grumpyf1

*sniffle* This is it then. Fantasy Formula 1 is over for another year. What will you do all winter?! Will you cope? Does anyone actually care? Is anyone really OUT THERE? Can Kimi have a choc ice now? There's just the stats'n'stuff to get out of the way. Brace yourselves... Naughty corner? Even Lewis & Felipe made-up. Just for a change... no-one! Hero: Doubt we’ll see him again, but Rubens – dignified and cheery, friendly and honest. There aren’t many of those left in Formula 1. Fantasy Formula 1 driver of the day was Webber, with 27 points. The top 3 drivers of the season were Vettel, Button and Alonso. Honourable mentions go to Schumacher in 6th, and Heidfeld, who managed 11th, despite only competing in 11 races. The top 3 teams of the season were Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari. Virgin punched above their weight in FF1 land, finishing 9th. Congratulations to Henry, who wins the FF1 title with an impressive 62 point lead. As last year, only 2 c

Bittersweet weekend for us BBC viewers. This was the final race, which meant it was the last outing of the best coverage F1 has ever received in the UK, for free-to-air watchers, at least. Next year us skint or anti-Murdoch types get 10 races live, and 10 lots of “highlights”, which will involve us avoiding TV, radio, shops, the internet and any kind of human contact whatsoever, in case we hear the results before we get to see a cut-down race. Still, the BBC had one last chance to end on a high-note, with a fitting farewell to great coverage, Martin Brundle (off to Sky, where he can do his job properly still) and us, the loyal viewers. Unfortunately, the transmission of the F1 Forum conked out with 10 minutes left, and we had to sit in front of the unintentionally, but oh-so, ironic message: APOLOGIES FOR THE LOSS OF COVERAGE. You’re sorry? Not as sorry as I am, matey. And if someone could kindly explain to Jake Humphrey that getting some extra post-race info doesn’t make w

Lovely to see such a fitting end to the BBC's coverage yesterday. The F1 Forum was drawing towards the end (after the BBC's excellent coverage of the last few years, and the knowledge that Brundle is off to Sky), when everything abruptly vanished part way through a Button interview, and was replaced with a message saying WE APOLOGISE FOR THE LOSS OF COVERAGE. Oh, how very ironic. And it never came back. So that's how it ends - the best coverage of F1 we've ever had didn't even make it to it's final goodbye. Anyway, I've got all winter to bang on about that (and trust me I WILL), so, by way of light relief, here's the results from the Brazilian GP: And..... drumroll, please.... here's the final totals! I came 18th!! In my own competition!! Arsebiscuits! Well done, Henry. And well done all of you. I've a special medal for everyone that took part, just as soon as the cornflakes packet is empty and I can find the glitter glue from th

Hello, Other Stuff fans. Here we are again, then. I guess you'll be wanting stats'n'that, right? Righty-ho... Fantasy Formula 1 driver of the day was Hamilton, with 27 points. Well done to Henry, who becomes the first person (and maybe the only?) to clear 1000 FF1 points. Bad weekend for Heather – a 6 point total adds her to the worst 3 scores of the season... for the 3rd time. The top 3 drivers so far are Vettel, Button and Alonso. Heidfeld may only have done 11 races, but he’s still in the top 10! The top 3 teams so far are Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari. Rubens’ feisty drive sees the Williams team move all the way up to 10th. Although he didn’t come first in this race, Henry still extends his lead to a (season-winning?) 75 points. Leaders to date: Heather (1 race), Neil (3), Me (4), Ian (1), Me again (1), Ian again (1), Henry (7). Front to back gap? A hoofing 521 points. Henry has more than double the points of Jon. Fantasy Formula 1: Where Rubens j

Abu Dhabi – it’s amazingly shiny, but a bit dull, right? Bunging a couple of DRS zones in should sort that though, surely? Well, it did help a bit... but not a lot. Pre-race talk was once again about Hamilton, who was busy complaining to the BBC that the fact that he didn’t have a girlfriend, Dad, friends, hairdresser, cat, manicurist, cat’s manicurist or that chap he used to go to school with but hadn’t seen for 5 years with him at every race was the reason Jenson was doing better than him. Um... OK, then. Jenson, meanwhile, was busy growing a fetching moustache and just bloody well getting on with it. Quali had a pause in Q2 whilst pieces of highly un-tech bollard were removed, and an exciting last-gasp battle saw Button, Hamilton and finally Vettel grabbing pole in rapid succession. Seb equalled Mansell’s 14 poles in a season record, whilst the team the grumbly Brummie had so much success with, Williams, delivered their worst qualifying session in living memory, with too

Evenin', kiddlywinkies! Have you been behaving yourselves? No? Good. Nice to see Hamilton win, wasn't it? Mind you, I could do without all the "needing a bubble around me like Jenson's got" stuff. I don't know about you, but I can never do my job properly unless my wife, closest family members and mates are there too. And if I do happen to have a great day in the office, I always put an orange shirt on and drench myself in champagne. Do I sound miserable? Yes? Good. Anyway, here's the moment that almost nobody has been waiting for! Its the Fantasy Formula 1 scores!! Followed by the really rather interesting (honest) running totals! Back tomorrow with the race report. It'll need some work - I wrote it last week with "Seb wins again" as the plotline. Damn crappy tyres. (Continuing my musical alphabetical journey through my CD collection, and I've finally reached The Beatles, starting off with "The Early Tapes Of The B

Well, now. Here we all are again. Some of us have, no doubt, had a fascinating day. Others have probably been discussing the correct pluralisation of the word Fez with their niece via twitter. *ahem* Anyway, there's the small matter of getting the brightly coloured blobs of information that look like dog food but taste like fire out of the tablecloth of facts that was the Indian GP, Fantasy Formula 1-wise. Clear? No... me neither. It seemed like a good metaphor with a cunning Indian twist at one point, but it all went horribly, horribly wrong somewhere.... So, whilst I hand myself over to the Crimes Against The English Language Police, here's the stats: Naughty corner? Hmmm.... it'd be dull to go for Hamilton yet again, and the Massa incident looked more like a plain-old racing one, rather than the boy from Brazil's fault... so... no-one. Blimey. Hero: He only came 10th, but Perez avoided the first lap carnage and managed to drag his Sauber up to 10th. Way