Grand Prix Rejects

Round 16: Abu Dubai

Welcome to the season finale! First piece of news is that Mikhail Aleshin is making an one-off appearance at Abu Dubai for the cash-strapped Stefan GP.

Second piece of news is that prize money will be paid to all of the teams based on the final order of the team’s championship after this race is over. So, let’s see who can wrap this season off with a bang?

Pre-Qualifying results

1 Heikki Kovalainen 1:44.818
2 Rubens Barrichello +0.164
3 Luca Fillippi +0.476
4 Pastor Maldonado +0.567
5 Karun Chandhok +0.596
6 Nico Hulkenberg +0.763
7 Kamui Kobayashi +0.886
8 Vitaly Petrov +0.969
DNPQ
9 Jose Maria Lopez +1.007
10 Sergio Canamasas +1.078
11 Paul Di Resta +1.120
12 TImo Glock +1.123
13 Charlie Kimball +1.244
14 Pedro de La Rosa +1.284
15 Kaz Nakajima +1.401
16 Sergio Perez +1.413
17 Daniel Riccardo +1.489
18 Benoit Truleyer +1.494
19 Mikhail Aleshin +1.791
20 Giedo Van Der Garde +1.927

Qualifying results

1 Sebastian Vettel 1:43.446
2 Mark webber +0.434
3 Felipe Massa +0.482
4 Michael Schumacher +0.507
5 Nico Rosberg +0.557
6 Lewis Hamilton +0.923
7 Fernando Alonso +0.923
8 Robert Kubica +0.959
9 Ralf Schumacher +1.001
10 Jenson Button +1.119
11 Sebastien Buemi +1.324
12 Heikki Kovalainen +1.369
13 Andre Lotterer +1.518
14 Rubens Barrichello +1.564
15 Luca Filippi +1.641
16 Pastor Maldonado +1.643
17 Nick Heidfeld +1.652
18 Kimi Raikkonen +1.656
19 Vitantonio Liuzzi +1.684
20 Giorgio Pantano +1.686
21 Will Power +1.807
22 Christian Klien +1.809
23 Romain Grosjean +1.851
24 Alvaro Parente +1.893
25 Kamui Kobayashi +2.138
26 Nico Hulkenberg +2.140
DNQ
27 Vitaly Petrov +2.692
28 Karun Chandhok +2.780

Race Summary

On Lap 8, Grosjean was out and a couple laps later Pantano’s engine let go. On Lap 23, Heidfeld was forced out of the race. On Lap 27, Kubica failed to finish. On lap 31, Michael Schumacher was forced to park it. On Lap 39, Filippi DNF’ed and on the next lap Webber dropped out of 3rd. Lap 45, Heikki dropped out of 10th and on lap 47 Klien dropped out as well. In the end, it’s another Ferrari 1-2 finish to round up the season.

Race Results

1 Sebasitan Vettel 1:37:56.007
2 Felipe Massa +31.138
3 Lewis Hamilton +44.096
4 Nico Rosberg +1:06.538
5 Jenson Button +1:19.346
6 Sebasiten Buemi +1:20.197
7 Kimi Raikkonen +1:28.452
8 Fernando Alonso +1:29.389
9 Andre Lotterer 1 lap
10 Ralf Schumacher 1 lap
11 Vitantonio Liuzzi 1 lap
12 Pastor Maldonado 1 lap
13 Rubens Barrichello 1 lap
14 Alvaro Parente 1 lap
15 Nico Hulkenberg 1 lap
16 Will Power 2 laps
17 Kamui Kobayashi 2 laps
DNF Christian Klein Accident
DNF Heikki Kovalainen Engine
DNF Mark Webber Engine
DNF Luca FIlippi Brakes
DNF Michael Schumacher Oil Leak
DNF Robert Kubica Puncture
DNF Nick Heidfeld Accident
DNF Giorgio Pantano Engine
DNF Romain Grosjean Water Leak

Final Driver’s Standings

Vettel 236 pts
Massa 199 pts
Webber 151 pts
Hamilton 111 pts
M. Schumacher 91 pts
Kubica 66 pts
Alonso 62 pts
Button 59 pts
Rosberg 56 pts
Lotterer 37 pts
Buemi 32 pts
Klien 19 pts
R. Schumacher 19 pts
Raikkonen 16 pts
Barrichello 14 pts
Liuzzi 12 pts
Kovalainen 5 pts
Heidfeld 5 pts
Pantano 5 pts
Power 4 pts
Maldonado 1 pt


Final Teams Standings

1 Ferrari 435 pts
2 Brawn GP-Mercedes 188 pts
3 Force India-Mercedes 177 pts
4 Epsilon Euskadi-Ferrari 96 pts
5 Honda 81 pts
6 Prodrive-Mercedes 59 pts
7 Red Bull-Honda 56 pts
8 Manor-BMW 44 pts
9 Mercedes 23 pts
10 Sauber-BMW 21 pts
11 Caterham-Honda 14 pts
12 Carlin-BMW 5 pts
13 Lola-Honda 1 pt
14 Campos-Cosworth 0 pts Best finish 11th
15 USF1-Cosworth 0 pts Best finish 12th
16 McLaren-PURE 0 pts Best finish 14th
17 DAMS-Renault 0 pts Best finish 15th x2
18 Williams-Cosworth 0 pts Best finish 17th x2 (owns the tiebreaker with more 18th place finishes)
19 Stefan GP-Renault 0 pts Best Finish 17th x2
20 Lotus-Renault 0 pts Best Qual. Result 35th

Paddock News:

Ralf Schumacher is moving to the Mercedes DTM program, ending his F1 career

After an adequate showing for Mercedes in 2010, Ralf Schumacher has announced that he will be moving to the DTM series and he will still be using a Mercedes in that championship effectively ending his F1 career. Regarding his F1 Career, he said, “Well I enjoyed it while it lasted.”

Christian Klien: “I will not be contesting in F1 any more, I want to challenge myself in a different series.”

As many would expect, Klien will call it quits on his F1 career to focus on something different for the future. Regarding his future plans, Klien said, “I will highly consider WEC if the right fit comes up.”

Honda still on the fence on the turbo engines.

It’s the end of the season, and Honda still hasn’t made an official word whether they are intending to use the brand-new V6 Turbo engine formula or not for their 2011 car yet. Mercedes has already confirmed they will be using the V6 Turbos, Renault and PURE are already started work on their V6 Turbos. On the other hand, BMW, Cosworth and Ferrari have stated that they are not using the V6 Turbos for the time being, leaving Honda in a tough position whether to take the chance or not.

With the season over at last, it’s time for everyone’s most entertaining part . . . posting your ROTY podium! Post your ROTY podiums, if you want to. Of course I will debate with myself on who should be on my ROTY podium, while you guys post away.

ROTY
1. Di Grassi, For not making the race in a car clearly capable of making a race
2. USF1. Because USF1
3. Stefan GP, For having the second worst car on the grid.

ROTR:

1. Erm... Ourselves (Lotus): Didn't qualify or prequalify all year, headless-chicken-spec (non) ownership and only beating Stefan and Williams very rarely all season, otherwise being dead last. All in all, it makes any other nominations very difficult and a tad hypocritical...

2. ... so nomination number two goes to Van Der Garde: We outqualified him in every race, and he was in a Williams.

3. Renault: No teams placed above 17th in constructors, and most likely one of the reasons for nomination number one being quite so obvious.

ROTY:
1. Lotus, for obvious reasons
2. Jerome D'Ambrosio, for being booted out after just two races
3. McLaren, for continuing their 2009 form and getting worse.

Okay, so it took me a while to figure out who should be 2nd and 3rd on the ROTY Podium, but I finally have made a decision. However, first some honorable mentions that didn't made it on the ROTY podium. Of Course, there's many others to mention but I will only include the more obvious ones.

Williams 2nd driver platoon: Both VDG and Sam Bird split the 2nd seat in a platoon, but neither impressed much besides VDG bringing in cash and Bird struggling with a piece of poop package.

Carlin-BMW: After finishing 5th in 2009, they dropped all the way down to 12th. Obviously, they took a big step back, but let's hope they can bounce back in 2011.

US F1-Cosworth: Besides an improbable 12th place finish by Chandhok early on in the season, generally not a big enough step forward in year 2 than in year 1.

So, here's my ROTY Podium: Feel free to disagree

3rd: McLaren-PURE

Considering McLaren, a once proud-team, getting no points on the board for an entire 16-race season, is shocking indeed. They fell further back from 9th in 2009 to 16th this season. However, with the new turbos coming into play next year, maybe they can bounce back after years of struggles and bad decision making, but if they made one more bad decision, you could pretty much say that they are on the road to breaking down.

2nd: Lucas Di Grassi

I could make the case for many other drivers that did deserve a step on this podium, but I had to go to Lucas Di Grassi, driving a Stefan GP package that Kamui Kobayashi, who let's not forget spent all of 2009 with Force India and managed to jump ship to Zoran's upstart effort, managed to put on the grid a couple times this season. As for Di Grassi, he never got out of Pre-Q, and was just lost all the time. The bad news for Di Grassi is that he will not be back in F1 for 2011, instead he is focusing his efforts somewhere else.

1st: Lotus-Renault

WOW! What can I start out with. First off, starting the season with no owner. Then their drivers for the first 10 races, Neel Jani who was a ex-toro rosso tester in real life, and Brendan Hartley, another ex-toro rosso tester got their first cracks at F1. However, things became so bad that they were looking for anything better than these two clowns. For the final six races, they brought in Kaz Nakajima and Daniel Riccardo among all drivers to hopefully turn their luck around, at least both of them ended up better than expected in a car that is just outgunned power wise but still they didn't find an owner until after the final in-season test of the year. 2011 will be a critical year for Enstone, if they can't get a more powerful engine with the turbos now in play, we can see Year 2 being as bad or maybe worse than this year.

Well, bring on 2011

Miguel98 wrote:Well, bring on 2011

Second that. Well, at the very least it can't be worse. (Or can it? )