Robert Kubica - Nothing against our championship winner, or our plucky second placed man, but as I've covered elsewhere, neither were consistently stellar this year. Alonso would be here, but for his mid-season lapse where for the briefest of moments, he looked like buckling under the pressure of Nelson Piquet Jr. Meanwhile, Kubica took the performance of Heidfeld in 2007 and ran with it. Solid and consistent throughout the year, his only non-points finishes were thanks to being taken out by Nakajima (Australia), getting screwed by the safety car (Singapore), and making a desperate tyre call (Brazil). Ok, yes, and his spin into retirement at Silverstone, but seriously, an entire season and one genuine mistake? That's a quality year in anyone's book. That he was pipped for third in the standings by Kimi at the last, and hence that he has no part in the end of year FIA Gala, is nothing short of criminal.
Team of the Year
McLaren - For finally deciding that "superteam" line ups never really work, and finally admitting that Ferrari were right back in the Schumacher days. After the disaster of 2007's implosion, brought on by the team splashing the cash on a double world champion and then expecting him to play second fiddle to their rookie wonderkid, and following the misery of the Raikkonen/Montoya years, this year they dropped their lofty aspirations and gave Hamilton a servant rather than an equal as he aimed to bring the team their first drivers championship for eight years. And what do you know? It worked! Fair enough, neglecting Heikki Kovalainen in car number two led to them ceding the constructors championship to Ferrari, but at the end of the day, nobody really cares about that one too much.
Performance of the Year
Timo Glock, Hungary - OK, be honest, raise your hand if you remember old Glocky finishing second at the Hungaroring. Unless you're one of the endangered species of Glock fans or Toyota fans, you're probably lying. There were plenty of options in this category. Just about anything Alonso did since Valencia, Hamilton at Silverstone, Massa's early season wins, Kubica at Montreal, but I've gone for Glock simply because it got so forgotten so quickly. Granted, if it hadn't have been for Hamilton's tyre issues and Massa's engine failure, he wouldn't have been on the podium, but this year has been nothing if not a series of luck-based incidents. Plus in a year of crazy podium finishers (Coulthard in Canada, Barrichello in Britain, Piquet in Germany), this one owed nothing to some flukey weather or safety car-based nonsense. He was solidly quick all weekend, qualified fifth, passed Kubica for fourth and then benefited from the errors ahead. So I, for one, say well done Timo.
Pass of the Year
Kazuki Nakajima on Rubens Barrichello, Lap 52, European GP - Despite the always close, sometimes four way championship fight, and despite the number of mental races, it has been a lean year for truly edge-of-seat overtaking moves (save the end of Spa and Interlagos, which were less brilliant passes, rather simple moves on compromised opponents). So in the absence of anything really memorable to talk about, I'll give the award to Nakas for providing a moment of interest in the almost never-ending drudgery of the Valencia GP.
Race of the Year
Singapore GP - Why did it take so long for F1 to organise a night race? Just about every aspect of the weekend was a joy to see. From the look of the cars racing under floodlights, to the challenging layout of the track itself, and of course the bonkers events of the race itself, it was all an awful lot of fun, which is what we're here for at the end of the day. Note to Bernie: This glowing endorsement of the night race format is not a sign that you should turn half the calendar into night events to satisfy TV broadcasters in Europe. In fact, the Singapore event worked largely because it was so unique.
Moment of the Year
Lap 14, Singapore GP - On lap 13 at the Marina Bay circuit, Felipe Massa led the race comfortably, with Hamilton struggling to hold off Kimi Raikkonen in second. It looked like Massa was about to take the lead of the championship heading into the final three races at tracks which Ferrari were expected to have an edge around. And then Nelson Piquet Jr crashed, cue a pit lane fiasco for Massa and the advantage moving back towards Hamilton, who ended up extending his lead to seven points with three events to go as he scraped a podium place behind surprise winner Alonso. It was the point of the season where Massa officially entered the position of "championship outsider", and despite the mess Hamilton made in Japan next time out, it was a position that Massa never really looked like emerging from.
Quote of the Year
“Not bad for a wanker, eh?” - Felipe Massa to a friend after setting a blistering pole lap for the season ending Brazilian GP. For two reasons, firstly, I love swear words, and secondly, because it was Massa reflecting on the crucifying he received from the Italian press after his retirement in Malaysia, leaving him pointless after two rounds, and with a nation calling for him to be sacked immediately. The amount of humble pie currently being consumed in Italy is expected to see Fray Bentos through the credit crunch.
Fail of the Year
The Stewards, Belgium - Hang on, calm down, I'm not about to go on some rabid-mouthed xenophobic rant about some anti-Hamilton conspiracy rooted deep within the powerbrokers of the sport. Simply to point out that the stewards missed an absolute trick and a half by opting for the "25 second penalty" punishment option as opposed to the "ten place grid penalty" option. That way we could have avoided the unfortunate media editorialising after the end result of one of the all-time great scraps for a Grand Prix win ended up being a bloke miles behind the action, and we could have had the sight of Hamilton fighting his way through the field at Monza. Actually, thanks to tyre-based mess-ups, we sort of got that anyway.
ITV Moment of the Year
Brazilian GP Build-up - It was a bit of pre-recorded weirdness that provoked some violently different reactions throughout the TV viewership. Some loved it, some cringed at it, and some couldn't bear to watch it out of sheer pain, but the "farewell F1" segment that ITV provided, namely a sequence of presenters, drivers and random mechanics singing along to a random emo-fluff ditty from My Chemical Romance, at the very least provided an abiding memory for the sport on the channel. Even if it played out like a repressed abuse memory. Notwithstanding whether a song containing such light-hearted segues as "A world that sends you reeling from decimated dreams/Your misery and hate will kill us all" is really an appropriate level of angst for a sports event switching broadcaster, the ditty at least provided a focal point for the conflicting emotions felt by a nation preparing for life without Ted Kravitz. And also a chance to see Mark Blundell wearing shades. And a baseball cap. Backwards. At bloody last.
ITV Conspiracy of the Year
Felipe Massa, Fuji - Obviously a hard-fought award, this one, with praise reserved for the "deliberate brake test" from Alonso in Bahrain and of course the fun of Belgium's conclusion. But the winner, for sheer ruddy-nosed desperation, goes to the theory mooted by James Allen as Massa overtook Mark Webber to grab a single point, after the Brit has so completely self-destructed earlier in the race. After the move, Allen became convinced that Massa should be penalised for running over the white line of the pit lane exit as he made the move, despite the staggering stupidity of claiming such a thing. Thankfully, Hamilton won, rather than lost, the title by a point, so we need never discuss this conspiracy ever again.
ITV Determination of the Year
Italian GP Build-up - The course of righteous indignation never does run smooth, as ITV found at Monza, when they arrived on a wave of anguish and persecution after Hamilton's demotion at Spa, determined to right the wrongs by stoking up the fires of mutiny in the pit lane. Unfortunately, there was one minor issue, in that all the drivers agreed that Hamilton should have been penalised. The indignation quickly turned to desperation, as the intrepid Kravitz interviewed driver after driver, searching in vain for one willing to stand up and decry the penalty. Failing to even win support from Honda's test driver Alex Wurz was the final nail in the campaign's coffin. A situation as sad as it was cringeworthy as it was hilarious.
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