Vettel wins!!! What an awesome drive by Vitaly Petrov to keep his job, and keep Alonso behind him...

Two/Three for McLaren is a tough pill, but next year should be even better.

I'm already anticipating next season and all that it could turn out to be...

 

Great win by Vettel...and the Red Bull Team. I was glad to see Alonso lose...I'm not a fan of his.

 

What a way to hang in there for Vettel and Red Bull. With the mechanical problems and other issues they had this year, it was a great win.

It's like the commentators said, RB let their drivers battle it out for the championship and didn't favor one over the other and they won both titles. Ferrari favored one driver over the other and it didn't work.

 

What an amazing season! I am soooo looking forward to next year.

I hope Kobayashi gets a solid ride. I love watching him drive!

 

^^^
Both he and Petrov really stood out. I think they are both relatively newcomers to F1 right?

More changes to the cars coming for next year too. KERS is coming back, and I thought I heard that refueling was coming back to pit stops again....

 

I believe I read that tire warmers would be banned for the 2011 season. If that is true, it will probably represent some serious drama (and fun) for all of us to watch. Tire warmers have been a part of F1 since as long as I've been following it (1991 season).

 

Why would they ban tire warmers??? Sounds dangerous to me. I've only been following for a couple of years now regularly. It's fun to watch the changes in drivers, teams and rules from year to year though. I'm looking forward to the 2012 season when they come to TX.

 

I swear I read about that, but I cannot find it now.

The Formula One tweaking continues, even though we think this year's championship has been the most consistently rewarding since 2006, and maybe even back to the last millennium. The FIA's World Motor Sports Council has approved a slate of changes for 2011 to help make even more things happen on track, and the biggest could be banning the F-duct (this year's double diffuser) and instead allowing a movable rear wing. Adjusting the wing can't be done during the first two laps, but afterward, if any time a car trails another by less than a second the wing can be made to stall and allow higher speeds.

Additionally, the minimum weight has been raised from 620 kilograms (1,367 pounds) to 640 kg (1,411 pounds) to make way for the return of KERS, and the safety car rules have been clarified to disallow passing on the last lap of the race even if the safety car comes in. The 107% rule, not seen since 2002, has been reintroduced to remedy the backmarker situation. However, if it were in force during the Canadian GP only Karun Chandhok would have been disallowed. And, the rule allows for a special dispensation if a driver sets a fast practice time, but can't match it in qualifying.

A development certain to be as big as the rest: Pirelli has been named the official tire supplier for F1 for three years. Bridgestone is stepping out this year even after Bernie and the teams asked the company to stay. Other makers like Hankook and Cooper got in the race, but didn't get very far. Michelin also considered joining, but wasn't interested in being sole supplier and wanted a tire war. After a 19-year absence from F1, Pirelli and its new family have a lot of work to do.

 

What exactly does the 107% rule do?

 

Wonder how the cars will drive on the new tires.

 

Effectively it means that compared to the fastest time set in qualifying, only times are allowed which fall within 107% of that time...anything slower will lead to disqualification from starting the race. It mentioned that this rule would have only applied once this past season to Karun Chandok's time in Montreal, so he wouldn't have been able to start that race for HRT assuming the rule was in play.

 

I watched the race in Italy, what a disappointment, Ferrari basically gave the championship to Vettel. There was even a comment about how Red Bull probably sacrificed Webber for Vettel to become champion since Ferrari pitted earlier to make sure they covered Webber, doubtful, but a nice conspiracy theory nonetheless. At the end of the day, the fastest guy with the fastest car won.

 

So let's say that Vettel's qualifying time in AD last weekend was a 1:39 even. Then anyone roughly 6 seconds or more slower would be DQ'd and not allowed to start the race? Is this to avoid the new teams that generally run in the back clogging things up?

 

Yes, exactly right based on my understanding. It was mentioned that if the 107% rule could be hypothetically applied to the results of this season that it would have come into play only one time though, so it's not a rule we're likely to see much of in practice.