I love bench racing, it brings about interesting conversation.
As someone who has done a fair share of online oval racing, there are many times I have run across another racer, who although one or more laps down, races me as if we were racing for the win. Many times, it causes a lot of problems, and it's a good day if I managed to get a clean pass without losing too much time. I have a personal name for racers like that, and its "stupid". Racing is much more than just going out and running as hard as you can, as long as you can (Sato?). There's a lot more.. tire conservation, pit strategy, situational awareness, a whole lot of disciplines that can fall under the "racecraft" umbrella. That's why in F1, there are many test and Friday drivers who can cut darn quick laps, yet aren't considered ready or worthy of racing. Sometimes it's sponsorship issues, but most of the time, the driver is considered as lacking in the ability to bring the car home with maximum points. So what's my point? That drivers are all different, and to race successfully, you have to be smart, and use valid strategy. And we all know who had this year's best strategy, the people from Renault. It was a team that gave Alonso the chance to be champion, and he used their strategy to his advantage. McLaren had a different strategy, and it cost them. The first half of the season was pissed away by Mclaren, and that really hurt Kimi's chances.
Meanwhile, Renault, and especially Alonso got every bit of points they were capable of, despite the fact they posessed the second quickest car on the grid. Make no mistake, this year's Mclaren is a supercar, easily dominant over all the rest.
There have been expressed opinions that Alonso should have raced balls-out from the first race, saving nothing, risking more. But he didn't. He drove a very calculated and disclipined season, and it finally delivered him the title, what is what the game is all about. Personally, I'm very impressed by Alonso and the team strategy, it was almost flawless.
Twenty years from now, historians will remember him as the champ, and they will also recall his pass at 130R. Also will be remembered Kimi's suspension failing on the last lap at Germany. But no one will recall Alonso colliding with a fellow competitor and finishing second in the title, as (cough cough) some others have done. History remembers exciting moments, titles won, and driver errors. Alonso didn't make those kinds of errors. Instead, he remained disclipined, and ran his race, which netted him the title. A good car, fantastic strategy, incredible disclipine, and sticking to the game plan was what got Alonso the title.
It appears Kimi will finish second, despite probably winning more races. This will fuel a controversy for many years in the future, and it should. Personally, if you want to get emotional, and even maybe mad, at what appears a misjustice, look at the points system, especially the gap between second and winning. I don't like it, it rewards consistency and does not place enough emphasis on winning. I did some number crunching based on the old 10-6-4-3-2-1 system, and if it was in place, we would be enjoying a situation where Alonso has 95 points against Kimi's 93.
But in the end, everyone knew the points system at the beginning of the season, and just like designing a car, you use every available rule to your advantage. Hail Fernando Alonso, you won the title. You did good.
.....Bud, I don't see anyone talking about the fantastic pit stops from teams...well at least not climaxing over the fuel nozzle being inserted into the petrol tank......I see everyone pumped over the "super dooper R130 pass"......you know why they harped on about this R130 pass......because that was EXCITING and it was RACING and RACING used to be the core business of F1.....not $$$$$.