Dominant car? Great driver? Or a bit of both?

Sebastian Vettel's second world championship title was as remarkable for its control as much as the blinding speed of the German and his Red Bull.

Vettel based his season on a strategy of taking pole position, blitzing the first two laps and from then on going only as fast as he needed to.

The plan generally worked to perfection - Vettel took 11 wins and 15 poles from 19 grands prix - but it left you wondering just how fast he and the Red Bull could have gone.

In Brazil, I asked him if, with the title already in the bag, he had ever been tempted to just go for it, to really push the car and himself to the absolute limits. He replied that he had done just that in Korea and India, the scenes of two of his most dominant wins. "We were able to explore and sometimes take a little bit more risk," Vettel told me.

Despite Vettel's domination in 2011, there were very few of the runaway wins normally seen when one car is superior to the rest. Quite often, the races looked competitive, with Vettel tantalisingly close to - but frustratingly just out of reach of - his leading rivals.

Vettel and team boss Christian Horner often insisted the Red Bull had less of an advantage over McLaren and Ferrari in 2011 than in 2010. Yet Vettel won only five races and recorded 10 poles in 2010 on his way to winning the championship for the first time.

Let's examine the two seasons in a little more detail.

In 2010, Vettel's advantage in qualifying over team-mate Mark Webber was only 0.053 seconds when averaged out over the season. In 2011, it was 0.414. Likewise, Vettel's average advantage over the fastest driver not in a Red Bull was 0.077secs in 2010. In 2011, it was 0.317. That is a massive percentage gain from year to year.

There are reasons why Webber was so far adrift of his team-mate. Unlike Vettel, he struggled with the new Pirelli tyres, which affected both his pace in qualifying and his tyre wear in races.

The Australian is also physically bigger than Vettel so was occasionally at a disadvantage with the car's weight distribution, which again impacted on both his pace and tyre wear.

Sebastian Vettel leads the field at the first corner of the Australian Grand Prix

Turn One, race one; Vettel already has a big lead as the rest squabble. The story of 2011. Photo: Getty

The DRS overtaking aid, which gave drivers within one second of a car in front a boost in straight-line speed, also influenced matters.

But it is the tyres which were key. Asked to produce ones that spiced up racing, Pirelli came up with rubber that wore out rapidly, forcing a greater number of pit stops and resulting in more unpredictable races.

It is also worth looking at Red Bull's race strategy in 2011. The team may have had a car whose aerodynamic superiority made it the fastest by far, but it lacked a little straight-line speed compared to the McLarens and Ferraris. On top of that, I understand Vettel thought some of his rivals were perhaps better at wheel-to-wheel racing.

As a result, Red Bull's strategy was based on Vettel taking pole position, then opening up enough of a gap by lap three to prevent anyone from being close enough to make use of the DRS system, which couldn't be used for the first two laps. After that, he would measure his pace to those behind, producing a super-fast lap or two if he needed to.

Such a strategy did have its risks. If Vettel found himself in the pack during a race, he would have problems overtaking as the car was set up for lap time not straight-line speed. In other words, an error in qualifying or at the start could mess up an entire race.

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Red Bull were caught out a couple of times, notably when Ferrari's Fernando Alonso rocketed to the front on the run down to the first corner in Spain and Italy.

In both cases, Vettel managed to get past again. In Spain, he did it by pit-stop strategy, although it took two attempts, while in Monza he achieved it a brave overtaking move around the outside of the flat-out Curva Grande.

Had it been a McLaren that passed Vettel - a car that was faster than the Ferrari over the lap and down the straights - he might have been sat behind for the entire race.

But team boss Horner was adamant the strategy that Red Bull employed was the right one. "As a team, you have to attack the events," he said. "If you are conservative, sometimes you can pay a penalty. If Vettel was in a situation where he needed a big overtake, yes, a gamble was taken. But it was a calculated risk."

So how dominant was the Red Bull, really?

It had a clear performance advantage in at least nine of the races, of which Vettel won eight - Australia, Turkey, Valencia, Belgium, Italy, Singapore, Korea and India. The other one was Brazil, where he hit trouble.

That leaves five races at which it was not possible to ascertain whether Vettel's was the fastest race car, although it almost certainly was in most of them. They were Malaysia and Monaco, which he won, and China, Canada and Abu Dhabi, which he did not. And the remaining five races where it definitely was not, out of which he won only in Spain.

The first obvious conclusion is that the Red Bull's pace advantage was restricted by the tyres. On many occasions, Vettel could have gone faster but chose not to because he was concerned about over-using the tyres.

At the same time, Red Bull insiders insist Vettel was not always in the fastest car. There were weekends, they say, when they did not think the car was quick enough yet Vettel still managed to put it on pole. Equally, there were times when Vettel was having to drive on the edge to break the DRS and to hold his advantage at the head of the field.

The Pirellis required something new of the driver - an exquisite feel for the limits of the tyres, the intelligence to drive measured races at exactly the pace the tyres and car could cope with and the consistency to do it at every race.

How many drivers could do that?

Jenson Button had a great season for McLaren, finishing second behind Vettel in the standings. The 2009 world champion treats his tyres delicately and, at his best, is as good as anyone. However, his form tends to fluctuate depending on outside circumstances, while he is not the best qualifier.

As for Hamilton, his speed and feel are at least equal to Vettel's but the 2008 world champion struggled in 2011, making too many errors and perhaps not fully grasping the demands of the new F1.

Then there is Alonso. The double world champion boasts speed, consistency, adaptability and mental strength. However, the Ferrari was nowhere near fast enough this year and it's rare that the Spaniard transcends the car's abilities in qualifying, although he nearly always does in races.

That is why, in 2011, Vettel was generally in a league of his own, even on the occasions when his car was not.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2011/12/sebastian_vettels_second_world.html

Adri·n Campos John Cannon Eitel Cantoni Bill Cantrell Ivan Capelli

Jake Humphrey's season review

I should have known what to expect from this season when we went on air for the first time in Australia back in March.

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel went on to win the race in Melbourne without really breaking a sweat, while expert pundit David Coulthard ended up with cake on his face during the post-race F1 Forum thanks to a very over-excited world champion.

Dominance and madness in one go.

Since then, Vettel has won almost every race, while we've had masses of fun and games on camera as we traversed the globe. I have plenty of highlights from a season that has been, without question, the most rewarding of my three years. At the same time, it has been one of the most difficult and surreal. But more of that later...

First the fun! One of the things I've loved about the coverage we've provided since 2009 has been the genuine human emotion that only live sport can deliver. The F1 Forum, in particular, has given us a chance to see a side to the sport that was previously hidden, usually because all the TV crews had long since stopped work.

A stand-out moment for me occurred in the F1 Forum after the Monaco GP. We headed up to the Red Bull Barge - or the 'float-a-home' as it's nicknamed - where the team were celebrating their second successive win in the race.

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First, Vettel went into the pool, followed by various Red Bull team members, making it inevitable that Eddie Jordan would join them. I must confess that, as I challenged Eddie to go and grab the race winner, I knew he was likely to end up in the drink... and that's precisely what happened. EJ losing his glasses and proceeding to do duck-dive after duck-dive to retrieve them will live with me forever. All on live TV, let me remind you.

We then got a glimpse of just how brave the strong, fearless, race-winning F1 star DC really is. As soon as it looked like he would be the next one to get a soaking, he suddenly grabbed both his mic and the nearest railing for dear life. Cries of "No, I'm wearing white jeans!" and "No, I'm holding a microphone!" fell on deaf ears.

We often see drivers wearing race suits, helmets on their heads, wrapped inside a shell of carbon fibre. We never really get to know the human being behind the mask. I hope that, as the year progressed, you have felt you've got to know the likes of Daniel Ricciardo and Mark Webber as never before.

After the careers they've had and the success and the riches that have come their way, it would be very easy for Eddie and DC to not bother going the extra-mile for the good of the coverage, too. Yet they have. Early starts, late finishes, being asked to do ludicrous things and always buying into it... they've done it all. In fact, EJ refusing to go on the Abu Dhabi rollercoaster was just about the only time he has said 'no' in three years!

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I remember heading to a shopping centre in India to film a Bollywood opening to a show. When the nearby Metallica gig was cancelled, 40,000 very unhappy heavy metal fans suddenly surrounded the car. It was a little scary until EJ decided to engage them in conversation to find out what was going on. Moment defused!

That first trip to India was fascinating. I found it particularly difficult and struggled on a daily basis with the contrast between the glitz and glamour of F1 and a country with such obvious socio-economic issues. It was hard to see the poverty as we headed to the track every day, then watch million-pound cars going round in circles. I sincerely hope that F1 makes a concerted effort to give something back to India in the coming years.

It was good to chat that weekend to Rowan Atkinson. But after creating such genius TV as Blackadder, it's sad to think he's globally famous as Mr Bean! Great he could join us on the show, though. To have 'George McCartney' (copyright E Jordan) with us in Abu Dhabi was also special. The only reason McCartney and Atkinson came to chat to us was because of Eddie. It's amazing the power he actually wields!

At this point, let me congratulate Eddie on raising more than £100,000 for Children In Need with his signed Indian GP shirt. He forced all the drivers to sign it, as well as Bernie Ecclestone and Macca.

DC has also really come into his own this year. Whether he's taking on Lewis Hamilton or Jenson Button in a pit-stop challenge or on a jet-ski, he's become a credible, eloquent and respected pundit. Added to that, he knows how it feels to win races, fight for titles and drive contemporary F1 machinery.

Sir Paul McCartney, Jake Humphrey and Eddie Jordan

Jake Humphrey and Eddie Jordan meet Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney. Photo: Getty

He's also rather naughty, using his weekly track guides to educate Sergio Perez about the perks of being an F1 driver, to tell Vettel about the German-speaking films he watched as a kid, or to make Karun Chandhok, who was busy minding his own business by cycling the track, re-enact Hamilton's crash with Webber in Singapore.

I'd just like to say how much I've loved working with both EJ and DC over the past three years. It's rare to find three people who just seem to click, but we have and it's been an incredibly rewarding time.

Despite Vettel being so dominant, I've really enjoyed the racing in 2011.

The new DRS overtaking aid on the cars has been toyed with by the FIA during the year but I think they've generally got the balance right now after the slightly embarrassing overtaking-laden Turkish Grand Prix.

What has really got me excited this year, though, have been the Pirelli tyres. Yes, the teams have worked really hard to nullify the effects of marginal tyres, but they have still added to the spectacle. Next year, Pirelli will be even smarter and more aggressive with tyre choice, so I think the tyres will really ask questions of the strategies that teams employ. If they get it right, Pirelli could again be the difference between a good season and a great season in 2012.

And what about my classic moments of 2011? Well, Canada stands out. We had international pop star Rihanna trying out Hamilton's car, DC demonstrating his knowledge of ornithology and Star Wars creator George Lucas chatting to us in the garage... all while a race should have been taking place!

When the racing eventually started, it didn't disappoint, did it? Button was incredible that day and I'd like to extend my thanks to him and all the other drivers who have made themselves so accessible this season.

The F1 Forum has been a magnet for race winners, from Vettel in tears as he watched our 'back-to-back champions' tape, to EJ, DC, Martin Brundle and me leaning over flight cases and around photographers in an attempt to get to Hamilton after his race win in Abu Dhabi. All great times.

It's worth pointing out that the drivers are not obliged to join us live pre-race, before or after qualifying, or on the F1 Forum. They choose to do it, which I think speaks volumes for both our coverage and about the drivers themselves. Thanks, guys.

After all that fun over the last eight months, we get to take a breath, grab a winter holiday, then do it all over again come March 2012. So what can you expect from the BBC next year and how will we make a very different season just as interesting to watch?

Well, the first thing to say is that EVERY race will be on the BBC.

I know you guys want live F1 but you will still get plenty of racing to watch - and often at much better times. Australia, Japan and Malaysia, for example, are races that take place in the early hours in the United Kingdom but we will show almost the whole race at 2pm. As well as that, the programme will be two hours long, so there will be plenty of action and reaction. For non-live races that are run at lunchtime in the UK, you can now enjoy a Sunday out, get home for 5.30pm and have 90 minutes of F1 in a peak-time slot.

The highlights will not just be a few token laps edited together either. We're talking extended, comprehensive highlights to really tell the story of the grand prix.

I can also reveal that the BBC presentation team will be at all the races, so the guys and I will be interviewing drivers, bringing you the usual banter and hosting the show in the way you've come to expect since 2009. So expect F1 Forums and the usual 60-minute build-up for live races. Plus we will have in-depth analysis from DC and others, as well as stacks of driver interviews for the highlights races.

Yes, it's a shame we haven't got 100% live F1. As a fan, I would dearly love to host every race live and you can only imagine how hard and uncertain it has been for all of us since Hungary, when the new rights deal was announced.

The team works so hard to make F1 a success on the BBC and it hurts that, after all that effort we've put in, things have changed. But the BBC has backed us with great on-air times and, as I have said, will be sending us to every race, while the usual back-room talent will be making every show special.

Thanks so much for your support, loyalty and viewership over the last three years. I promise you that, if you stick with the BBC, we won't disappoint in 2012. I am personally driven to make next year's coverage even better than ever before.

Have a great winter and I look forward to you getting a lie-in before I welcome you to the Australian Grand Prix in less than four months.

All the best,

Jake

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/jakehumphrey/2011/11/jake_humphreys_2011_season_rev.html

Manny Ayulo Luca Badoer Giancarlo Baghetti Julian Bailey Mauro Baldi

Bruno Senna Q&A: “It’s difficult to set objectives…”

Hot on the heelss of his announcement Williams has issued the following Q&A with Bruno Senna. Q: Now you’ve been confirmed as a Williams driver, what are your thoughts heading into 2012? BS: I’m really happy to be a part … Continue reading

Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/01/17/bruno-senna-qa-its-difficult-to-set-objectives/

John Barber Skip Barber Paolo Barilla Rubens Barrichello Michael Bartels

56 Chevy Moderate custom

I started work on this 56 Chevy moderate custom about two weeks ago. I prepped the body and used Tamiya white primer, with a coat of Tamiya pearl-white. I have been doing the panels with Tamiya clear orange and lots of masking tape. The clear orange looks more yellow over the white, but I like where it;s heading. Going to get some Bare-metal foil on it, and get some clear laid on next.

Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/998134.aspx

Marcel Balsa Lorenzo Bandini Henry Banks Fabrizio Barbazza John Barber

Webber wins but Vettel is still the man to beat

If Mark Webber did not sound as if he was jumping for joy after winning the Brazilian Grand Prix - his first win of 2012 in the final race of what has been a tough season for the Australian - it should be no surprise.

There is no artifice about Webber and he knows as well as anyone that, statistically, this has been a disappointing year for him. One win in a race in which his team-mate had one arm tied behind his back does not on its own signify that his fortunes will change next season.

Nor, though, does the manner of victory necessarily mean that they won't.

Eleven wins and a new all-time record 15 pole positions for Sebastian Vettel as against one win and three poles for Webber are numbers that do not make comfortable reading for the older man.

But it should be remembered that the two men were evenly matched in 2010 as they both battled for the title with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.

Webber is determined to recapture that form and there have been signs in the second half of the season that he is heading in the right direction.

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Undoubtedly he struggled in the first half of this year. He was hit hard by reliability problems - if there was a problem with Red Bull's troublesome Kers power-boost system at the start of the year, it seemed Webber's car would have it - but also he took much longer than Vettel to adapt to the different demands of the new Pirelli tyres.

By the time he had, Vettel was long gone in the championship. It has, though, been much closer between the two in the second half of the season.

Vettel has still had the upper hand - and his electrifying qualifying pace and consistency has put him in a position to control many of the races.

But Webber has been getting on top of one of his biggest problems this year - higher tyre wear than Vettel, sometimes influenced by problems outside his control - and on race pace the two have been pretty evenly matched, even if it has not always been obvious because of their different positions in the race.

Webber could have won in Korea had not a mystifying pit-wall decision prevented him from passing Hamilton and exploiting a strategy that should have beaten Vettel, too.

In the end, the much-needed win came in Brazil in a race in which Vettel's gearbox problem prevented him having a straight fight with his team-mate.

But as Webber pointed out, these things happen and you take wins however they come. Not only has he himself been on the receiving end of that sort of fortune many a time, it was probably also about time Vettel had some bad luck.

"Even if the win didn't come today there were some positive signs for me in recent races," he said.

"There has been some good pace from me considering some of the things that have been going on. Today was a good grand prix.

"It's not a bad thing to finish the year like this, one of the most important things is I started to feel the car a bit better, to get a bit more of an understanding."

"It's great Mark has won a race," team principal Christian Horner said.

"It would have been very, very tough for him to have not won a race if Seb had won 11.

"Hopefully this win will give him a big confidence boost. He's third in the championship. Hopefully he'll go into the winter, have a bit of time off, recharge his batteries and I'm sure he'll come back stronger in 2012.

"Let's not take anything away from Sebastian, though. He has been operating at such a high level this year. That's what's compounded the issue for Mark. He's been up against a team-mate in the most phenomenal form and operating at the most phenomenally high level."

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Webber is under no illusions that Vettel will be formidably tough to beat again next season.

The German's drive on Sunday was yet another from the top drawer in a season that has been full of them.

He drove the first few laps as he has in so many races this year - building a 2.2-second lead in two laps. But after that Webber managed to keep him within three seconds or so - striking distance, in other words - until Red Bull came on the radio at the end of the first stint to warn Vettel of a gearbox problem.

This is not the first time this has happened to him and at first you wondered how he and the team he might react.

Back in Canada in 2010, Vettel also had a gearbox problem while running in fourth place ahead of Webber, who was ordered not to attack him as the team feared what might happen if he did.

But there was to be no repeat of that, as Vettel's engineer Guillaume Rocquelin came repeatedly on to the radio to warn him of the worsening problem. Eventually he had to accept that this was a race he was not going to win, and he let Webber past.

From then on, it was a case of managing the problem, which he did magnificently.

"Despite running a gear taller in each corner and trying to reduce the amount of shifts as much as possible, his pace was still very strong," Horner said. "There must be zero oil left in that gearbox because it went off the scale - a very mature and measured drive."

Inevitably, there were conspiracy theorists who suggested Red Bull were making the whole thing up to provide a convenient excuse to provide Webber with a win he needed and which also lifted him into third in the championship ahead of Alonso by one point. These can be dismissed, however.

For Vettel to still finish second in those conditions was impressive. One doubts, though, whether his performance merits the comparison Vettel himself made with Ayrton Senna's victory here in 1991, when the great Brazilian battled a failing gearbox in the rain to hold off the faster Williams of Riccardo Patrese despite driving the last two laps with only sixth gear.

Red Bull's advantage in Brazil was bigger than it has been in recent races, which is a worrying sign for their rivals.

Jenson Button drove a brilliant season this year to take second in the championship, the first time Hamilton has been beaten by a team-mate, and put in another strong performance on Sunday.

Alonso, too, has been mighty, battling the odds in an uncompetitive car. And Hamilton himself will surely find some equilibrium over the winter and come back stronger in 2012.

All of them, though, can do nothing if Red Bull produce a car next year with the sort of advantage seen from this year's RB7.

"What makes retaining the title so special," Horner said on Sunday, "is the calibre of opponents we are up against is so high.

"We are a stronger team in all areas than in 2010. I'm convinced with continuity we can still improve. We don't know what the other teams are doing. We will keep our heads down and hopefully turn up with a competitive car in Melbourne next year."

The gauntlet has been thrown down and it is up to McLaren and Ferrari to pick it up.

This blog is about the Brazilian Grand Prix and 2011 F1 season. If you wish to read about - and comment on - the BBC's plans for 2012, please do so here

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2011/11/webber_wins_but_vettel_is_stil.html

Colin Chapman Dave Charlton Pedro Matos Chaves Bill Cheesbourg Eddie Cheever