Man definitely triumphed over F1 machine in 2010

I heard something from BBC’s David Croft today, something he said in a podcast before Sunday’s final grand prix of the F1 season – and it rang perfectly true.

Croft is good value on any day, but he quite rightly pointed out that for a sport where many think it is simply a case of having the fastest car, this season it has been all about the teams – and especially drivers.

OK, so Red Bull’s RB6 was by far and away the quickest car and a few reliability issues made things much more interesting than they could have been.

But it was still the mistakes and great drives that made 2010 one of the most memorable in the sport.

From Mark Webber’s stunning turn around Silverstone, Sebastian Vettel driving into his team-mate at Istanbul – and then Jenson Button in Spa – it was never solely their cars’ speed that dictated things on race day.

And ultimately, Webber’s painful slide off a wet Yeongam track once the safety car retreated and Ferrari’s catastrophic call to bring Fernando Alonso in so early in Abu Dhabi were what decided where 2010’s honours went.

Changes for 2011 will see the return of Kers – basically a power boost button for the driver – and changes to the cars’ wings to promote more overtaking, while the F-duct that arrived this season will be banned. We will find out next season whether they will be changes that improve on this year, to damage matters.

But the real winner for Formula One in 2010 was that everything hinged on the decisions, split second or otherwise, taken by the drivers and their teams at every stage of the season.

Man and his machine – in that order. That is the way it should be, and there is no reason why 2011 should not carry on in the same vein.

posted on 16 November 2010 10:46 byMichael Bailey - Sportsdesk

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