In true reject fashion, the IIDOTS-2009 results are late. I have collated and counted the votes the day the poll was closed, sent them to Jamie and Enoch =, who were kind enough to announce the winner on the season review podcast, and predictably it has taken me a week to listen to that specific podcast and remember that I needed to post it here.
Let me just point out that Enoch's explanation of what the IID is was spot on - if you missed it, go back to your MP3 player thingy and listen again - and that they have reconciled me with the results. More on that after the break.
I can't really post the votes here, because the loss of format makes it unreadable. The full season IID tables are available for download
here. It's an Excel file, should be OK. Essentially, I eliminated anyone that wasn't a driver/team/team personnel competing this year. I also kept out HWNSNBM, because he's the winner by default.
Anyway the results.
Nominee Points
Kamui Kobayashi 200
BrawnGP 136
Giancarlo Fisichella 62
Nico Rosberg 46
Force India 44
Jenson Button 38
Rubens Barrichello 28
Luca Badoer 18
Mark Webber 16
Sebastian Vettel 16
Lewis Hamilton 12
Adrian Newey 10
McLaren-Mercedes 6
Adrian Sutil 6
Red Bull 6
Kamui Cowboy-ashi beats Brawn by a country mile and the two of them together have more points than the rest of the field.
Wow.
It was only when listening to the season review that it struck me: indeed as Jamie said, if you had asked me before Melbourne who the best-ranking Japanese driver was going to be, I'd have said KazNak. Especially in a season with no testing. What's more, if a year ago you'd have told me a Japanese driver had secured a seat, on merit, for the 2010 season, I'd have voted for KazNak again. Cowboy-ashi saw off Trulli and became an instant hit with the F1 crowd at large, and even those among us that believe he is an inexperienced, unproven and lucky toss have sat up and taken notice. I am going to say I don't remember any Japanese driver securing an F1 drive without being helped along the way by a Japanese manufacturer or engine supplier. Great going. He's our man, and I am waiting for the moment when he'll do a Montoya on the returnee Michael Schumacher.
Brawn lost this one, then. Their only possibility, and they've gone and wasted it. Sad. Actually, now that we know the story and the details, maybe they weren't really so surprising as Cowboy-ashi, although they're certainly IID material.
As for everyone else... surprised Red Bull got so few votes. Also half-surprised Force India isn't further up (beaten by Rosberg!), and that Sutil was so far down the pecking order. Any ideas why?
Anyway, the collective wisdom of the F1Rejects community has spoken, and done so in the language of the Samurais. 2010 is looming ever closer, and IID will be back, in this format tried for the IIDOTS-2009. Any thoughts or suggestions?
