35 replies to this topic

[alg7_munif]

What do you think of the 2012 WDC title fight throughout the season?

For me eventhough the fight was quite close, I don't rate so high because there was almost no direct fight for position on the track between the two title contenders Alonso & Vettel. It is more towards which team can minimize their DNF throughout the season and salvage as many points possible when they are not competitive. I missed the days when the two leading drivers were fighting each other on track, race after race, not only for the position but also for their title chances.

The new point scoring system was supposed to be encouraging the drivers to push for positions and reward them with more points for the higher position they achieved. However I think that the maximum amount of points given out in each race is too much and this contradicts the original intent to encourage drivers to fight for positions. Drivers would find that settling for 18 points is far more rewarding than fighting for the race win and risk losing the points altogether. Going out of the race would mean that the other title contender will build a huge 25 points gap in that race alone.

[TurboF1]

What do you think of the 2012 WDC title fight throughout the season?

For me eventhough the fight was quite close, I don't rate so high because there was almost no direct fight for position on the track between the two title contenders Alonso & Vettel. It is more towards which team can minimize their DNF throughout the season and salvage as many points possible when they are not competitive. I missed the days when the two leading drivers were fighting each other on track, race after race, not only for the position but also for their title chances.

The new point scoring system was supposed to be encouraging the drivers to push for positions and reward them with more points for the higher position they achieved. However I think that the maximum amount of points given out in each race is too much and this contradicts the original intent to encourage drivers to fight for positions. Drivers would find that settling for 18 points is far more rewarding than fighting for the race win and risk losing the points altogether. Going out of the race would mean that the other title contender will build a huge 25 points gap in that race alone.

That plus the provolone pirellis during the first 2/3rds of the season didnt encourage people to push to the maximum. Its a bit of a shame that the F2012 wasnt ever really an out and out race winning car in its own right, as it deprived us all of a grittier, head to head fight.

Edited by TurboF1, 27 November 2012 - 02:02.

[Kingshark]

It was good. Not great, but good overall.

[Jimisgod]

I am amazed Alonso was able to bring the gap down to just 3 points. He honestly did all he could with that car. He made a title fight where there wouldn't have been with any other driver currently in F1 I can think of.

[George Costanza]

It was very good.

I am not sure what would be the best title fight in the past 15 years though.

I can name 4 or 5: 2000, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2010?

Probably the most pressurized fight would be 2000.

[bimmeric]

A 6 for me. For me it broke down like this, McLaren started with the best car but a bunch of drivers won while everyone was clueless with the tires. Then after that McLaren and Red-Bull alternated being on top. This season was almost exactly like 2010, Alonso drove like a hero taking the 3rd best car to the podium over and over again, but Red Bull ultimately got their s*** together enough times to win, meanwhile McLaren had a very good car but seemed to waste every opportunity. I'd much rather a season long fight between drivers with cars of similar performance rather than just trading off dominant races, I'd rather Vettel and Alonso fight on track than Red Bull f****** up a few times to give the illusion of it being close. 2007, 2008 were much better seasons to me, sure there were tracks that the McLaren was better on or the Ferrari was better on, but the other car was never far behind and any of those two teams could win on any given race. Now we have races where McLaren or Red Bull lock out the front row and their opponents can't break out of q2, you strong a few of those weekends together and BAM it's a championship. McLaren and Ferrari need to step their game up as red bull is playing at a different level to them, and honestly it's kind of dull to watch at this point.

Edited by bimmeric, 27 November 2012 - 08:15.

[tifosiMac]

It was good. A 6 for me.

[Sakae]

Season was confusing due to lack of understanding how to manage tires, and later perhaps when there was one, challenge shifted how to fix the car so it can co-exist with the tire. This is not a situation I cherish as "good", and championship was affected greatly by this. (Mercedes should call it a disaster and a season to learn off, but forget ASAP).

Lack of track related testing impacted reliability at top teams like RB and McLaren, which is another sore point with me, and championship was affected greatly by this as well.

Character of modern F1 has become overly dependent on calls and control from pit wall - again, this is in minus column, and mistakes in pits and strategies adversely affected clarity where drivers stand in terms of their abilities to handle racing conditions for two hours every weekend mostly on their own. Vettel has shown some brilliance in that in the last race when conditions stuck up against him, but we do not see it often from anyone, exception could be made in Schumacher's case.

Conclusion: season was not to my liking, but my guy won. There was no title fight to speak off, just tribulation of ups and downs, as drivers were fighting more with their equipment and teams, than among themselves.

My rating: 7

[alg7_munif]

The season could be more interesting if the earlier tyre lottery would last the whole season with none of the team manage to get it right in every race.

[SpaMaster]

Sorry, it had four real title contenders. Raikkonen kept hanging in the championship in the second half even as his car performance was going worse and worse. Hamilton was looking like a serious threat with the kind of form McLaren was showing with 5-6 races left.

[rsaca]

I would have given it a 10 only if Ferrari and Alonso would have challenged for victory, instead of RBR and Vettel fighting mostly with the Mclarens for race wins after the second half of the season.

Nevertheless, I believe 2013 will be much more epic!!!!

[MrMontecarlo]

Not very good because of the massive car advantage for Vettel. The last race was very exciting but overall there have been better fights in other years.

[F1ultimate]

It got off to a weird start, got great in the middle but then died in Singapore thanks to Mclaren, because of that Vettel was very much destined to beat Alonso who was in a sub-par car. Although the climax was great, Vettel was always favorite to win it after Lewis DNF:ed in Singapore.

Rating: 6

[UPRC]

It started off really great, but once it became clear that the Red Bull was ultra dominant again, things started to get a little dull. It was pretty much Vettel's title to win from Spa or so on.

[matthewf1]

Vettel had a better car than Ferrari, but not McLaren. A quick look at what would have happened in 2012 without reliability issues or major strategical errors would give a season something like this:

McLaren - 10 wins (Aus, Spa, Can, Hun, Bel, Ita, Sin, Abu, US, Bra)
Red Bull - 7 wins (Bah, Eur, Mon, GB, Jap, Kor, Ind)
Ferrari - 2 wins (Mal, Ger)
Mercedes - 1 win (Chi)

So Vettel did not have the best car this year. It's not his fault that McLaren did not make the most of their car.

Edited by matthewf1, 27 November 2012 - 15:40.

[alg7_munif]

Vettel had a better car than Ferrari, but not McLaren. A quick look at what would have happened in 2012 without reliability issues or major strategical errors would give a season something like this:

McLaren - 10 wins (Aus, Spa, Can, Hun, Bel, Ita, Sin, Abu, US, Bra)
Red Bull - 7 wins (Bah, Eur, Mon, GB, Jap, Kor, Ind)
Ferrari - 2 wins (Mal, Ger)
Mercedes - 1 win (Chi)

So Vettel did not have the best car this year. It's not his fault that McLaren did not make the most of their car.

Red Bull did have the edge in term of qualifying but in the race, McLaren was able to match them in some races.

[superdelphinus]

It was alright but always had a bit of an air of inevitability about it as soon as the rb8 found its feet. The actual outcome was a little bit crap as well for the neutral (though the last race was great) - alonso was fantastic all season, whereas vettel wasn't really doing anything until the car was mega again bar the odd decent result. Certainly didn't go a whole way to dispelling the feeling that the car is the star in that team...

Sadly I think next season might be a bit more like 2011 than 2012, unless mclaren fix their problems

[superdelphinus]

Vettel had a better car than Ferrari, but not McLaren. A quick look at what would have happened in 2012 without reliability issues or major strategical errors would give a season something like this:

McLaren - 10 wins (Aus, Spa, Can, Hun, Bel, Ita, Sin, Abu, US, Bra)
Red Bull - 7 wins (Bah, Eur, Mon, GB, Jap, Kor, Ind)
Ferrari - 2 wins (Mal, Ger)
Mercedes - 1 win (Chi)

So Vettel did not have the best car this year. It's not his fault that McLaren did not make the most of their car.

I'd say he had the best car overall, all things considered, over the whole season. That's why he won it in the end. Mclaren were miles too peaky to mount a serious title challenge and I don't think they'll be able to fix that in the next few months

[Spillage]

2012 was the best season since 2008, imo. I generally find one-on-one title fights produce a kind of intensity that you don't really get if there are more than 2 drivers involved. That makes this season an 8/10 for me, as it lacked some the controversy of 2008, but did produce a cracking final trio of races where tension was high.

[SpaMaster]

It started off really great, but once it became clear that the Red Bull was ultra dominant again, things started to get a little dull. It was pretty much Vettel's title to win from Spa or so on.

There were just 3 points between no.1 and no. 2. Stop the whinging. It was absolutely not Vettel's title to win from Spa. McLaren looked so good at that time that even Button looked like coming back in to contention. On the contrary, it was Alonso who held a huge points lead for a long time and well late into the season. Even after Monza, Vettel retired and was a long way behind Alonso. Truth is if Red Bull hadn't gained some top pace for 3-4 races, Alonso would have won the championship in canter. It was that Red Bull/Vettel burst that made the championship close.

This was a close championship fight. In fact, Alonso was leading the championship at some points in the last race, and was looking better at various other points of the race. Just think of the moment when Vettel was lying dead last and Alonso was running fourth or fifth. So, Vettel was the one trailing and making a come back at some points in the last race. It was quite a close championship. Only Vettel cynics would paint a dominant picture.

[ClubmanGT]

This was a close championship fight. In fact, Alonso was leading the championship at some points in the last race, and was looking better at various other points of the race. Just think of the moment when Vettel was lying dead last and Alonso was running fourth or fifth. So, Vettel was the one trailing and making a come back at some points in the last race. It was quite a close championship. Only Vettel cynics would paint a dominant picture.

And only fan boys would give McLaren enough credit to be considered a threat. They couldn't even put wheels on correctly in the last race. It was close, but it was Vettel's to lose once we hit the five or six race stretch where the RBR has a distinct advantage. Once Red Bull got their heads around the blowing issue they were fine again.

[Longtimefan]

I can only assume the 10 (so far) people who voted it 10/10 the best, have only been watching F1 for 1-2 seasons.

imo several seasons in the mid 80's to early 90's were possibly the best ever.

[Baddoer]

McLaren had it in the bag but stupid mistakes and rubber wings made championship boring.

[wayned]

It started great and had the makings of a classic season then it went all to pot with finger boy / Red Bull, finding speed somewhere etc.

[Atreiu]

7.
It would have been a possible ten had Hamilton's car not let him down so often.

[choyothe]

I gave it a 9. Of course it should've been decided earlier but RB screwing up in AD and Vettel's bad luck in Brazil made it pretty great. I tend to look at title fight being more in the 2nd half of the season with a small group of contenders rather than the whole season.

I have to say the bitterness with some of these posts is hilarious, stating that the title fight was great until it was ruined with RB's resurgence, totally ignoring that the championship was completely open till the 3rd last lap of the season and was decided by 3 points (1 in 'old money'). And this all with the eventual champion having to come through from the back of the pack 4 times in the last 3 races.

Edited by choyothe, 28 November 2012 - 14:52.

[alg7_munif]

Wished that the title contenders were racing against each other on track for position instead of trying to minimize damage in bad weekends.

[George Costanza]

I can only assume the 10 (so far) people who voted it 10/10 the best, have only been watching F1 for 1-2 seasons.

imo several seasons in the mid 80's to early 90's were possibly the best ever.

1984, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990 were quite amazing also... Indeeed, sir.

[SpaMaster]

In the end, it became desperate and lame. Clarification from FIA? To have any doubts, you need proof that there was a yellow flag in the in-between marshall post. Without ever seeing a yellow flag, it is just wishful thinking. Can't believe they fell for it. Accepting defeat graciously was certainly not part of the 2012 WDC fight.

[Skinnyguy]

I gave it a 7. I missed McLaren up there.

[tifosi]

I gave it a 7 because while it was exciting on paper, 4 or 5 races from the end I pretty much realized the only hope for Alonso was for Vettel to suffer from breakdowns or wrecks. At that point it was quite obviosu to anyon ethat tthere simply was no way the Ferrari was going to beat the RB on the track.

I'd rate it just below 2011.

[ayali]

9/10 a very entertaining season
We saw a few awesome drives, title only decided at the last race, surprise winners

I liked it very very much, more of that next year please!!

[Jackmancer]

If the outcome was different it would have been such a different context. Had Alonso won it, it would have been heroic and sensational. Now, it's meh. 6,5. Agree on opening post.

[V8 Fireworks]

It was very good.

I am not sure what would be the best title fight in the past 15 years though.

I can name 4 or 5: 2000, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2010?

Probably the most pressurized fight would be 2000.

You don't rate 2008 - decided on last lap?

Such a shame for Felipe to not win the championship

[Goron3]

It was okay but they never competed against it each other on track, did they? It doesn't compare to 2000 imo where you had Michael and Mika fighting it out on track every race.

In a way it reminds me of the 1997 season, where Michael and Villeneuve never stood on the podium together.

[ayali]

If the outcome was different it would have been such a different context. Had Alonso won it, it would have been heroic and sensational. Now, it's meh. 6,5. Agree on opening post.

To be fair a vast majority gave it an 8 or higher.
Many can see passed their driver or team, so it seems