you’d expect on F1 Fanatic, reader input plays an important role. The twice-yearly rankings incorporate your views and the end-of-season article includes a poll for F1 Fanatic Driver of the Year.

Here’s last year’s Driver Rankings series:

2011 F1 driver rankings part one: 28-16
2011 F1 driver rankings part two: 15-6
2011 F1 driver rankings no.5: Lewis Hamilton
2011 F1 driver rankings no.4: Nico Rosberg
2011 F1 driver rankings no.3: Jenson Button
2011 F1 driver rankings no.2: Fernando Alonso
2011 F1 driver rankings no.1: Sebastian Vettel
Sebastian Vettel voted F1 Fanatic Driver of the Year

Champion of Champions

At the beginning of 2011 a special series looked at all 32 world champions and invited readers to select an all-time great:

Ayrton Senna voted Champion of Champions by F1 Fanatic readers

Your questions

I receive loads of email from readers with questions, ideas and suggestions. Your Questions Answered has grown out of that as a place where I can tackle the most interesting and popular queries.

Here are five particularly good ones:

The driver who raced illegally, and more – Hans Heyer started the 1977 German Grand Prix despite failing to qualify.

Racing with the number 13 – I get a surprising amount of questions about racing drivers’ numbers.

The manhole cover that stopped a race, and more – A huge crash at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 1990, though not in F1…

Glock-gate (Brazil 2008), and more – Debunking one of F1′s silliest conspiracy theories.

‘Win-less champions’, race hosting fees and more – The drivers who won world championships despite only winning a single race.

If you’ve got a question for Your Questions Answered then send it in via the contact form.

Top Tens

A light-hearted look at the sport in F1 Fanatic’s Top Tens. A handful of my favourites:

Top ten… Home Grand Prix wins – Great crowd-pleasing moments.

Top ten… Most notorious backmarkers – From the calamitous to the suspicious.

Top ten… Italian Ferrari drivers – Does not include Luca Badoer.

From Teflonso to Britney: Top ten F1 driver nicknames – This prompted a huge list of other notable nicknames from readers in the comments.

Top ten… Ways to finish an F1 race – How mangled motors have limped to the line.

Stats and Facts

Another mainstay from the early days of the site is Stats and Facts. Several readers tell me this is their favourite article, and it regularly appears on the Monday after each race.

2009 Brazilian Grand Prix stats & facts – In 2008 and 2009 the world championship was won by British drivers who finished fifth in the Brazilian round driving car number 22 powered by Mercedes engines.

2010 British Grand Prix facts and stats – Ferrari’s worst race finish since 1978.

Button scores tenth win in longest ever race – The 2011 Canadian Grand Prix took over four hours.

Rosberg becomes F1′s third second-generation race winner – The Rosbergs join the Hills and the Villeneuve.

Guest stars

Every one of the 10,000 articles on F1 Fanatic is original. But I haven’t written all of them.

We’ve had many superb contributions from guest writers over the years. Here’s a few of the best:

Tales from a Melbourne marshal – Jen Campbell reveals what it’s like to be a marshal at an F1 race.

Steven’s 51 F1 race visits in 25 years – Reader Stephen has watched F1 races in most corners of the globe.

How hard was Massa hit? – Kareem Shaya on Felipe Massa’s crash in qualifying for the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix.

How to take great pictures at F1 races: Part 1 and Part 2 – A superb series by Jamey Price offering essential advice for budding F1 snappers.

“Senna” movie: an F1 Fanatic’s opinion – Long before it was released here in the UK, Robert York got to see the film Senna in Japan. His post prompted a response from writer Manish Pandey in the comments, which eventually led to this series of articles about the film.

Memorable moments

Finally, I wanted to choose a special few articles that particularly stood out in my memory from the first 10,000 on F1 Fanatic.

Ferrari and McLaren secrets leaked in FIA document
20th September 2007

This article from 2007 was the first which brought traffic to the site in significant numbers.

It followed the second ‘Spygate’ hearing of the World Motor Sport Council in 2007, when McLaren were fined $100m by the FIA for obtaining and using confidential information belonging to Ferrari.

The WMSC hearings had discussed sensitive information in detail, and when the FIA published the transcript of the hearing substantial portions of it were censored.

While working with the document I noticed the redactions were completely ineffectual – the document only had to be copied and pasted into a blank text file for all the confidential parts to be revealed.

I wrote up a short piece explaining the FIA’s embarrassing oversight. The story was widely overlooked by other motor racing websites. A few years I later learned the FIA’s communications director Richard Woods had been in touch with some of them, urging them not to publish details of the FIA’s mistake.

Dan Wheldon killed in crash at IndyCar season finale
16th October 2011

Not all the memories are happy ones. The loss of Dan Wheldon in a crash in the final IndyCar race of last year is one of the most upsetting things I’ve had to write about.

Formula 1 is my first motor racing passion. My second is IndyCar racing, and since American single-seater racing was reunified in 2008 I’ve given more space to it on the site.

For the final race of last year we ran F1 Fanatic Live and several of us gathered to follow what we hoped would be an exciting climax to the season.

Safety standards in motor racing are better than they have ever been. But it remains a dangerous activity, and this terrible tragedy was a stark reminder of that.

Lewis Hamilton is champion in epic climax to final race
2nd November 2008

Great sporting moments usually involve dramatic twists. Seeing a driver win the world championship at the final corner on the last lap of the season doesn’t come much more dramatic than that.

Had it been scripted, the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix would have been hailed a masterpiece of tension. While Felipe Massa led lap after lap, Lewis Hamilton hung around fourth place, just above the minimum he needed to be sure of the title.

But a late rain shower and a roll of the dice from Toyota put Hamilton in danger. Timo Glock stayed out on dry-weather tyres, moving up to fourth as those around him pitted for intermediate tyres.

When Kubica unlapped himself from the McLaren, Vettel pounced to demote Hamilton – suddenly he was sixth and the world championship was heading Massa’s way. Hamilton was seemingly doomed to lose the title in the final round for the second year in a row.

Powerless to pass Vettel around the final laps, Hamilton was still in sixth place as Massa crossed the line to win. But now the track was so wet Glock was floundering, defenceless. Hamilton caught him in the nick of time – reclaiming that critical fifth place at the final corner.

It was a truly staggering moment. We were following every lap on F1 Fanatic Live and shared our incredulity at the astonishing events unfolding before our eyes.

Sharing that moment with thousands of other F1 fans made an incredible race all the more memorable. And that’s exactly why I set up F1 Fanatic in the first place.

Here’s to the next 10,000

Thanks to everyone who’s been part of F1 Fanatic so far. I hope you’ve had as much fun reading and commenting on the first 10,000 articles as I have creating them.

The site has grown enormously in the past seven years and I hope it will continue to in future.

Continuing to produce this volume of original articles and catering for the large numbers of people that visit the site has inevitably become more expensive as the site has grown in popularity.

If you would like to contribute to the cost of running F1 Fanatic, you can pay £1 per month or £12 per year and in return get to browse the site ad-free. More information here:

Alternatively, you can make an ordinary donation to F1 Fanatic here:

Over to you

Have you got a favourite F1 Fanatic article? When did you first discover F1 Fanatic? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Remember you can navigate the entire F1 Fanatic archive and find the other 9,900 articles using the page numbers underneath the articles on the home page, or through the F1 Fanatic archive tab underneath it on the left.

Image © Williams/Sutton, Singapore GP/Sutton, McLaren, Ferrari Spa, F1 Fanatic, F1 Fanatic, Williams/LAT, Daimler, Jamey Price, Ferrari spa, McLaren

Author information

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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57 comments on “F1 Fanatic’s 10,000th article: 100 of the best so far”

  1. Wow, this is going to take a while to read Keith, what with all the great content! If there’s another 2 hour break during the race, i know what I am going to look at :-)

  2. What a remarkable collection. My next hour or two is sorted, anyway!

  3. Congratulations Keith, huge milestone! And this 10,00th article is a nice touch, it will take me a while to get through the stories on here that interest me, but from the titles it looks as though there are some real gems I havent read yet.

    Congratulations again, and thank you.

  4. Congratualations on this milestone: I think this website is by a long way the best and most complete F1 blog out there. Thanks for putting in all your efforts for making this such a good site!

  5. Magnificent Geoffrey (@magnificent-geoffrey)
    8th June 2012, 21:53

    I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that Formula 1 is our shared religion and F1Fanatic is where we come to worship the gods that do battle out on track.

    Since I first joined this site, posting ill-informed opinions under a stupid username, I’ve gone from being simply fanatical about F1 to an F1Fanatic. I’ve become a part of a fantastic community where I have been able to laugh, cheer, cry, argue with and meet face-to-face with many other amazing fans who I take great pride in being able to call friends. This site has given me so many opportunities to embrace my passion and truly feel as part of a family of fans and I will always be grateful for that. From the Collantine Cup to the stupid poems that I write sometimes, I’d like to think that I’ve been able to contribute something back to this community as well.

    So here’s to you, Keith. We may not agree on everything when it comes to F1, but you’ve always put the sport’s and the fan’s best interests first in everything that you’ve done. This site is highly popular for a reason and you should take a huge amount of credit and pride in that.

    As for the rest of you, well. What can I say other than that I truly feel privilaged to have met so many of you (both online and in person) and I greatly look forward to many more brilliant years to come.

    1. That’s a wonderful tribute, thank you very much @magnificent-geoffrey .

    2. I wanted to write something but realised I couldn’t have worded it better. Completely agreed.

      Thank you for everything Keith, congrats on the milestone and may it long keep going well!

    3. Plus 1 to that mag geoff. Thanks Keith, f1 would be a lot less interesting without your insights.

    4. +1, well put @magnificent-geoffrey, from someone that works far too many weekends, Keith and F1Fanatic live keep me bang up to date. Wishing you another 10000 well written articles!

    5. sid_prasher (@)
      9th June 2012, 13:05

      So here’s to you, Keith. We may not agree on everything when it comes to F1, but you’ve always put the sport’s and the fan’s best interests first in everything that you’ve done. This site is highly popular for a reason and you should take a huge amount of credit and pride in that.

      I couldnt have said it better…thanks @magnificent-geoffrey & Congrats Keith!

      1. I agree with all that you just said. Congratulation to everyone involved.

  6. Heart congratulations Keith for reaching 10,000. F1Fanatic is one of the best sites on Formula 1. It is very informative and the analysis are fantastic. Truly, an F1 fanatic cannot miss F1Fanatic.

    Congratulations again to you and all the members as well who have made this site a huge success. Waiting for 20,000 now!

    Regards

    Neel

  7. Just read through the end of the 2008 brazil live blog. Sent a chill down my spine, particularly liked the comment from F1Fanatic.co.uk a minute from the end: “It’s over”

    1. @jleigh I remember that – I was so astonished up to the point Massa crossed the line I thought there was no way there were any more surprises on the way. I completely failed to spot Glock’s sector times! I still get goose bumps reading that bit back. Amazing.

  8. The whole spygate affair brought me to F1Fanatic as well, up to then I had never really been on the internet for F1 news, just watching the races.

    And my favourites include quite a few of the guest pieces. I also enormously enjoy the stats articles and the new addition of best GP weekend pictures. Also some nice inspiration, as I had not seen all the articles on the history of F1 before.

    A big milestone indeed!

  9. Brings back many great memories of reading and commenting on this site! Interesting that even many articles that you published well before I found F1fanatic (2007,2008) are familiar to me – I must have found them at some point in more recent times.

  10. I remember first getting properly online with a laptop a few years ago and searching for F1 videos and coming across the site, think you had a feature like top 100 F1 videos or something along those lines

    But it was only really joining Twitter and following the account on there that i really started reading the site regularly even if i wasn’t commenting much i was still reading a lot of the articles.

    I’m sure everyone likes different parts of the site but the best thing for me is the credibility. Unlike a lot of sites you don’t get stories rehashed from others on here but instead you get good original content and if there is something else then it’s sourced properly (same with the tweets) and credited if from someone/somewhere else. That’s the way it should be done

    1. Precisely! And it’s great because there’s a huge amount of discussion yet the trolls are largely outweighed. That’s not something I’ve seen or even expect from any other F1 sites.

  11. Congratulations Keith on reaching such an epic milestone. Here’s to the next 10,000 articles on what has, over the years, become my favourite F1 site!

  12. I’ve been viewing this website almost everyday for three years, and I’ve always enjoyed reading the highly interesting articles on this website.

    Thanks very much Keith for the work you’ve done. This is definitely the best Formula One website around.

  13. In 2008 and 2009 the world championship was won by British drivers who finished fifth in the final round driving car number 22 powered by Mercedes engines.

    Button didn’t win the championship in the final round. I guess you just mean the Brazilian round.

    But enough of that. Congratulations Keith!

    1. Thanks @matt90 have changed it.

  14. Keith, congratulations for such a good work during the past 7 years!

  15. Congratulations Keith, it’s a remarkable achievement and rightfully one to be proud of.

    I’m always amazed by how quickly articles appear after the event, how comprehensive they are, and the high journalistic quality.

    I had great plans for today but they’re now out the window. I’m going to spend it reading all of the articles. Some I’ve read in the past, others were written before I discovered F1Fanatic. Either way it’s going to be an enjoyable way to remind myself why I love F1.

  16. as the first site I check when i boot up my laptop, I could not follow the sport without it. I believe it to be the best for any formula 1 fan. my favourite articles have to be stats and facts and also the pre-race analysis article which gets my heart pumping before the race.

    thanks so much keith, I look forward to the coming years.

  17. 10000th! My gosh!!! Congratulations @keithcollantine ! Look what you achieved! must be quite a special moment.

    It’s also great to see that I’ve read many of the articles you listed when they actually happened. Like I’m a F1F veteran of some sort… :P

  18. Congratulations KC! Keep up the stellar journalism. Last year I was a bit dismayed with all the Jense coddling, but hey One has to learn to take the bitter with the sweet. Best wishes, and here is to another 10,000…

  19. Fantastic! Congratulations Keith, and to all your loyal Fanatics!

    I can’t remember when I stumbled across this site, I think 2007-ish, certainly remember following 2008 on this site!

    A lot of those articles are great to read a few years later, would you ever consider publishing a collection of them (I know that James Allen does that at the end of each season).

    I am delighted to see F1F reach this milestone, thanks in no small part to all the hard work and sacrifice by Keith, and no doubt support from his wife!

    P.S. So much for my prediction of a stock-market floatation….!

  20. Amazing work over the years Keith. Your site is the first I open every day to get my F1 news, I can pay your work no high compliment! Like all of the site’s regulars, i will keep reading your articles as long as you keep writing them!

    Here’s to the next 10,000!

  21. Congratulations and thanks for giving us articles that have kept me checking back every day since 2007! :)

    Thanks!

  22. I’ve opened about 10 of these links and I can’t wait to see the F1 Fanatic approach to them :)

    First off, congratulations to @keithcollantine ! You must have one of the best jobs in the world but not only that you took on the brave task of making this your full time job. Ultimate respect for that. Over the past few years I’ve become a full time bill payer and I really appreciate the responsibility it requires!

    I’m a relatively new F1 fan but a long time internet forum user. I started following F1 in 2009 and towards the end of 2010 I was looking for somewhere to indulge my new found passion online. A Google search yielded a few results but F1 Fanatic immediately stuck out as having original and professional content, as well as embracing its fan base. I signed up immediately and it didn’t take long to be welcomed along and join in the banter with the regulars. Without F1 Fanatic both my knowledge of the sport and passion wouldn’t be anywhere near what it is now. I consider it central to my passion. It’s a focal point for information and discussion.

    I’ve used this site to help me plan a trip to Monza, which proved invaluable in finding good and affordable accommodation. I’ve also had the opportunity to give back by helping out with testing new and exciting features and I help out over in the forums which is great to be involved in. I feel part of a team and I am very proud of that.

    And my fellow users of course! Wow. What a great bunch you are! I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a few of you and I would love to meet many more. I’ve been on many forums in the past that were full of poor quality content and users who didn’t embrace ‘newbies’ but this place is full of great folk who took me onboard from the off, thanks! Oh and I actually joined Twitter as a result of F1 Fanatic so that’s cool!

    I’m now an F1 Fanatic Supporter. Adverts don’t bother me, I’d be happy to pay £1/month and still have them, I’m just happy to be part of the gang!

    Keith, if I ever get to meet you I’ll buy you a beer! Thank you :)

    1. Nick.UK (@)
      9th June 2012, 2:59

      @andrewtanner Sounds much like my own story. I began ‘religious’ viewing in 2009 also, after the odd races here and there; subsequently finding the site. Between this site and listening to practice session commentary I too feel my knowledge of the sport has reached unquantifiable new heights.

      As for meeting fellow F1Fanatics, all I can say is, did you hear back from Elephant camping?

      1. @nick-uk I did mate. However, I’m not sure if I can go now :( So many things are transpiring against me. Trying my absolute best, so gutting :( I’ll keep you posted.

        1. Nick.UK (@)
          9th June 2012, 10:33

          No problem. Hope things work out for you pal.

  23. congratulations!

  24. Thanks Keith!
    My personal favourites:
    – stats and facts
    – the recent top 10 pictures
    – articles of race attendants
    – your questions answered
    – daily round up, which always contains à surprise, even if I’ve been excercising my surfing

  25. People have come & gone over these 10,000 mesmerising articles but I’m proud to be a user & this website has enabled me to meet others with a sublime interlect like @prisoner-monkeys, @icthyes, just two in an almost endless list of people. It’s hard to believe that I’ve actually been following this website for almost three years. Amazing & this article brings out the ability for everyone to reminisce. Thanks Keith, for your commitment, dedication & most importantly, your passion that has fueled this website. Thank you!

  26. Well I kinda enjoy reading your articles. :)

    I must say they are the most knowledgeable, unbiased articles I read today. I also rely on autosport for my F1 news.

    I’m almost embarassed for formula1.com as their updates, aside from live timing, are slower than death.

    Thanks again.

  27. To think this great body of work is just the best 1%…the other 9900 and counting are merely excellent. Thanks, Keith. I not only enjoy your articles and appreciate your effort, I also enjoy your involvement in the conversation. I think you do a FANtastic job all around. The proof your work is great is shown by the high quality of the participants on this blog who plant their time here, and express their opinions and understanding of many aspects of F1 to the point of it all being educational. And fun. Thanks again, Keith.

  28. mac_user67
    9th June 2012, 2:38

    Congratualtions on 10 000 articles!

    I read the top one about senna and watched the video of his first win and I was wondering..

    When will we see someone able to beat Senna? Or could they be on the grid already?

    I’d love to see someone take a seat at a midfield team next year and to have such speed they’re able to drag the car up the grid, are promoted to a top team and beat Senna’s record of pole positions (per race starts)

    I personally don’t think it can ever happen now that the car is so important to a drivers speed. For someone to beat Senna’s record they’d need a hge amount of skill and the psychic ability to know which teams going to have the best car each year (or with this season each race!)

  29. Nick.UK (@)
    9th June 2012, 2:53

    I am going to spend a long time going back over these articles! So, be honest Kieth, how long have you been preparing this list? You must have been footnoting articles to feature in this for years?

    1. @nick-uk Actually, no! I put it together a couple of days ago.

  30. I see F1 Fanatic an a giant soup for Formula One know-it-all , passionate, angry, frustrated, debating, eager weirdos to talk about these bright colored rockets that go round in circles driven by overpaid, self- interested , finger pointing, ice-cream eating, competitive pilots. It’s like Days of Our Lives for rev-heads, not sure why we like it but hey who cares, F1 is a place where we can all vent our opinion on the greatest form of motorsport on the planet!

  31. Thank you Keith, here’s to the next 10,000!

  32. @keithcollantine, many many heartiest congratulations for this milestone :)
    I am going to bookmark this page, lots of stuff.

  33. Congrats on the milestone, Keith … This is gonna take a while to read but hell its worth it. Perfect Setting for a lazy sunday ending with a race …

    I discovered F1 Fanatic by chance wayy back in 2007 and have been a hardcore follower since 2008 and love every bit of it … ther’s not a single day i dont visit it and i wish you all the best for many such milestones to come. Will be happy to support in any way that i can …

    Love F1 and F1 Fanatic …
    Pc

  34. Thanks everyone for all of your very kind comments. It gives me great satisfaction to see the site being enjoyed by so many people.

  35. Read the article above saying that F1 is not just a sport, and this website just epitomises that… I was on twitter last year and an F1 fan I met there described himself as an F1 Fanatic. For whatever reason I decided to google that term and I came across this wonderful site…..haven’t looke back and I am now on this site at least twice a day. Some of the most passionate fans are on here and there is a great sense of community. That’s down to this site and you don’t get that sense of real community with any other sports; like soccer where everyone is divided.
    Keith on behalf of everyone on this site thanks a million. We owe you one…..or 10,000

  36. I couldn’t believe you encompassed this much and this varied, top-notch content into this site, if I wouldn’t see it with my own eyes. This became the pinnacle of F1 sites.

    I could only say a huge ‘Thank you!’ and encourage you to carry it on, because with it, you fueled my F1 fanatism significantly over the years.

    Thanks again! :)

  37. Congratulations, Keith! You host the best F1 site on the web.

  38. Mark (@marlarkey)
    9th June 2012, 12:13

    +1… well done… keep it up :)

  39. Well done on a quality website

  40. Congratulations, Keith! Ten thousand posts is a mind-boggling achievement. But, of course, your site is a lot more than an aggregation of posts; it really is a community, as well.

    When I first really got into F1, only a few years ago, I spent a lot of time looking around and trying out various forums, but most ended up turning me off for one reason or another. Reading this post made me think back and try to recall what first turned me into a regular visitor to your site, and I think it was your editorial, “The problems with a two-tier championship.” For me, as a fairly new fan, what happened at Hockenheim in 2010 was both puzzling and infuriating. What made it worse was the attitude of a lot of journalists/pundits — for example, Nigel Roebuck , who dismissed fan concerns and sneered about F1 being “for grown-ups.” Part of me at that point just wanted to just stop giving a **** about F1 at all — but I realized that wasn’t exactly possible, and your editorial was one of the things that made me think, “Okay, at least there are some knowledgeable people out there not trivializing this!”

    Although my views on team orders have changed a bit from the hard line I took back then, I still know that when something controversial happens in F1, your site will be a good place to come and “talk” about it, as you put things in frank perspective and then let everyone (politely) duke it out. So thank you for all your hard work over the past ten thousand posts, and here’s to many tens of thousands more!

  41. I smiled a bit when I saw my guest article mentioned in this article! It was an honor to contribute to this delightful website! :)
    Congrats on the milestone Keith! And here’s hoping for 10,000 more!

  42. what a good specimen of the site. the race that stands out for me is Brazil 2006 – one of the greatest drives i have seen ever.

  43. Here are some of my magic moments on F1 Fanatic:

    1) I often love to read opinions that are different to mine as it’s not always about WHAT you say. HOW you say it is very important, too. The opinion article on the Bahrain Grand Prix was a perfect example of that. Moreover, I was able to express my own opinion (COTD!) on politics and thus proved myself that it’s possible to have a high quality discussion even about very sensitive topics.
    2) I normally don’t participate in F1F Live blogs because I like to remain focused on the TV screen during F1 action. However, I really enjoyed taking part in the live blogs during the 2012 winter tests, it was great fun.
    3) I’ve always been happy to contribute to F1F content. My own article about my personal experience at the 2011 Belgian GP was the absolute highlight but the research on F1 drivers’ Facebook accounts, my COTDs and some of the forum topics that I have started (particularly the 2011/12 off-season review and the list of WTCC twitter accounts) have made me feel proud as well.
    4) The opinion article on Hamilton’s ‘relationship’ with stewards is clearly one of the best examples of F1 analysis that I have ever read and, as far as I know, no other F1 website has ever come close to taking such a deep look at this particular issue.

    I discovered the site in 2009 and joined it as a commenter in 2010. Since then I have posted several hundred comments here. I love to talk to other fanatics about the sport that I am so passionate about. Sometimes I just feel that I have something to say and wish that someone else would hear it. I’ve often been disappointed by my past experience on the web but F1 Fanatic is the perfect environment to be!

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