The thing that gets me is why it took so long for McLaren to bring Hamilton in for his first stop to change to the slicks. When Fisichella in a Force India is setting purple sectors through the twisty section, it was clear to me that the slick tyre was the one to be on and Hamilton had to be brought in as soon as possible. Instead McLaren left him out for another two laps, which was far too long. The right time to pit was when Alonso and Vettel went in so I was spitting when I saw Hamilton go past for another lap. McLaren have a team back in Woking who watch the TV feed and relay information back to the pitwall. If it was obvious to me, then surely it must've been obvious to them? You can play the safe option but they almost played it too safe.
Massa drove a superb race and did everything he was asked to do. He must look back at races such as Malaysia and Silverstone where it was his incompetencies that lost him the critical points, and given the overly harsh penalties applied to Hamilton over the course of the year (France, Belgium and Japan) Massa would not have been a deserving champion anyway. Did the best man win the championship? I think yes. Sure, Hamilton wasn't flawless and he made some massive mistakes through-out the course of the year such as ramming Raikkonen at Montreal, and the Fuji disaster. But there were also the races where he was supremely dominant, such as Australia, Britain, Germany and China.
People might argue that Kubica or Alonso would be more deserving champions. Perhaps, perhaps not. Kubica drove brilliantly through-out most of the year, but he really dropped it in the last three races. Alonso was outstanding in the final stages of the season, but there were also performances such as Monaco, Canada and Germany where he let some mistakes creep into his driving. I hope Renault and BMW can build decent cars for next year and that those two drivers can challenge Hamilton, Massa and a re-energised Raikkonen in 2009.
Congratulations to Ferrari for winning the constructors championship. It's difficult to say who had the best car as both teams were strong at different circuits (the Ferrari favoured the hotter conditions whereas the McLaren was better when it was cooler). I'm disappointed that Kovalainen couldn't make the step up and the fact that McLaren didnt win the constructors championship should fall largely on his shoulders. Still, a Ferrari fan might've said the same for Raikkonen had the cards fallen the other way.
All the same, 2008 hasnt been a vintage year. Too often we saw races decided by the stewards which left bitter tastes in the mouths of all genuine F1 fans. They were inconsistent and applied penalties seemingly at random. I still can't believe how they came to the Spa decision given the ambiguous nature where they should've erred on the side of discretion and allowed the result to stand. Noone was able to find a convincing argument for the penalty and the stewards never gave their reasons. I hope that in 2009 they take a step back and only involve themselves in incidents that are truly deserving of action.
Bye Bye to David Coulthard and ITV. I was disappointed to see Coulthard's race ended prematurely by Rosberg at the first corner and its a poor end to what has been a pretty solid career. In stark contrast, the send off for ITV couldn't have been better surely? An involving race, a highly emotive climax, a British champion, and a thoroughly enjoying commentary provided by James Allen, and Martin Brundle with Ted Kravitz giving us the best line of the race with 'it's highly illegal to be here in the pitlane, but it's our last race, who cares!' James Allen was informative, entertaining and delivered possibly his best performance in recent years. I hope he finds work in the sport because he is very good at what he does, but all the same I'm still glad for a change.