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Take away the two races he missed and Perez has outscored Kobayashi [also remember he had outqualified Kamui in Monaco and would have started in the Top 10 bar the crash], is massively improving his racecraft and his qualifying performances are already pretty good. Has shown consistent ability to look after his tyres and drive smart races. What is not convincing about that? Give him a second season to improve further and he should be more than capable of replacing an completely inept and useless Massa. If Di Resta wasn't completely tied at the hip to Mercedes he could be an option in a year as well.

The problem remains the car, but the idea that Newey is unbeatable is nonsense. Things can change incredibly quickly. Remember no blown diffusers and a few other things next year can change the outlook completely. Particularly for Ferrari, Mercedes and Sauber whose version of it are average, poor and non-existant respectively.

It's not about beating Alonso as Kals and phil have said, the ability to do so would be a massive benefit, its' about not consistently losing out on points to their rivals. In a close title fight he'd be fighting with one arm behind his back, Webber when not sucking has the potential to beat Alonso, Massa can only beat one of the other five when they crash or retire. Perez, Di Resta could learn from him and I'd bank that both could do a better job than Massa has delivered over the past 2 years.

The track was conspicuously, obviously not a problem for overtaking. There was not a single case where cars got stuck and couldn't pass. The problem for lack of excitement was the tyres that are becoming very consistent. Every team pits twice using softs for the first two stints. It is now even more predictable than when the refueling was allowed. So the randomness of fast cars being shuffled towards slower groups is unlikely to happen like earlier this year.

Ummmm... what race were you watching?

The problem is, thanks to the effectiveness of DRS and KERS here there will now be no need to change the shitty layout.

8 Loved it, a 3/4 way battle for third and 10 guys battling for the last point spots, and a battle for the lead.

Lot's of overtaking trough the racing with some overtaking back. Can't get much better than that.

Alonso, where did that come from?

If I would get another vote it'll go to Lewis.

This is the point which is most alarming for Ferrari. I had a look at the stats and I think Massa has only once beaten the top 5 drivers on pure pace in a race, which was Button in Valencia.

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Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

Massa has less than half the points of the car in front, which is Lewis. Massa is responsible for Ferrari being so far behind in the constructors, which is ridiculous.

Some fun stats:
- Vettel's most recent first lap retirement came when he raced for Toro Rosso at the 2008 British Grand Prix.
- Vettel's 19-race streak of consecutive points finishes leaves him second in the all-time list, behind Schumacher, whose 24-race run came from Hungary 2001-Malaysia 2003.
- Red Bull's string of 19 consecutive podium finishes came to an end in Abu Dhabi. The streak nevertheless leaves the squad third on the all-time list.
- The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was the 45th straight race without a new winner in F1; a new record and one that stretches back to Mark Webber's victory at the Nurburgring in 2009. The previous record was the 44 races between Alessandro Nannini at Suzuka in 1989 and Michael Schumacher at Spa in 1992. Only Jenson Button - at the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix - prevented the record going sooner; the gap of 43 races stretching back to Jarno Trulli's Monaco victory in 2004
- Williams' disastrous qualifying performance at Yas Marina was the worst in the team's world championship history. Or was it? It certainly marked the first time that the British team had started a grand prix with both its cars on the back row, but a trawl through the record books actually turns up an even worse performance. At the 1983 European Grand Prix, Williams entered three cars; with test driver and F2 champion Jonathan Palmer joining team regulars Jacques Laffite and Keke Rosberg. Mechanical problems ruining the weekend plus a practice accident for Rosberg meant the reigning world champion was only 16th on the grid, while Palmer was 25th and Laffite didn't make the grid, having gone only 29th quickest in practice.
- Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button scored their 42nd podium finishes in Abu Dhabi, bringing both up to equal 15th spot on the sport's all-time list along with another British world champion, Damon Hill
- One positive for Webber is that he has now gone 40 races without a mechanically-induced retirement. Only Schumacher (58 races from Hungary 2001-Malaysia 2005) and Hamilton (51 races from Australia 2007-Abu Dhabi 2009) have gone further. Webber's last mechanical failure was brake-related in Singapore in 2009
- Button has finished third in each of the Abu Dhabi Grands Prix staged to date

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Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

6 should be ok

Hamilton

Funny how people used to say last year that Red Bull's technical failures always struck Webber.

I give it a 6.

why?

because I started looking with in my mind it was going to be the most boring race in the history of F1...

but in the end it kept me interesting. The first lap was great, we had Vettel's drama, the weird tactics for Webber, Massa failing again, some nice battles in the background. And the scenery is special.

But I wouldn't mind if F1 would never return to this track though...

Drivers angry with blue flag penalties
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/96217

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Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

Yeah the stewards did seem a bit penalty happy yesterday.

Fell asleep during the half way point. Nothing exciting happened really imo.

I would say a 5.

A Senna asking for a conversation with the race director concerning rules, heh

I've seen Karthikeyan blocking a lot of cars this season, but I can't remember he got a penalty for that. So, I understand Senna.

Yeaa he did and never got a penalty. So for Senna to get one for one corner?

7 - above as expected, but still weak, time do change the course or ban the track

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