With the 2009 motorsport season all but over (only the NASCAR sprint cup still has to be resolved and it will be a major surprise if Jimmy Johnson doesn't win another title) it is time to reflect on another season. Rather than a detailed review of each series I'm going to concentrate on my personal highs and lows of the season and give various awards worth absolutely nothing to the recipients.
Commentary of the year
With BBC taking over from ITV I had high hopes of an improved commentary. Unfortunately Jonathan Legard's delivery is terminally dull and made be regret being so rude about James Allen. Martin Brundle was as good as ever and DC was worth listening too but why on earth did the BBC employ Eddie Jordan. His comments were seldom useful and his delivery irritating.
The biggest change in commentary comes with the arrival of Twitter. Drivers and commentators can now directly interact with the fans. In this form an honourable mention has to go to Sniffpetrol (@sniffpetrol) 's hilarious take on the F1 races, in fact they were far more interesting than the races themselves. However for true interaction and the overall prize for commentary of the year goes to Dickie Meaden (@dickiemeaden) for his tweeting during the Nurburgring 24 hours. The tweets oddly made you feel like you were part of an event even though I was in a different country.
Race of the year
The rule changes in F1 were supposed to bring about improved racing but in my opinion completely failed so for me and to be honest the racing was better in 2008.
From the other formulas there were two to choose from.
Narrowly missing the top spot was the MotoGP at Barcelona. A titanic stuggle between Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo decided by a win or bin pass on the last corner by Rossi would make the top spot except that is was still not quite as good as the 2008 Laguna Seca MotoGP. The winner for 2009 also proves that endurance racing isn't boring, the ALMS GT2 battle also at Laguna Seca. Enjoy..
Series of the Year
Tough one this year as there has been no real stand out series (In 2007 and 2008 I would have given it to the ALMS). Despite the Brawn "fairy tale" F1 has been a major turn off as for all the hype the racing itself has been very dull.
The Le Mans series might have been good but the TV coverage has been patchy so it has been difficult to tell. The aforementioned ALMS suffered from the departure of Audi (except for Sebring and the Petit Le Mans) and Penske Porsche.
WRC has become a shadow of its former self and needs a radical rethink in both cars and format of the events to bring back the fans. The BTCC and WTCC can produce exciting racing but the cars are just so uninspiring.
So perhaps by default the season long inter team battle between the Yamaha riders gives MotoGP the title of series of the year.
Most improved driver/rider of the year.
The obvious choice for this is Jenson Button, from also ran to champion in a year is quite some turnaround. Trouble is a lot of his success can be attributed to having a clear car advantage in the first few races, and when the other teams caught up he produced a number of lacklustre mid season drives, and perhaps was a little fortunate that the resurgence of Mclaren and Ferrari took points away from the Red Bull drivers to see Jenson home.
My prize for most improved driver of the year goes to a former F1 driver in Juan Pablo Montoya. After two mid field season Montoya has discovered what makes NASCAR tick and now is a regular top ten finisher (the key to NASCAR success) and surprise title contender (at the time of writing he sits in forth place in the Sprint Cup and is the leading non Hendrick Motorsports driver). Surely the elusive win on an oval cannot be far away.
Chump(s) of the year
No shortage of contenders of for this one, beginning with Lewis Hamilton for lying to the Stewards at the Australian Grand Prix. Hardly the behaviour expected of F1's biggest star.
Dale Earnhardt Junior is the biggest star in NASCAR drives for the biggest team Hnedrick Motorsport and has managed absolute nothing all season.
Max Moseley gets a mention for being well Max Moseley, but misses the top spot for doing the decent thing and finally stepping down as President of the FIA.
I'm not sure if Ralf Schumacher has achieved anything in DTM this year but you can't have a chump of the year award without mentioning him.
Final dishonourable mention goes to the Williams team for seemingly disagreeing with all the other teams on every decision. It will no doubt be the big talking point in 2010 if they do use KERS when all the other teams have agreed not to use it.
The winner(s) prize go to to (and not exactly a surprise here) Flavio Briatore, Nelson Piquet Junior and Pat Symmonds for the crashgate scandal. Surely after the spying scandal between Mclaren and Ferrari, Renault would have thought that F1 had, had enough scandals for now but no deliberately crashing a car to benefit the other (Alonso). Briatore's ban was well deserved.
Driver/Rider of the year
Honourable mention goes to Sebastian Loeb for his sixth World Rally title. An incredible achievement but the trouble is there is not a lot of opposition to him. Hopefully the arrival of Ken Block in WRC will spice things up in 2010.
Despite Loeb's achivements in WRC, they do not compare to Valentino Rossi's achievements in MotoGP. Nine world titles in 125, 250, 500 and MotoGP over 100 wins and counting (only Agostini has more). What sets Rossi apart is that he does it with such style. One cannot imagine Loeb or Schumacher putting a donkey on their helmet after making a mistake (in this case falling off at Indianapolis) and Bernie would never allow his over the top celebrations. By his own admission Jorge Lorenzo pushed him harder than any other rival this year, but each time Rossi was able to respond and somehow get better. Rossi is now one of the older riders against the new generation of riders such as Lorenzo and Stoner, and I suspect thoughts of retirement can't be too far away. This must be of some concern to the MotoGP promoters as both the trackside and TV audience will almost certainly fall without his (yellow) army of fans. For all this he is not my Driver/Rider of the year, he is my Driver/Rider of the decade.
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