bernie's dream battle is a little short sighted. My dream battle - Hamilton vs Kimi vs Alonso vs Vettel, trading wins and podiums all season. 2009 is gonna be a cracker.

no more useless street circuits. enough already

Yes, because it looked like result engineering, even though it was luck of the draw. A safety car throws up a lottery anyway with different people on different fuel strategies, it's unfair to penalize somebody who needs to refuel because some other nitwit has had a big crash. And you can't use Max's argument of "Put more fuel in the cars" as you don't know when or if a safety car will be deployed. This new system looks like it will work much better

I cannot believe that Button won't switch to STR!! A Newey designed chassis with a Ferrari engine is sure to wipe the floor with anything "Honda" should produce. They were a genuine mid pack team last year who produced a win on merit, unlike Honda's only win, which required both MS and FA to fall off the track first. This is exactly why he has never fulfilled his potential. A complete brain dead nutter when it comes to career decisions.

PLEEEEEEEEEZZZZZ no more bloody street circuits. Wots the point of upping safety at tracks, run off areas etc etc, then go race between concrete barriers on a public road? NO NO NO NO NO - they are too flipping boring

lets see what the ferrari detractors have to say about this

considering how poor Ferrari were in the rain last year, they should be putting in as much wet weather testing as they can

The new regs aren't actually to make overtaking any easier, but rather eliminating some of the turbulence behind the cars that makes it so difficult to follow more closely, which in turn will make it easier for cars that are a second a lap faster to overtake. So we probably won't see much of Trulli the mobile chicane this year and Kimi won't have any excuses to be stuck behind Force Indias and Toyotas anymore.

All those who think that the team with the best KERS is going to wipe the floor with everybody else need to just be reminded that the very best KERS can improve a lap time is by about 3 tenths. If the aero and mechanical grip package is not the best, that 3 tenths won't mean squat. BMW might have the only working KERS (so far, according to them) but unless their car is significantly improved, the Maccas and Ferrari's are still going to drive away from them most of the season.

Love that last line - without us there would be no FIA - as if the only formula the FIA governs is F1. Bernie, please just go retire quietly somewhere, anywhere. We don't need buffooning imbeciles looking after the sport. And what a complete knob to say that Moseley and FIA shouldn't have intervened in the cost cutting process. Is he aware that FOTA was heavily involved too and completely agreed with the FIA on all the aspects? Bernie - go lie down

Would be nice to see Renault come to the party. If BMW are strong again and Renault raise their game it will be a very good four way fight for most of the season.

If he sticks at Honda it will be ANOTHER year of surviving the season while they focus on next years car. Come on Jens, for petes sake, go to STR. They have an Adrian Newey designed chassis and Ferrari engines. What more could you possible want? It'll be your best chance to actually fight for some points again and who knows, an opportunity similar to Vettels might present itself when all the cards fall the right way and you earn a race a win. I really, really dont see that happening in a Honda, or whatever their name might be. Driving a Honda next year might be even worse than taking a year out.

Button, don't be a twit, move to STR and partner Buemi. Think, Adrian Newey chassis and a Ferrari engine. It will in all likely hood be the best you have driven in the last five years.

I've said this before : 2 race wins, 2 pole positions, 7 other podiums and 10 fastest laps scoring 75 points and in with a chance of winning the WDC with three races to go - what a complete an utter loser hey, what a terrible season. Give the guy a break for goodness sake. Half the drivers on the grid, who are equally as fast as Kimi, would give their left nut for a season like that just once in their careers.

its actually not that bad - i suppose if anybody could make a silk purse from a pigs ear, the Italians could. Love that body towards the rear.

honestly, he does have a point. I would rather be a multiple race winner in another top line formula or series than race for scraps at the back in F1.

out of interest, i wonder what the cost of developing this fail safe system was? It really just proves the big teams will still spend big money, just on different things. Anyway, we all laugh at the system because its the only one. How many incidents have occurred through the lollipop mans error? Nobody really makes a fuss of those.

It's almost like a fairy tale come true. Somebody with significant political clout in the sport stands up and says publicly what everybody wants to hear.

Silverarrow, you are kidding right? You do know that we DON't live in mud huts and wild animals DON't roam the streets. Now if you had said killed by a mugger or victim of some random violent act, you would have shown a better grasp of the world in general, rather than your very obvious lack of knowledge about anything other than your neighbourhood

I'm not sure I understand how the limit on RPM will save any significant costs when each team is limited to a maximum number of engines for the season anyway and the engines have already been designed to cope with stresses over 20 000 RPM. I also see don't get how banning refueling will help. Surely they just use the same rigs every year? And the part about banning tire warmers doesn't make much sense either, as surely the cars will be far more difficult drive for an additional 2 or 3 laps after each stop, raising the risk of a driver losing control more quickly and incurring a rather expensive crash. Anyway, if my buddy can afford tire warmers for his bike in a local yokel race series, the cost saving is again, insignificant to an F1 team.

"at which point Massa lost the plot, cut the chicane and crashed into him, spinning Lewis to the back of the field. It was an inadvertently brilliant move because Massa's deserved penalty put him a long way down the order, while Hamilton needed to stop and change his tyres anyway." Those two sentences sum up exactly how maniacally biased this site is to Lewis. In the race I watched, it was a brain dead move completely devoid of skill and any forethought, that could have taken them both out of the race. Justifying the move as brilliant because Mass was penalized and it put him at the back of the pack is the most ridiculous I have ever heard. How brilliant would that pass have been had Massa taken Hamilton's wing off or damaged the suspension?? Give me a break.

I'm quite surprised actually. Earlier reports seemed to indicate that Williams were among the only teams on top of the KERS project. Now it's been said to be impossible and far to costly. I suppose it had to be an indication if teams like Ferrari and McLaren, with an enormous budget and excellent technical departments for both race and road cars are struggling, it probably wasn't a good idea to begin with.

And when you're passed, oh little poison dwarf, we fans will say - Bernie will be no great loss. He wasted millions. Managers come and go, it's not the end of the world. Tosser

Yup, cutting back on a magazine and firing the grid girls. That'll knock a 100 mil off the budget next season ...

The death knell of F1. Honda may not be the last team pulling out of the series yet. Hooray - a manufacturers series sooner than we hoped, with no poison dwarf or mad max. Decent looking cars, consistent rules, professional stewards, a return to decent tracks and the wall of champions - it's gonna be so sweet

I really do wish Mark well and a speedy recovery. Unlike Jenson though, he made what seemed to be the right choices available to him and ended up with cars that failed to perform or finish. Maybe one day ...

don't get too excited guys - the 1500 turbos from the 80's used to kick out more horsepower than the NA engines do today, so it won't be a bad idea if they can still use V configuration engines. Gotta agree with Velocityboy about not changing the rules every year. Draw up a set of rules and FREEZE them for 5 years at a time. That way development costs after 2 - 3 years will drastically reduce.

"As an F1 spectacle, the Belgian GP was one of the most gripping motor races of all time." I really, really don't think they showed the same race in South Africa - Kimi never looked like losing till the rain came in the last two laps and hardly any positions changed till then. I nearly fell asleep, twice. What is this clown going on about? Perhaps F1 didn't exist before Hamilton then? As a casual hop on over to the forum on this site will come up with 100 races in the last 50 years that were better than Spa. In fact, I can think of about 5 this season that were more interesting to watch the WHOLE way through, not just 2 laps at the end.

If Ferrari are to continue the domination they've had over the last decade, they need a driver with Alonso's work ethic. Schumacher had it, which made him, and the car great. Kimi is unbeatable when he turns up, but is more of an "arrive and drive" kind of guy. Massa just doesn't have that sheer mental will to win, the kind that true champions have. So they need an Alonso type driver - who knows how to win championships, who has the grit to haul himself from the back of the grid onto the podium, can drive around a car that isn't perfectly set up and can drive bloody fast in the rain, because those are the races that make or break or championship.

I was always under the impression that you wanted to host an F1 race coz you could make truck loads of cash from it. It boggles my mind that they earn nothing from TV rights or anything other than ticket sales!! No other sport in the world is like that. Every other stadium earns TV money. And the little poison dwarf still wanted the teams to agree to a 20 race schedule to make more money!!

maybe it's just me, but i would bow out gracefully after my contract had ended with one of the top teams rather than become an also ran down the back of the order. i'm sure it's thrilling driving a F1 car, but when you've done it for a number of years already and earned squillions of dollars in the process, wouldn't you rather exit on a high note than be compared to the "monkeys at the back"?

About this Belgian race ... I must have been watching a completely different race to PF1 - it wasn't entertaining at all. If it wasn't for the rain in the last three laps, Kimi would have won it comfortably from the front the whole BLEEDING race. It was dullsville deluxe. And also, about this "controversial penalty" - Japan 2005, Alonso pulls a similar move on Trulli, hands back the place but immediately retakes it. Stewards rule a few laps later that you may not challenge again until after the next corner - Alonso is told by team he needs to let Trulli back past or he will get a drive through, which meant that he now had to slow down and wait to be caught up first before he can give the place back. So it isn't a new thing.

I think the Italian outfit will suit Alonso quite well. They seem to have a bit more flair about the way they do things compared to McLaren. I'm no Alonso fan, but I respect his skill and think it will be brilliant to watch him in a Ferrari. As far as comments are that Alonso was beaten by Lewis last year - maybe you should have another look at the Stats page. I remember them finishing with equal points.

I think the current format is fine just the way it is. I even think qualifying on race fuel adds that little bit extra to the strategy of the race and gives the boffins a little extra brain work out. A point for pole position is a good idea, and so would a point for fastest race lap be a good idea. They do it in A1GP and it stops the whole cruising to the end of the race crap we see so often.

don't you guys get it yet - every time Hammy sneezes PF1 thinks it's newsworthy. Instead of wasting time with cr@p like this, why don't they rather make more of an effort to find out what's going on behind the scenes at some of the teams, where they are with development, how long before they launch 2009 cars and one or two more pics of the interim cars running 2009 aero bits so we can start getting used to them, after all, they are the most ridiculous race cars I have ever seen. Maybe if that stupid rear wing wasn't quite so narrow...

uhhh, Karim - 7 different winners this year and every team apart from Force India managed a podium finish and with three races to go there were still 4 drivers in with a chance of winning the WDC title. We saw some incredible overtaking moves by several different drivers and the most heart stopping finale ever. Did you even watch any of the races? Anyway, I'm pretty sure next year will see a four way battle with Ferrari, McLaren, BMW & Renault with the rest of the teams popping into the top every now and then.

Seb Loeb, voted greatest WRC driver of all time - the man's class clearly shows but I'd hate to see him end up like the World Superbike stars that moved to MotoGP and became also rans. Anyway, you think Fernando Alonso would agree to partnering with Loeb? Coz that has the potential to be more embarrassing for the man as being matched by a young rookie in those silver cars.

and you came to that conclusion by yourself adi1031? so the full grandstands then are just an illusion then? It's just that despicable little troll trying to bleed the sport dry before he kicks the bucket.

is there nobody on this website that has a bloody sense of humour??? These articles are NOT serious and are really just for a bit of fun. instead of writing comments about bashing others, why not add to the article by reminding us of some other absurd or funny event that happened in the season.

HA HA HA. Visions of the joke "If Microsoft made cars" comes to mind - stopping for no apparent reason and pulling over to the side of track to reboot. "Are you sure you want to exit?" messages after each pit stop, ha ha ha. Let's hope it's just the hardware then. :-)

Totally agree with Astonmartin and co. Really sick and tired of reading about Kimi taking out Sutil. If it was any other driver it wouldn't even have featured for the rest of the season. It would have been written down for what it was - racing incident. It's a shame they're so ill informed they didn't hear the bit afterwards where Force India admitted they needed to pit Sutil in the next couple of laps anyway. Planks

And here I thought he might have something intelligent to say about. Talk about sensationalist headlines!

RichardW - the big price tag includes all the development costs divided by number of engines built for the year. Making engines cheaper just means less money spent on development which ultimately means less advances in the sport. Go Max!! Pretty soon A1GP and GP2 cars will be wiping the floor with F1

ilAlfisto, agree with you but look at it from the marketing point of view. I bet they have packed race track for that test. Ka-ching! Rossi in a Ferrari merchandising. After Ferrari World, anything is possible. Love the cars, but the excess sickens me a little.

I think Rochester has the most valid point. I build you a good car, I give you mechanics and engineers to make it go fast enough to win and decide how best to go about it and I pay you millions of dollars to "risk your life" in a car that is literally bullet proof and can withstand a 12G front impact, I think I might keep the original trophies. After all, sponsors spending tens of millions with the team might not fancy the idea of looking at a cheap knock off.

I think some people really need to catch a wake up on here. Did you actually watch the season?? Rubens scored 8 more points than Jenson thanks to the tactical genius of Ross Brawn putting him on extreme wets at the right time at Silverstone. Look at the team mate comparison table and you'll see why Jenson has a seat for next year and Rubens doesn't.

i think it's really pathetic how the trolls will latch on to any desperate excuse. The title wasnt decided in the last corner but over the whole season. I agree - give it a rest now.

I think Mr Hill, you are maybe forgetting about the exceptionally large pool of top class drivers in F1 at the moment. The likes of Alonso, Raikkonen, Massa, Kubica and even Vettel should not be taken lightly for next year. Anyway, even though I have been tifosi for many years, I'm glad Hamilton won this year. With so much great competition to drive against and teams producing cars that are closer in performance he could easily have turned into the next David Coulthard - always the bridesmaid, never the bride - and I simply could not bear the thought of the incessant whining of the Brits every year. So at least now they can say he did it and we don't need to be reminded about how long since their last champ.

Rossi, stop teasing us please. Imagine the possibility of Italy's favorite son in a Ferrari going head to head to Hammy and Alonso!! Aaah! Bring it on