Hacker: The Best F1 Season Yet?

The 2010 Formula One championships was a classic: an amazing, vintage season which, even though a Briton didn’t win this time, certainly beat 2008. I found myself somewhat neutral, as I'm a Lewis Hamilton fan and he didn't really have a chance: we've never had that level of depth in quality, though the three new teams (Lotus, Virgin and HRT) have always been at the bottom end without threatening the midfield. Formula One is more intricate than most popular motorsports, and arguably more glamorous, more sophisticated and more European. It's a pure sport; the best drivers in the world in the best cars fighting it out, the fittest guys on the planet in the most sophisticated machines. This year, most of the drivers did make mistakes by pushing themselves too hard, proving that these days it's all about sheer athleticism. Drivers now have to be like horse jockeys; nimble as well as strong. On top of this, you have to be able to think - but with the G-force, you're tired just listening to it.

The biggest controversy has been team orders, when Ferrari allowed Fernando Alonso through in Germany; though they were fined, the race result stood. The regulations say you’re not allowed orders which directly alter the race outcome to bring the sport into disrepute. It’s a team sport after all. Red Bull chose not to back their best driver, as Mark Webber would have been one point behind Alonso going into the last race; had they done this, of course, Alonso would have been the champion. The FIA changed the points system this year, but it didn’t really change much. Sebastian Vettel led about twice as many laps as anyone else, and he was clearly the best driver in the best team. Webber won in Silverstone and said so all the world could hear: “Not bad for a number two driver.” Overall, the intra-team rivalry was as political as it gets.

Vettel has already been repeatedly compared to Michael Schumacher, as he’s followed a similar career path. His first victory a few years ago on a very wet day in the 2008 Italian Grand Prix was in a slower car, when he totally outdrove the machine’s capability. On paper Vettel had ten pole positions so should have won the championship a long time ago. Hamilton got rid of his dad as his manager, and there was talk about whether that changed his attitude but that hasn’t really affected him. He’s in a good place with the team, he and Button seem to be alright – they finished the season well so you’d like to think they’d build on it next year. Ferrari will be furious, leading until the final race where everyone was looking at Alonso-Webber.

The low point was the first race in Bahrain, kicking off the most hyped championship ever with Schumacher coming back, but he had a terrible mid-season, starting off poorly and only getting worse. He used to be in a team which revolved around him, and he’ll be desperate to come back in 2011 - so long as Mercedes give him a good car, we’ll soon see whether he’s past his best. Mercedes are further ahead in developing their new machine whereas Renault, who make Red Bull’s engine, are behind. The human side is always the story, but engineer Adrian Newey more or less won the championship for Red Bull. The car was out of the box and it was never not the quickest car. What set it apart was the blown diffuser, whereby the exhaust gases were directed to help improve the efficiency of the rear wing to give it more downward force. The people who make the rules aren’t as clever as the guys who design the cars, who find ways around it with ingenious solutions: punching air through the diffuser ruins the aerodynamics of the cars behind makes overtaking hard, so it’s beneficial for their own machines.

Globalisation for F1 is good and bad: a case in point being Korea, where it was very wet and the Grand Prix was only announced as going ahead about ten days before it happened. Next year we’ve got India, and Austin, Texas in 2012. Yes, they already have NASCAR, but they say F1 needs America more than America needs F1. If the Texan grand prix goes ahead, and if they're serious about it, then it may finally start to catch on.