grumpyf1

Rubens Barrichello has been signed for another season at Williams, whilst his "look at me, I got a pole" team-mate Nico Hulkenburgerbananarama has been dumped. I haven't done that maths (and frankly, I'm just too lazy to do that sort of exhaustive research anyway) but this will be the cheery Brazilian's 19th season in F1, won't it? So, theoretically, some new whipper-snapper joining F1 could actually have been in the process of being born when Rubens first fired up an F1 car and said "I quite like this - maybe I'll stick around for a bit". Nice one Rubhino - F1 wouldn't be the same without you. Particularly enjoyed your decision not to get bullied by that other old geezer from Germany when he came back after a bit of time in the Old Drivers Home For Bewildered Multiple Champions, where he had been "recuperating" due to his terrible problem of forgetting that it wasn't dodgems, and the idea isn't to push the others off ...

And they say that F1 is humour-free. Actually, to be fair, I haven't heard anyone say that, so I take it back. It does take itself a bit seriously sometimes though. Good to know, then, that someone in the uber-sterile Merc team decided to update Mr. Rosberg's passport with a new photo before he attempted to leave Abu Dhabi. Know to fellow drivers as Britney, I'm guessing it seemed the only logical thing to do. I quite fancied him anyway.... did I just say that out loud? Oops. *blush* No-one has owned up. Hang on... wasn't Schuey looking particularly smiley this season?! Surely not... (NP on the cassettograph this chilly Cumbrian evening is Tom Petty's 99 album "Echo".)

Wow. 2010 really was the season where anything could happen. Going in to Abu Dhabi it looked like Alonso or Webber would be champion. I was even getting ready to brag about my post from February predicting that Alonso would be the happy man now, rather than the miserable git he clearly is. But more on that later... Qualifying this race didn't throw up any major surprises, except for Petrov beating Kubica into the top 10. But it did signpost that thing weren't going Webber's way as he could only manage 5th on the grid whilst Vettel bagged yet another pole. Hamilton failed to spot Massa and gave us one of the TV moments of the year as he ran over a camera cunningly disguised as a bollard. Race day couldn't have been more tense. As it turned out, the race would be too. With Hamilton away behind Vettel at the start, Button managed to jump Alonso for 3rd , just in time for Liuzzi to have yet another DNF courtesy of the sort of parking you see from little old ladies dur...

In F1 terms, Brazil is usually good value for money. For starters, it has held the championship showdown for the last 5 years. Would it manage in again in 2010 with 5 drivers still in the hunt? Qualifying was that entertaining thing of a wet, but slowly drying, track. Things went roughly as you would expect, which regrettably included Button struggling for grip and seeing him fail to make Q3. The biggest surprise came in the last 4 minutes, when everyone decided it was time to switch to slicks and see if they could hang on. Whilst most drivers (including the championship rivals) all slithered here and there, one man kept it all together - a surprising (and probably surprised) Incredible Hulkenberg. But not only did he manage to be ahead of everyone, he then put in another lap a whole second faster. Awesome. Somehow you knew that was likely to be the highlight of his weekend... Button's crap day got worse when some armed neer-do-wells attempted to get at his armoured motor on ...