Patronise F1

Brawn GP

- Jenson Button

Surely the whole universe has got a little bit too harsh when a guy wins the championship for a team that didn't even exist at the start of the calendar year and he still gets criticised for not being good enough? It is true that Button's first, and who knows, possibly last, F1 title will always be tinged with the salty badness of a thousand dismissive comments that "He only won cos of what the car was and that". Which may, to an extent, be true, but is also entirely missing the point. Nobody in their right mind could suggest that Button has been transformed from a rancid waste of time to the reincarnation of Jimmy Clark overnight, but when given a decent car to drive, Button drove it impeccably. His tail-off in form in the second half of the season was down to a sticky combination of the car development going awry, a man who had never led the championship before suddenly getting nervy and the re-emergence of the big guns at the head of the order as much as it was Button simply running out of talent, but over the course of the year, it would be hard to argue that anyone did a better overall job that the Brit.
His Epic Win - That first, decisive stint in Brazil. True, overtaking the combined talents of Romain Grosjean, Kazuki Nakajima and Kamui Kobayashi doesn't sound all that impressive, but with the chips well and truly down after a woeful qualifying performance, Button reasserted himself on the title fight. That Boobens eventually contrived to throw away his chances independently of Button's antics shouldn't detract from that first, edge-of-the-seat stint.
His Epic Fail – The smallest of mid-season wobbles. Claimed he was ready to go super-aggressive ahead of the Belgian GP, ended up in the barriers halfway round lap 1.
Patty Rating - 8/10

- Rubens Barrichello

After seeing his F1 career come so very close to ending over the winter, it is tempting to look on 2009 as being something of a revelatory year for Boobens. After all, from looking all washed up, he’s suddenly a grand prix winner again, he came within a couple of races of his first championship and he’s suddenly a man in demand, with Williams eagerly signing him up for 2010 for what will be an improbable 17th year in the sport. But without meaning to be too harsh, it was also a bit of a disappointing year for the Brazilian. Having largely kept Button at arms length throughout 2007 and 2008, albeit in dreadful Hondas, Barrichello was a well-beaten number two throughout the first half of the year, and although he came back strongly when the car began to leave Button’s comfort zone, he never really looked like properly challenging for the title. The fact that he lost out to Sebastian Vettel in the drivers standings as well as Button shows that in the end, this season, a season where he came as close as he’s ever likely to get to winning a world championship, was a bit of a disappointment.
His Epic Win – Either of his wins. He drove beautifully at Valencia and kept Button at arms length at Monza.
His Epic Fail – His Turkish grand prix. An awful start, a number of collisions as he tried to recover, and eventual retirement.
Patty Rating – 6/10

Red Bull Racing

- Sebastian Vettel

It’s hard to tell whether or not this was the season that SebVet came of age. On the one hand, he finished second in the championship, won four races and looked to be one of the quickest men out there throughout the season. On the other hand, he managed to crash out of a number of events, from his silly collision with Robert Kubica in Australia to his useless performance in Monaco. Regardless of the odd mistake though (after all, we seem to live in an age where it is more than possible to secure a championship despite any number of gaffes), it was an encouraging season. Not yet a breakthrough performance, but a sign that he looks like being far from overawed by the prospect of running at the front of the grid.
His Epic Win – Of his four victories, he’ll have enjoyed "doing a Button" at Button’s home event at Silverstone, while his performance at Suzuka was nothing short of sublime.
His Epic Fail – Aside from the previously discussed mistakes, back-to-back mechanical failures in Hungary and Valencia effectively crippled his title hopes.
Patty Verdict – 7/10

- Mark Webber

On the face of it, Webber was fairly soundly beaten by Vettel this season, finishing some 14.5 points behind and being outqualified at 15 of the 17 events. But to reach that conclusion based on a few statistics would be farcical, because, as expected, the Red Bull intra-team battle this season has been as absorbing as it has been hard to call. The Aussie started off relatively poorly but improved to enjoy two purple patches in the middle and again at the very end of the season, culminating in his first two GP victories, both as solid as Button or Vettel managed this year. But in between that, his old mix of bad luck and circumstances intervened, and five consecutive non-points scoring results from Valencia to Japan resulted in Vettel extending his eventual comfortable points advantage. The other issue to consider is, of course, Webber’s pre-season crash. We’ll never know quite how much that affected him, largely due to his annoyingly mature ability not to moan about it all the time.
His Epic Win – Specifically, he had two epic wins this season. His recovery from a slightly harsh drive-through penalty in Germany probably trumps his Brazilian cruise to victory, though.
His Epic Fail – Being prodded into the gravel at Monza on lap one was the end of his title challenge.
Patty Verdict – 7/10

McLaren Mercedes

- Lewis Hamilton

The reigning champion put in a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde performance in 2009, starting the year with the ignominy of Liegate in Melbourne. After that, with his confidence in the team and his fans confidence in him shattered, he reacted poorly, sulking about the place like a spoiled teenager. But after a while, he started to enjoy himself again, performing some out-of-character donuts after the chequered flag for his home fans at Silverstone, picking up a couple of wins and driving for every single point he could manage, to the extent that he found the barriers on the final lap at Monza in a fruitless attempt to catch and pass Button’s second placed Brawn. This season was his "difficult third album" for the former F1 golden boy. This was his Be Here Now. But unlike that album, Hamilton managed to tread a path through the mire of self-indulgence and is probably going to be all the stronger for it next season. Probably.
His Epic Win – His two victories were almost entirely stress-free, so his recovery drives in Brazil and Australia (up to that final, fateful safety car) were arguably his best performances.
His Epic Fail – Aside from the hilarious gaffe of Liegate, his qualifying crash at Monaco was a silly rookie error. His German GP, where he picked up a puncture at turn one and finished in last place, a lap down, summed up the first half of his season.
Patty Rating - 6/10

- Heikki Kovalainen

Whether or not you think that this was the season Heikki was "found out" depends very much on your reading of the intra-team politics at McLaren. That he has struggled to match Hamilton this season isn't much of a surprise given that a) Hamilton is palpably a better driver and b) the relentless development from McLaren’s designers to try and make the MP4-24 competitive always saw new parts default to the #1 McLaren before making their way to him when a spare was available. But still, it was a season without a podium, and without much hope for the future. Whether or not he gets a reasonable drive for next year depends on how much of his lamentable performances other team bosses ascribe to McLaren favouritism.
His Epic Win – Very little. Put together his best two results of the season in the Hungarian and Valencia races, but both of those saw his team mate scrapping for the win further up the road.
His Epic Fail – After Hamilton so completely knackered his Monaco weekend in qualifying, Heikki had a great chance to cement some confidence in the team, but crashed out while running in the points. "I lost the car and hit the barriers," he explained afterwards. Well, quite.
Patty Rating - 3/10

Ferrari

- Kimi Raikkonen

When your own team is playing you $17 million to sod off and not drive for them anymore, you know you’re doing something wrong. But Raikkonen hasn't necessarily had as depressingly poor a season as his circumstances may make out. True, there have been more than a few signs of 2008-spec disinterested Kimi around, not least in Malaysia, when the Finn was kicking back in the pits with a popular fizzy drink and a luxury ice cream while the rest of the drivers got soaked on the grid waiting for the restart that never came, and he found himself largely outperformed by Felipe Massa before the Brazilian was taken out of the picture, but the 2007 champ still secured four podiums in a row after Massa's accident, including a hard-fought win at Spa, despite driving for a team that had effectively given up on the season by then, and was employing some hopeless losers in the second car alongside him. He is still some way from rediscovering the sort of performances that made him such a potent force in the middle part of the decade, but there is enough evidence to suggest that, if he can be at all bothered, there should still be a place in F1 for him.
His Epic Win - His Spa victory was entirely thanks to leaning on the KERS switch, so his 2nd place finish in Hungary, from 7th on the grid, giving the team a much-needed morale boost as Massa remained in hospital, was probably his performance of the season.
His Epic Fail - His odd belief that his first flying run in the Spanish GP qualifying session had been enough to progress to Q2. "It was my mistake. I didn't do a very good first run...I wasn't really keen to go again, I thought we had done enough." he mumbled afterwards. Now there's a man brimming with motivation.
Patty Rating - 5/10

- Felipe Massa

Without meaning to descend too far down the road of screeching hyperbole, Massa will probably look back at 2009 as a season where he was lucky to reach the end of it alive. His disappointing '09 campaign was brought to a shuddering conclusion midway through the Hungarian GP qualifying session when he was hit by debris from Barrichello's Brawn. After that, he spent the rest of the year rehabilitating himself, in the literal, rather than the euphemistic sense, and will be thankfully back in 2010. Prior to that, he had started 2009 pretty much where he left off from in 2008, beating Kimi and assuming an unlikely role as Ferrari team leader, albeit miles off the ultimate pace thanks to the hapless F60 he was given to work with. So long as he returns not too worse for wear for his meeting with Rubens's suspension, he may well look back on this whole fiasco as a rich, character-building experience.
His Epic Win - Climbing back into the cockpit of an F1 car for a private Ferrari test in October. True, it was hardly a recovery up there with Niki Lauda's 1976 turnaround, but it was good to see nonetheless.
His Epic Fail - Either dropping out of Q1 in Malaysia in similar circumstances to Kimi in Spain, or the end of his race at Barcelona, having to slow down to conserve fuel and dropping behind Vettel and Alonso. That, and his head-knack, of course.
Patty Rating - 6/10

- Luca Badoer

Oh dear. Where do you begin? It's safe to say that nobody was expecting miracles from Badoer when he replaced Massa at Valencia and Spa. After all, he had received a late call-up after Schumacher withdrew from proceedings with neck-knack, he hadn't done a lap in the F60 when he rolled up in Valencia, and he was seen as being quite slow from his past 'career' chasing around in Minardis. But qualifying nearly two seconds slower than rookie driver Jamie Alguersuari in Valencia, then proceeding to toil about miserably off the pace in the race, before repeating the whole trick again in Belgium was a truly (and hilariously) awful performance.
His Epic Win - Finishing 18th in FP2 in Valencia, seven hundredths of a second faster than Algie, and ahead of Hamilton, who completed a single timed lap after car problems.
His Epic Fail - Literally everything else.
Patty Rating - 0/10 (10/10 for comedy value)

- Giancarlo Fisichella

It's hard to tell where to put Fisi in this article. He raced for both Force India and Ferrari, and had hugely contrasting fortunes with both. So we've decided to rank him twice, once for Ferrari and once for Findia. His Ferrari days were, by and large, a nonsense. That the Italian took the offer to replace the replacement of the replacement from Monza onwards in the Italian team was unsurprising, that he was quite as pathetic as he turned out to be was slightly more so. He never looked like getting anywhere near Kimi's pace, and was quick to blame the KERS button or some other detail in the handling of the Ferrari for his woes. Bearing in mind the team had abandoned development when he arrived, and were very much just standing around in the pit lane idly playing with themselves over thoughts of Alonso driving for them in 2010 for much of his time there, we probably shouldn't be too critical. But the simple issue was that this was a car that should have been scoring points, and in Fisi's hands that simply never looked like happening.
His Epic Win - Presumably he got paid quite a bit.
His Epic Fail - Being overtaken by Buemi's Toro Rosso at Monza was a humbling moment indeed.
Patty Rating - 0/10 (again, 10/10 for comedy value)

Toyota Racing

- Jarno Trulli

Having secured two podiums in the opening four races, things were looking promising for Trulli and Toyota this year. Thankfully for the very fabric of the universe, the pair of them rediscovered their usual underwhelming standards by mid-season, improving right at the end with a couple of front row grid starts and another podium in Japan. But overall, there was precious little to write home about, and his Brazilian meltdown over his collision with Adrian Sutil displayed the stress he was under in trying to stay on the grid in 2010.
His Epic Win - Either his pole in Bahrain, beating his lighter team mate to top spot, or beating Hamilton in a straight fight for second place in Japan.
His Epic Fail - Seriously, bringing photos of a crash to a press conference?
Patty Rating - 3/10

- Timo Glock

Glock is a difficult driver to really call. In many ways, he is similar to Trulli, in that he seems to fluctuate from one extreme to the other, but with his overall season always equalling out to be average. This year, he was comprehensively outperformed by Trulli in qualifying, but beat him more often than not in the race. He secured two podiums, including one in his final race of the year in Singapore, but whether or not he has really done anything to justify his potential Renault drive for next season ahead of, say, Sutil or Kovalainen, is debatable. For example, the Toyota was usually a dependable enough car, but he only made the top ten in qualifying on six occasions in 15 races.
His Epic Win - That second place in Singapore.
His Epic Fail - His qualifying crash in Japan, making him the second driver to be forced to sit out a period of the season through injury.
Patty Rating - 5/10

- Kamui Kobayashi

He may have only graced the grid with his presence for two races, but Kobayashi secured top marks for entertainment value in Brazil and Abu Dhabi. In general, he was everything a Japanese racer shouldn't be. Consistant, somewhat reilable and rather fast, nothing of which had seemed possible from his dour GP2 performances this year. He had already acquitted himself well on a largely wet Friday practice run in Japan, while Glock sat out the sessions with a sniffle, and when given the chance in a race, the Sushimaster shone, scoring points in only his second race. True, his driving morals were your standard (i.e. crap) GP2 fare, but then some of the best drivers of the last few years have been known to defend with a swipe or two when the need arose. Mentioning no names...
His Epic Win - His gloriously cheeky pass on Jenson Button in Abu Dhabi.
His Epic Fail - Forcing Nakajima off the track and into a spectacular crash was a moronic piece of driving.
Patty Rating - 5/10 (10/10 for entertainment)

BMW Sauber

- Robert Kubica

Touted by many as a title contender for 2009 after his surprisingly impressive 2008 season, this last year can be seen as little more than an abject failure for Kubica, whose star in the paddock seems to have waned almost as quickly as it brightened 12 months ago. Relatively speaking, though, the season wasn't a complete disaster. He comfortably saw off Heidfeld's challenge, delivered the only real performance of note in a BMW all season with his 2nd place in Brazil, and shored up a Renault deal for next season. Though how happy he's feeling about that now the French team are getting itchy feet is debatable.
His Epic Win - That second place. The culmination of BMW's "Sod it, we don't need any 2010 development anymore, let's just throw everything we've got at the F1.09" policy.
His Epic Fail - Getting taken out by Vettel in the closing stages of the Australian GP ruined a probable opening race podium. Not that it would have mattered all that much in the long run.
Patty Rating - 4/10

- Nick Heidfeld

Another season of complete anonymity for Ickle in 2009, who now stands in a class of one in the "Most GP appearances without a win" award for the current grid, after Webber broke his duck in Germany. As is Ickle's purpose in life, he did very little particularly wrong in 2009, but didn't do an awful lot particularly brilliantly either. His sole podium, in the rain-affected Malaysian event, was entirely down to a tactic of staying out on track while everyone else dived in to change tyres every two laps, while one of the most staggering stats of the years is that Heidfeld ended up with more championship points than Kubica. Still, deserves to find an anonymous drive for 2010 somewhere, probably staying right where he is while Qadbak repaint the car around him.
His Epic Win - Using his speech impediment to sneak a reference to his onanistic abilities during Martin Brundle's Japanese GP gridwalk.
His Epic Fail - Ending his impressive run of 41 consecutive GP finishes in a row after being kiboshed by Adrian Sutil in Singapore.
Patty Rating - 4/10

Williams

- Nico Rosberg

A promising, but ultimately frustrating season for Nico, a bit like opening a packet of crisps with one hand only to find that they're prawn cocktail flavour. He enjoyed near-total dominance over his team mate and secured his biggest haul of points since he entered the sport as a crash-prone youngster back in 2006. But, success, like in-breeding, is all relative, and he completed the season without securing a single podium finish, despite the opportunity palpably being there on more than one occasion, down to the odd driver error, or more usually a bafflingly nonsensical Williams pit stop strategy. He also revealed a couple of chinks in his armour, notably his ability to go a bit Trulli and doze off for a period following safety cars or pit stops and allow himself to be passed, as well as a disgruntling ability to chew up tyres, which cost him a shot at the podium in the opening round in Australian. Having successfully completed the first stage of his F1 career at Williams, he will be hoping to move to bigger and better things in 2010, because there's only so many 5th places one man can take.
His Epic Win - Aside from dominating practice sessions left, right and centre, his unbroken run of points finishes from Spain to Belgium was the tasty meat in the rather flaky start-and-end-of-season bread that was Nico's 2009 sandwich. His utterly stonking Q2 lap at Singapore was also a personal favourite.
His Epic Fail - Throwing away a certain podium, and maybe even a maiden win, by running over the pit lane white line in Singapore and earning a drive-through penalty.
Patty Rating - 7/10

- Kazuki Nakajima

Nakas had showed enough moments of promise in 2008 to merit his 2009 contract with Williams for more than just engine supply reasons, but in 2009 the Japanese man floundered. The only driver to compete in every race this year and fail to register a point, Nakajima could not unfairly be blamed for the Williams team's relatively poor 7th place finish in the constructors standings. With Toyota having gone the way of the Wispa Mint, it looks like Nakas is finally Nakad.
His Epic Win - Erm....5th place on the British GP grid, one of only three occasions where he outqualified Rosberg, was something, I guess.
His Epic Fail - Everything else.
Patty Rating - 2/10

Renault

- Fernando Alonso

Trying to judge Alonso's performances in a 2009 Renault is a little like trying to judge the attractiveness of Kelly Brook trapped in a sack. There is no doubt that Alonso's form has been erratic this season, but the majority of that is likely to be down to the stupendously crap R29 as much as it was his own abilities, though his late-season exploits could probably be at least partly explained by the shiny new Ferrari contract that he signed before the end of the season, finally bringing his Renault hell to an end. Ninth place in the championship was a shoddy state of affairs, and a single podium finish to his name hardly invigorated his CV all that much. Despite all that, he somehow managed to make Q3 on all-but four occasions, compared to a combined total of one Q3 appearance for his team mates throughout the year, showing that when the fuel loads were even, he was still able to shine.
His Epic Win - Finally signing that Ferrari contract.
His Epic Fail - Allowing himself to be outqualified for the first (and indeed last) time by Nelson Piquet Jr in Germany was a slightly silly issue.
Patty Rating - 5/10

- Nelson Piquet Jr

Urgh. What to say about this nobbly old mess of a season. Or indeed, half-season. Piquet was given the benefit of the doubt after his woeful 2008 campaign and expected to perform somewhere near half-alright this year. He continued to be laughably bad, and though when questioned about it, Nelson usually had a list of excuses the length of the gap between himself and Alonso, only the most blind of Piquet fans could have been surprised when he was replaced. What followed, of course, is an entirely different story.
His Epic Win - Gaining some revenge on his former employers by turning snitch and crippling the Renault F1 organisation.
His Epic Fail - Anything that actually happened on track.
Patty Rating - 1/10 (10/10 for entertainment value post-sacking)

- Romain Grosjean

Piquet's much-vaunted replacement, who came into F1 having abandoned a GP2 title shot, surprised quite a few casual observers by managing to be even more useless than Piquet Jr had been. But while Piquet complained about unfair testing conditions for his own failings, Grosjean came into F1, like all the mid-season replacements did his season, with no real testing completed to back him up. As it is, how much of his inept failings were down to his own driving limitations, and how much was down to his complete lack of a chance to gain some experience of the car before taking on a double world champion at his own game may never be known, as Fat John is unlikely to be around next year. One rather telling factor in deciding which factor had the most influence on his performances is the fact that throughout his seven-race tenure in the seat, his results didn't really improve at all. Though two early retirements, in Belgium and Singapore, can't have helped.
His Epic Win - His stunning win at Monaco. Ok, technically that was when he was still in GP2, but you try and pick a highlight from his F1 races.
His Epic Fail - He came into the Abu Dhabi weekend with as much experience of the place as any other driver. He qualified 19th.
Patty Rating - 1/10

Force India

- Giancarlo Fisichella

The old saying goes that you are only as good as your last result. And if Fisi's Force India career is judged by that same merit, the the man is a genius. Alas, it's not quite that simple, and so we have to take into account his eleven races of toil prior to his glorious weekend in Belgium. Overall though, Fisi at least kept his nose ahead in the fight with his team mate, with Sutil proving an equal to him in qualifying, but Fisichella almost always coming out on top in the races. And then there was Belgium, of course.
His Epic Win - 15th place in Bahrain. Actually, maybe that pole position and second place in Spa was a bit better. Only a bit, mind.
His Epic Fail - Choosing the glamour of racing naffly for Ferrari ahead of racing well for Findia.
Patty Rating - 6/10

- Adrian Sutil

An odd season for Sutil. On the one hand, his stock seems to have risen throughout the year, having picked up his first points, his first front row start and his first fastest lap in Italy, and he ended 2009 being linked with a potential move to Renault, but on the other hand, he was largely beaten by Fisichella during the first part of the season, and once again found himself mired in any number of crashes and incidents. But despite the "too many incidents" line often being used as a rod to beat him with, it was hard to find too many that he was clearly responsible for. He lost second place in Germany when he collided with Raikkonen in a racing incident, was collected by a Rosberg-tapped Trulli on the opening lap in Spain, and was also largely blameless for the Brazilian collision with Trulli, despite the Italian's comedic views otherwise. In conclusion, the jury is still out on the man they (sometimes) call Dynamite, but he deserves at least another year to prove which side of the good/bad divide he belongs on.
His Epic Win - The Italian GP weekend. Carried on where Fisi left off in Belgium with 2nd on the grid, 4th in the race and a fastest lap to boot.
His Epic Fail - His one really shoddy piece of driving was in Singapore, where he spun trying to pass Alguersuari, then belligerently powerslid his way into Nick Heidfeld when recovering. Abysmal driving.
Patty Rating - 5/10

- Vitantonio Liuzzi

Came in, did averagely. That pretty much sums up Chunky Liuzzi's five-race cameo for Force India at the end of the year. Had a shot at points on debut in Italy, but then, Sutil nearly stuck the car on pole that weekend, so it was a very competitive package. Other than that, did little to register on anyone's consciousness.
His Epic Win - Making Q3 in his first race in a 2009-spec car was impressive. And though he ended up 5 places behind his team mate, it is worth reminding ourselves of Badoer's first run in a 2009 machine.
His Epic Fail - Not really ever doing enough to justify keeping his seat for 2010, should a sponsor-heavy youngster catch the eye of Vijay Mallya over the winter.
Patty Rating - 3/10

Scuderia Toro Rosso

- Sebastien Bourdais

After a 2008 season spent largely failing, but showing the odd glimpse of his Champ Car-winning pace of old, Bourdais had high hopes coming into a season on slick tyres and with cars that seemed to offer a driving experience that he was much more used to from his time in America. But those hopes never really looked like translating on the track. Outqualified and outraced by his rookie team mate in the first race of the year, things rarely looked like getting better. He only made it out of Q1 twice in his nine races, and when he finally became the first driver in a year and a half to be replaced before the end of the season, the only real shock was that it had taken the team so long. Thankfully for his fans, he's now found a series more at his level, and is currently beating a bunch of youngsters and journeymen in Superleague Formula. Goal!
His Epic Win - His 8th place at Monaco was a decent-enough drive, and coming on a day when his team mate caused a massive accident by driving into Piquet Jr, it was a rare occasion of Bourdais winning the team's weekend bragging rights in 2009.
His Epic Fail - Under pressure in what became his final F1 race in Germany, Bourdais qualified last. By over a second.
Patty Rating - 2/10

- Sebastien Buemi

The funny-looking, funny-sounding rookie from Switzerland was predicted by at least one Patty writer pre-season as potentially being "the biggest F1 non-event since Nicolas Kiesa". But undeterred by this criticism, Buemi was 2009's revelation. The only entrant in the Rookie of the Year scrap for the first half of the year, Sebby Bwemmy nevertheless entertained, whether it was through amusing pit radio rants, quality driving or simply being great. He scored points in his first-ever race and went on to utterly destroy the reputation and the career of his experienced team mate to the point that Bourdais vanished by mid-season and Buemi nominally became team leader. He also found his way into the points in the final two races of the season, and you have to wonder what he might have achieved with the 2008 Toro Rosso car that Sebastian Vettel had at his disposal.
His Epic Win - Qualifying on the third row and finishing seventh in Brazil was probably his best drive of the year.
His Epic Fail - He went off in the gravel, he was so fast, three and a half tenths, noooooooo!
Patty Rating - 8/10

- Jamie Alguersuari

It's difficult to really know how to rank Algie. He didn't really do much in his half a season with the Toro Rosso team, and arguably his results were worse than Bourdais was managing. But then, he had never sat in an F1 car before he made his debut in Hungary. And he was trying to fit in half a season of F1 with a full campaign in the World Series by Renault. Even Grosjean gave up his GP2 career when he graduated up to F1. This was always supposed to be nothing more than an extended testing session for Algie, and given that context, it's difficult to mark him down for quietly racking up the miles. Assuming Toro Rosso don't get lumbered with someone Red Bull prefer for 2009, Algie can be judged on how he performs next season.
His Epic Win - Not much really, aside from actually getting the seat. Making it out of Q1 for each of the final three races was pretty impressive.
His Epic Fail - Crashing heavily in qualifying at Suzuka was a pretty big blot on his copybook.
Patty Verdict - 3/10