HOBBS: The Season Finale

Formula 1

HOBBS: The Season Finale

SPEED’s F1 analyst emphasizes the importance of a good result heading into the winter break.

David Hobbs | Posted November 01, 2008 Sao Paulo, Brazil

Only one car will end up covered in glitter after the checkered flag on Sunday, but to the rest of the field the Interlagos race can be a crucial step towards a promising '09. (LAT Photo)

Having a good race to end the season is vitally important, because racing is like acting. Just as actors are only as good as their last film, in racing you’re as good as your last race.

It shouldn’t really be like that these days, as there is so much data to establish how good you really are, but the fact is that people do remember these last races, and we’re going into a very long offseason this time, during which time there will be a huge amount of discussion between agents, teams, drivers and sponsors.

Perception can certainly linger, and a prime example would be Felipe Massa. At the start of the year he had two shocking races, spinning out at the first corner of a calamitous Australian Grand Prix, and then spinning out of second place while under no pressure in Malaysia.

Had that happened at the end of the season, a lot of us would think that Massa has totally lost it, but he has come back big time and certainly exonerated himself, doing incredibly well and scoring impressive wins, particularly in Valencia when he dominated.

As the season progressed, Massa also established a vital ascendancy over Kimi Räikkönen, the 2007 world champion, who everybody thought would at least be in another championship battle with Lewis Hamilton again this year. I was surprised that Kimi ended up being re-signed by Ferrari through until the end of 2010, as I thought the Scuderia could have waited until at least the middle of next year before making their minds up.

I would think Fernando Alonso is very frustrated at that situation, unless he thinks Renault can maintain the momentum they have picked up in the second half of the year. Last season when he was on the way out at Mclaren he said he gave them half a second, but treated him like dirt.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Hobbs

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