So guys, the final race is but a week away. It's been another interesting season. Last year Felipe Massa chased the top three (Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso) most of the way, but dropped out of contention shortly before the season's end. That top three would end up separated by just one point as Raikkonen claimed his maiden championship. This year five drivers remained in contention until the antepenultimate round in Japan, where both Kimi Raikkonen and Nick Heidfeld (who was just one point behind the current champion going into that race) were eliminated. Robert Kubica, arguably the revelation of the season in a BMW car that didn't look particularly promising in pre-season testing, went one better, lasting as he did until the Chinese GP. Now it's a duel: Lewis Hamilton versus Felipe Massa. The man who has revitalised British interest in the millionaires' playground that is F1 versus the man who wants to become the first Brazilian since the late Ayrton Senna to win the world title. The first British champ since 1996 versus the first Brazilian champ since '91.

As you'll be aware, we're going to try and put some kind of social on for this one, so that we can all sit around, drink beer and abuse Max Mosley. Updates on that to follow - but for now, let me just ask: who's gonna win it, Lewis or Felipe

Ladies and gentlemen, your thoughts please. )

Would be grat if massa won the chamiponship, he has proven to the world that he his deserving of it, being in the shadow of the great Shumacher (comapred to the slow and stupid one), but when he got with raikonnen, showed his true performance.
tho will be a shame not having DC on the grid next year, i need a new favorite driver now

Agree with Adam completely...hopefully Felipe will prove once and for all that he is able to stand the heat at the top and take the title. But either way I'm happy enough...cos it's a Brit in a British car, or a passionate talented Brazilian. Can't complain.

Oh and Keith, isn't abusing Max Mosley something he'd enjoy? Or is that only if we do it in German accents?

cos it's a Brit in a British car
yea, but it is powered by the germans.

He might well enjoy abuse, yes. Thankfully that's not quite what I had in mind.

I'd also like to advertise the fact that when the F1 race is over (as hopefully it will be by this time) we can watch the brand new series of Top Gear on BBC2!

yea, and watch keith wihout a beard on tv!!!!
wonder if all his cars are limited to 65MPH as well

Personally I'd like to see Lewis take it. I'm trying to avoid jumping on the bandwagon (along with the rest of Britain) purely because he's English, but I think there's been a lot of times this season where Lewis has had some drives really worthy of champions (Silverstone, Monaco, Spa (sort of) and Australia). That's not to say that Massa hasn't had some good races either (he is yet to race in Bahrain and NOT win), which is certainly something not seen since the likes of Schumacher and Senna.

However, both have also had some serious shockers on race day (Canada for Lewis, Britain for Massa), so yet again they both seem to be on a level playing, so for me I think it comes down to which team I prefer over, which is MacLaren, I think it's about time that they finally won a championship, seeing as they are up there with Mark Webber levels of unluckiness. I was also a massive fan of Mika Hakkinen back in his hey-day, so I'd love to see MacLaren take their first title since 1999.

You've got to go with Lewis. I'd be open to a whoever is better on the day, if some of the penalties Lewis has had this season weren't so unbelievably harsh. Spa, yes, he was very sneaky with the way he dealt with that corner, in that he let Raikonnen past but took him on the next corner, but Massa wasn't even in the reckoning, so why he was awarded the win and lewis demoted to 3rd/4th (can't remember). That one decision has kept Massa in the hunt (net gain of +6 to Massa) means Massa's World Title would be tainted by that call forever. Lewis can win in spite of that and have his season, Massa can always come back next season and go for an championship that nobody can look down on

Everyone says that the Hamilton penalty was harsh, but on looking back you can see why it was issued. Is good for formula 1 in general though that for 3 seasons straight, or maybe 4, we have got the title going down to the wire, which is a step away from some of the years where the title has been sewn up long before the end of the season, 02 being an example.

I am leaning more towards the Massa camp this year. I may be old fashioned in thinking, but Lewis hasn't served his apprenticeship in the sport, whereas nearly all the great champions have had to work their way up.

Prost - Renault
Senna - Toleman
Mansell - Lotus
Schumacher - Jordan
Hill - Brabham
Hakkinnen - Lotus
Alonso - Minardi
Raikkonnen - Sauber

Piquet i don't know about, and Villeneuve was at Williams and won the chamionship when it was competitive.

Jacques Villeneuve, like Lewis Hamilton, was in the best car going and had the opportunity to win the title very early in his F1 career (which he did). Furthermore, Michael Schumacher only drove one race for the Jordan Grand Prix team, before he was poached by Benetton (where he won his first F1 title a few years later).

I'm very much so on the fence. I'd love to see Massa overhaul that points defecit and win it, yet I'd also be pleased enough for Hamilton and his many, many fans if he could lift the trophy. After Hakkinen, Schumacher, Alonso and Raikkonen, Massa would be a totally different character as champion, whereas Hamilton better fits the mould in some respects. It'd be hard to qualify that view because it's just what comes to mind when I ponder the issue, and I don't mean to suggest that a different sort of champion would necessarily be a bad thing. I just don't see Massa as a champion, so all credit to him for being such a threat both this year and last. The future, however, is with Raikkonen, Alonso, Hamilton, Kubica and Vettel.

And the real reason I'm on the fence is that I was so very keen to see Kimi make it two in a row!

hmmm Villeneuve was always in Williams' future and in 1996 he was the only good driver on the market after Coulthard jumped ship - inexplicably at that! JV would have had to wait until 1997 to make the move, although any extra time spent in CART would have stagnated him.

Personally I don't believe either Massa OR Hamilton is really a worthy champion. Massa lacks the flair of a champion - his workman-like racing is commendable but would have gone very unrewarded in the past. He's just like Nick Heidfeld but in a faster car. Massa is the bass player in Ferrari's band... he was never supposed to lead.
Hamilton has the flair but lacks the charm of a champion. He has also made mistakes despite his obviously excellent pace. I'm not a big fan, but i also respect that he would be the most deserving champion of the two.

When you look at the last 10 drivers to win the F1 title: Raikkonnen, Alonso, Schumacher, Hakkinnen, Villeneuve, Hill, Prost, Mansell, Senna, Piquet, Lauda they all had somethin that made them the best. Prost and Lauda were incredible thinkers and immense test drivers. Senna and Mansell were dogfighters. Hill and Hakkinnen were the gentlemen of the sport getting popular wins. Villeneuve, Alonso, Schumacher were 'next big thing' winners (although some made more of their start than others!) and Raikkonnen is the undisputed ice man! Hamilton will go down as a cocky champion who walked into the dream drive and had no right to lose (that will be the perception even if its not strictly the case). Massa... I can't even think of an angle for him. He is quite precise, but is no Prost. He isn't a fighter like Mansell. He isn't the gentleman driver getting a just reward for years of service and struggle, and hes not the next big thing cos its taken him many years to get to here! Massa will be a 'stealth' champion, slowly rising to a peak rather than driving with the forcefulness and ambition of his peers.


I dont really know what kind of point I'm trying to make. I just feel that this season's end will be an anti-climax either way. Just look at last year. 3 drivers came in with a chance to win and for most of the season those 3 had been the players. Raikkonnen would take the title with 110 points, ahead of Hamilton and Alonso tied on 109. This year the Champion's tally will not match Raikkonen's (desipte Raikkonen needing a massive late-season surge), and the runner up will certainly not match 109 - even though there have only really been the 2 pretenders in contention since mid-season. This points to too many dropped scores for both - meaning that neither Hamilton or Massa has produced a champion's campaign.

I'm going to risk my Formula 1 equivalent of indie cool here and say I like Hamilton and want him to win. I'll concede he makes way too many mistakes and doesn't use his head much to race for points, but that's what makes him exciting! He's willing to risk his entire race on some stupid move no other driver in their right mind would even think about, and just occasionally he pulls it off. For me he's the most entertaining racer in F1 since Montoya left.

Thought you might like this by the way, from The Red Bulletin.

LOL - that is almost as scary as the MCR mime-along ITV F1 did to comemorate their time on TV.Most of it was fairly entertaining, but the Coulthard and Louise Goodman bit... *shudders*

P.S I couldn't tell if the Nick Heidfeld pic had been shopped

The MCR bit was awesome, if only to see the uber-cool Nico Rosberg (5 languages, Monaco resident) miming with all the passion of Kimi Raikonnen talking about helping Massa win the title

But now that the F1 has finsihed for anotehr season, we now got very little to watch on a sunday, besides nascar which is ace, and even that will end in a few weeks time. there needs to be a decent winter season for motorsport, like what A1gp was supposed to be, but thats about as entertaining as watchin pip eat some toast.

Why is DC not Frankenstein???

I thought yesterday's GP was bog-standard for entertainment value - but the start and opening few laps were interesting and the final corners were just nuts! I hate to say I told you so, but I did say Timo Glock would be pivotal to the whole thing much earlier in the race. A thrilling conclusion to what has been a quite decent season, even though I am inclined to agree with Pip on the subject of dropped points and sub-par performances from both would-be champs. Robert Kubica has clearly been the best driver this season.

On the subject of a good winter series: Pip and I discussed a revival of the county vs county idea which was fondly remembered by Autosport a few weeks ago. Could we re-establish this concept in the UK? How about the Lada Niva Counties' Championship, to be held on all terrains in all conditions?

How about the Lada Niva Counties' Championship, to be held on all terrains in all conditions?

That would be ace, especially if they were in really rubbish cars, like Rovers, Ladas, and obviously Micra's, the evil evil cars

Robert Kubica has clearly been the best driver this season.

One of the best for sure. In my opinion the best driver this season was Jenso...lol joke

SURELY Fernando Alonso for my money was a deserving winner this season. Taking that Renault car to new heights, my respect for the man has grown incredibly...and although after him I'd say Kubica and Vettel were big performers this season, it is Fernando who has impressed me most.

As for Hamilton...well a Ferrari driver deserved to win it last year, and this year a McLaren driver deserved it too, unfortunately in my opinion it was a McLaren driver who had jumped ship a year earlier.

What about Fernando's early performances? How does your calling him the best of '08 account for his extravagance behind the wheel back then?

For anyone interested, there's a lovely litlle selection of highlight videos on Formula1.com, one for each race, and Brazil has just been put up and therefore complete the season!

Take a look-see, some of them are quite good:

http://www.formula1.com/services/play_video.html