DISAPPOINTING DRIVER OF THE YEAR:
Winner: Felipe Massa (Ferrari): Blown away by Alonso for the second
season running, Massa can consider himself fortunate that he is being
allowed to see out his contract with Ferrari. Not that the Scuderia are
mincing their words. “We expect great things from him in 2012,” Ferrari
president Luca di Montezemolo said recently. “Then we’ll decide how to
proceed. Let’s say he’ll have to prove himself next season.”
2nd Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) – by his own admission his “most
difficult” season in F1. He said he felt as if he “fell off a steep cliff”
this year.
3rd Mark Webber (Red Bull) – a huge shame that he couldn’t put Vettel
under more pressure considering how close he went to winning the title in
2010.
Most disappointing driver of the year
TEAM OF THE YEAR
Winner: Red Bull: After the mistakes of 2010, when the car was less
reliable and team spirit was badly damaged by the Webber-Vettel rivalry,
this was a rock solid year from Red Bull. Virtually no reliability issues,
lightning quick pit-stops and few off-track dramas.
2nd Force India – deserve a mention for being ‘best of the rest’; a
solid season for the team and both their drivers.
3rd Virgin – no great shakes on the track but a favourite with many in
F1 off it.
DISAPPOINTING TEAM OF THE YEAR
Winner: Williams: All true F1 fans will be disappointed by the fall and
fall of Williams. 2011 was their annus horribilis, with chairman Adam Parr
offering to resign after the worst start in the team’s history. With a major
changing of the guard in the technical team and a new partnership with
former engine suppliers Renault, let’s hope for better things next year.
2nd Renault – not helped by Robert Kubica’s untimely, near fatal crash
in a rally in pre-season, Enstone did not punch its weight.
3rd HRT – still not bringing much to the party.
Most disappointing team of the year
MOST IMPROVED DRIVER:
Winner: Paul di Resta (Force India) – easy to forget that this was di
Resta’s rookie year; a safe pair of hands straight out of the traps.
2nd Michael Schumacher: Seems funny to say it of a 42 year-old,
seven-time world champion, but Michael Schumacher was probably the most
improved driver of 2011. His qualifying is still not at the level of team
mate Nico Rosberg but his race pace is good and he’s a handful out there.
3rd Adrian Sutil (Force India) – reacted well to di Resta’s arrival,
upping his consistency and all-round game in second half of year.
QUOTE OF THE YEAR:
Winner: “Maybe it’s because I’m black. That’s what Ali G says. I
don’t know.” A furious Lewis Hamilton makes an
ill-advised ‘joke’ about the FIA stewards in Monaco after being asked by the
BBC why he felt he kept receiving penalties.
2nd “Maintain the gap.” Mark Webber is instructed by his Red
Bull team not to attempt to overtake team mate Sebastian Vettel towards
the end of the British Grand Prix, leading to accusations of hypocrisy after
Red Bull said the previous summer that they did not manipulate races like
Ferrari.
3rd “The information I have is that the situation is settled in
Bahrain.” FIA president Jean Todt, speaking in June, defends
the ‘fact-finding’ mission carried out by vice-president Carlos Gracia as
the race is temporarily rescheduled for later in the year despite civil
unrest.
RACE OF THE YEAR:
Winner: Canadian Grand Prix: Not just the race of the year but a strong
contender for All-time Classic status. Lasting over four hours – the longest
race in history – due to torrential rain, Montreal 2011 was insane: red
flags, yellow flags, six safety cars and at the end of it all a British
winner, Jenson Button recovering from a collision with team mate Hamilton to
come through from 21st to 1st, overtaking Vettel on the final lap after the
German made a mistake under pressure (he is human after all). As Rio
Ferdinand remarked on Twiiter: “@JensonButton take a bow fella…”
2nd Monaco – another thriller, although not because of rain. Vettel
showed real fight here, managing almost 60 laps on one set of tyres to hold
off Alonso and Button before a late red flag caused the race to be
restarted, allowing everyone to change their rubber.
3rd China – this was the race that got 2011 going and proved the
regulations could be a success. Lewis Hamilton, driving a three-stop
strategy, timed it perfectly to pick Vettel off with four laps remaining.
FEUD OF THE YEAR
Winner: Hamilton v Massa: At times during 2011 their cars seemed almost
magnetically attracted to one another, colliding six times in all. But if
their on-track skirmishes were racing incidents, the off-track behaviour was
less excusable. Singapore was the low point; Massa clapping Hamilton on the
back in the interview pen and giving him a sarcastic thumbs up after the
Briton had clipped the back of him. They’re yet to put it behind them.
McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh has told them to grow up. “They’re
young drivers but they’re not that young,” he said. “They’re men.”
2nd Lotus v Lotus – millions spent in court led to a no-score draw so
they agreed an out-of-court settlement. Ridiculous.
3rd Bernie v Jean – F1’s chief executive took on the FIA
president over first engines and then Bahrain. Power games.
CONTROVERSY OF THE YEAR
Winner: Sky-BBC deal – furious fans bombarded message boards, set up
ePetitions and demanded answers after it was announced that the BBC would be
sharing the rights with Sky from next season, with Sky getting all the races
live and the BBC only half. Still simmering.
2nd Bahrain Grand Prix: Undoubtedly the biggest story of the year in
terms of the impact it had on F1’s image. The sport’s rulers dithered far
too long over whether or not to reschedule Bahrain, whose season-opening
race had been postponed following civil unrest resulting in over 30 deaths.
When they did make a decision they made the wrong one, trying to shoehorn
the race into a congested end-of-season fixture list when it was still far
too early to return. It looked worryingly as if commercial interests were
coming first. Not many from within the sport spoke up. Not many came out of
the episode very well.
3rd Hamilton visiting Christian Horner in Canada – the disgruntled
McLaren driver’s very public, very impromptu visit to the Red Bull motor
home set tongues wagging about a possible move to Milton Keynes at some
point in the future. Still on the cards.