Over the Curbs Awards – 2011

After a stunning 2010 season where till the final race of the season you were not sure who will win the F1 Driver’s Championship but 2011 turned out to be a year where Vettel not only became the youngest double World Champion but also broke Mansell’s long standing record of the most number of poles in a season. Red Bull proved that they are no one-hit wonder and that they are here to stay. Red Bull was so dominant that Vettel and RBR won the titles even before the season was over. McLaren and Ferrari were able to challenge the team only at few races while the mid-field battle between Force India, Sauber and STR was pretty exciting.

Schumacher nearly hot the podium in Canada but though he still struggles in qualifying, overall the German Legend has improved his race pace and given a good car can challenge for wins once again though there were silly errors from him throughout the season. Also the whole Lotus saga comes to an end with Lotus Renault GP will now become Lotus while Team Lotus will become Caterham.

Robert Kubica was severely injured before the season started and he is not ready to drive a F1 car. We all hope during the course of the 2012 season, he can atleast drive a car in tests and show that he still has it in him. Also there were talks of Kimi racing for Williams and Lotus Renault for 2012 but given the state of global economy and Kimi’s inflated salary, don’t think a Kimi comeback is on cards.

Among the 3 new tears none really made a huge progress but Team Lotus did manage to challenge some mid-field team during a few races and they should make the jump from this pack to challenge the likes of Sauber and STR. Williams are on a deep slide and they had their worst ever F1 season. If they continue going this way they may end up like the original Team Lotus and may eventually go into liquidation. For 2012 they have big plans and they have signed up with Renault for engines. They had the same Renault engines during their successful period 1989 to 1997. Realistically, we can’t expect the team to win races but they should be challenging the likes of Sauber and STR.

Also there was the first ever Indian GP and it managed to go on without a hitch while Force India has sold a 42% stake to the Sahara group and with Sahara coming onboard, the only way for Force India is to go up and after a stunning last 2 seasons, the team should challenge the likes of Lotus Renault for the coming season.

Over the Club Awards for 2011 Season:

Driver of the Season – Sebastian Vettel

Team of the Season – Red Bull Racing

The Next Big Thing – Paul di Resta

Most Improved Driver – Jenson Button

Most Improved Team – Force India

Race of the Season – Canadian Grand Prix

Best Grand Prix – Singapore Grand Prix

Worst Grand Prix – Chinese Grand Prix

Rookie of the season – Paul di Resta

Most disappointing driver of the Season – Lewis Hamilton

Most disappointing team of the Season – Williams

Lucky to be in F1 (for the season) - Jarno Trulli

Veteran of the Season – Michael Schumacher

Comeback of the Season – Adrian Sutil

Most entertaining driver of the season – Michael Schumacher

Most boring driver of the season – Vitaly Petrov

JV of the Season – Lewis Hamilton
(For the driver who talks utter nonsense like how JV used to do it in his racing days)

Whiner of the season - Rubens Barrichello

Most missed Driver – Robert Kubica

Least missed Driver - Pedro de la Rosa