Driver of the Year - Nico Rosberg
I’m a bit torn here about who to vote for as 2009 was very much of a season of two halves. If I was voting for the first half then I’d have to give it to Jenson Button for being pretty much flawless, but then he made a right arse of the second half, didn’t he? What about giving it Lewis Hamilton for his superb form in the second half of the season? Well, if I did that then I’d be ignoring his superb early season performance, highlights including 18th place in Germany, 16th at his home race and his Pièce de résistance, liegate. Seb Vettel was too inconsistent, Boobens was just rubbish when it mattered, Kimi Raikkonen was too busy in the ice cream parlour and so my award this year goes to a guy who didn’t even make it onto the podium once, Nico Rosberg. Where his team mate Nakas scored 0 points all season, young Rosberg took home an awkward 34.5 en route to an excellent 7th given the crapness of his Toyota power plant. I’m sure The Head will hope Rosberg can perform similar miracles in a Brawn next season.
Team of the Year – Brawn
Whilst I may be more than prone to slamming their drivers, you can’t really give this 2009 award to anyone other than Brawn. Regardless of the money spent by Honda/Super-Aguri on this car and the additional time spent versus rival teams designing the BGP-001, this team barely existed around January time this year. To then fit an engine Ross Brawn hadn’t Etch a Sketch’d at all into his car blueprints and come out and win as many races as they did this year is nothing short of incredible. Yes, they were powered by the best engine in the business all year, but any team that allows Jenson Button to win a title, pairs him up with Boobens to then also deliver the constructors title, has obviously made a hell of a car.
Flop of the Year – BMW-Sauber
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. So much was expected of Mario Theissen’s boys this season, but when the lights dimmed and the show began, BMW-Sauber were nothing short of utterly crap. This was made worse by the fact that they were the first ones to get their 2009 challenger on track, they were the ones who’d pushed KERS introduction harder than any other team and stopped their 2008 development in order to make a real push for 2009 – fat lot of good all that did. 13th and 14th in the championship for their drivers is nothing short of pathetic and their exit from F1 came as no real surprise – if I was BMW I wouldn’t want to be associated with the X5, never mind my livery getting hammered by a beardy Manc who’s named a team after himself.
Race of the Year – Brazilian Grand Prix
The problem with F1 2009 was that it’ll be looked back on as one of high drama and scandal, but much of it sadly appeared off the track. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good political brawl, but it’d be nice if we had lots of fun, exciting overtaking and Japanese drivers taking each other out to match too. We only had to wait until the last race of the season to see that though when Button, Vettel and Hamilton were all wildly out of position on the grid and all drove the races of their lives to haul themselves back into the points. Each driver had their own motivation to get to the front – to win the title on the day, to keep his hat in the ring and for pride respectively. Mark Webber took a great win, but the best part of the race was down the field for once. Which was nice. Perhaps we should invert the grid all the time.
Drive of the Year – Lewis Hamilton at the Brazilian Grand Prix
There are a few contenders for this one again. Vettel’s drive at the British Grand Prix to rub Button’s nose in it on home ground was breathtaking from a demonstration of pace point of view, plus the way Webber overcame a drive-through penalty at the German Grand Prix to also take victory was equally impressive. Giancarlo Fisichella’s drive in the Belgian Grand Prix to 2nd was great and would have won my award for first if he’d tried a bit harder to defend from Raikkonen, and I thought Fernando Alonso and Rosberg drove well in Singapore. My award for best drive of the year though has to go to Hamilton in Brazil where he came from 18th to finish 3rd in a race Hamilton himself as one of his greatest ever drives. The drive will go pretty much unnoticed given the gravity of other events occurring in that race, but it was a truly scintillating drive – yes, I’d even rate it higher than Lord Kobayashi’s Abu Dhabi performance.
Fail of the Year – Luca Badoer’s entire tenure at Ferrari
I was away on holiday when Badoer took over from Massa at Ferrari but he stunk the place out so much my nostrils could smell his utter crapness hundreds of miles away. Whilst in Badoer’s defence, he was only doing what Ferrari had told him to (perhaps they should’ve shown him how to enable 7th gear too) and Fisichella afterward wasn’t exactly Fangio in his prime behind the wheel either, one can’t help but think this was inevitable. Getting passed by Romain Grosjean in the pitlane said it all. Badoer was pants in his Minardi days, so why would he be any better when he’s bordering on becoming a middle aged man who hadn’t race in over a decade? Perhaps the fail should be put at Ferrari management’s doorstep instead of Badoer’s, but it doesn’t make the entire debacle any less embarrassing/hilarious.
Quote of the Year – Sebastien Buemi
As I said earlier, I love a political rough and tumble and half the reason I watch F1 is to see the egos leading the teams and various other parties of the sport go at it. None of those figures get bigger than Bernie Ecclestone (figuratively, of course) and his clanger this year where he said Hitler was a man who “got things done,” was up there with the very best of 2009 quotes. Felipe Massa post-incident came out with more lines than a West London drug den and who can forget Willi Webber furiously telling the press and anyone with ears his client Michael Schumacher will not be returning to F1 before a day later Schumi announces to the world is his return? My favourite 2009 quote though has to go to Buemi when he got stuck in the gravel during the Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying session. You know the drill by now.
“I was so fast, three and a half tenths, noooooooooooooo!”
Memory of the Year – Brawn’s multiple 1-2s
When Button and Barrichello crossed the line to take a 1-2 in Australia I was pleasantly surprised – for once a team who’d been quick in winter testing hadn’t done an Arrows or a Prost and been rubbish once they’d bothered to refit some ballast. Still, I looked on with a frown thinking it surely won’t last. Then they went and did it in Spain too. Then they went and did it again at the next race at Monaco of all places. This was when I started to sit up (until then I’d watched every race flat on my back with a craned neck) and think for goodness sake, they’re actually gonna do this, aren’t they? After a mid-season wobble similar to the way a single bed might if Dawn French jumped on it, another 1-2 at Monza showed Brawn’s car and drivers could win on any type of circuit and that 1-2 when Red Bull did so terribly probably gave Button the final kick of momentum to take him to his maiden title. Incredible scenes in the pits followed each 1-2 and I couldn’t be more happy for everyone at Brawn. Now Ross, if you could just let ‘Nando start kicking everyone’s arse again in 2010 then I’ll be even happier.
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