Season 2012 preview: One awesome Finn back, another impressive Finn out!

It was only two weeks ago when the Formula 1 season 2011 ended and there´ll be a looong way to go before the new one starts... We´ve already got some major news concerning the upcoming season. For months there have been a lot of different kinds of rumours in terms of Kimi Räikkönen´s comeback next season but at last it is finally official: the Iceman will be back in F1 action next season at the wheel of Lotus Renault! Not at Williams as it was predicted initially but at Lotus Renault. Yesterday we got confirmation of Kimi´s team-mate: it´s Romain Grosjean who will drive alongside Kimi in 2012!

Kimi´s comback is absolutely awesome news! Me being a huge Kimi fan I´m utterly delighted to see the Iceman back on the grid! Kimi seemed to enjoy his couple of years in WRC but rallying didn´t turn out to be "his thing" after all... Kimi has always enjoyed the tight wheel-to-wheel battle with his rivals so racing against the clock doesn´t feel the same. And with Kimi back the Formula 1 world is more interesting and entertaining than without him! Kimi has totally unique personality and he isn´t afraid of showing it :) Raw speed is definitely one of the key factors in terms of his talent. I´m pretty convinced that Kimi will get back in action in no time though especially the tyres have changed since his retirement. And Grosjean is a young driver who can´t wait to challenge the former world champion because this will be his second chance in Formula 1 and he´s under the pressure to convince all the people in the team of his talent... So I can´t wait to see how the things begin to evolve when the new season gets underway... Michael Schumacher´s comeback has proven that coming back into Formula 1 even though you´re (multiple) world champion isn´t as easy as you easily think. But I believe in Kimi and I´m sure his comeback will be success even though Lotus Renault may not be a top car yet.

I concidered Kimi´s comeback very likely before the official confirmation so I wasn´t actually surprised when I heard the news. But another piece of news made me totally surprised indeed... And that was the news of Sebastian Vettel´s Finnish trainer Tommi Pärmäkoski not continueing his work with Sebastian any more! I knew their contract was going to end this month but I was convinced that the successful duo would keep up their work together also during the 2012 season... But that isn´t the case however! I have very contradictory thoughts considering this decision...

For sure this decision will have some kind of an effect on Vettel´s next season. I´m not saying that it´s necessarily or automatically negative but I´m sure it feels like a setback to Sebastian. Tommi and Sebastian have been working closely together for three years and spending about 300 days a year with the same person inevitably makes you pretty close friends... Not to mention the chemistry between two people which cannot be taken for granted. I don´t know either one of the men personally but their team work has just seemed perfect...! They both seem like very warm-hearted persons who have showed extremely high motivation, inspiration and dedication at what they do. I have absolutely no doubt that the trainer replacing Tommi as Sebastian´s physio wouldn´t be as professional or competent at his work but still... Tommi´s absence will still have an effect on Sebastian´s career!

I couldn´t think in my wildest dreams that Tommi would quit his job as Sebastian´s physio after such a fairy-tale! But thinking about it more closely makes me understand Tommi´s decision better. I mean Tommi has done his job more than perfectly: in 2009 Sebastian was the runner-up in the world championship standings and in 2010 the young German won his first WDC after staggering last GP of the season... Not to mention this year which has been complete dominance by Sebastian leading to his second consecutive WDC making him the youngest-ever F1 double world champion! What is it there more to achieve...? Apart from the third, fourth or fifth championship..? Professionally speaking Tommi stands as high as he can ever get at the moment! So it´s understandable that he wants to conquer new challenges.

Race of Champions 2011 at Esprit Arena Dusseldorf

Vettel driving a Skoda Fabia S2000 rally car.

 Last April when it was announced that the Race of Champions 2011 will be held in Germany I knew I wanted to be there! At first the venue was confirmed to be the Commerzbank Arena in Frankfurt so I bought flight tickets to Frankfurt and booked a hotel there... And then the venue was changed from Frankfurt to Dusseldorf and I couldn´t cancel or change neither my flights nor the hotel! Nevertheless,
I changed my plans... I did fly to Frankfurt on December 1 with my sister and we spent two days shopping in Frankfurt! On Saturday morning we took an ICE train from Frankfurt to Dusseldorf where we had booked another hotel... The change of plans didn´t turn out to be too cheap because it costed quite a lot to travel by train and for the night between Saturday and Sunday we had a hotel room

 Michael Schumacher at the wheel of a KTM X-Bow.

Seb and Schumi took Nations Cup win again for the 5th time!

booked in two different cities! Nevertheless, the event was absolutely mind-blowing! I had great expectations before the Nations Cup because I knew Team Germany was going to be extremely competitive! And the team of 7-time F1 world champion and the youngest ever F1 double world champion didn´t let me down! No matter if Vettel was driving a KTM X-Bow, Skoda Fabia S2000 rally car or a ROC buggy or the Audi R8 his driving was pure magic! I mean the way the young German handled the car was approaching art...! Thanks to Vettel Team Germany made it to the final once again! The final was against Team Nordic, whose team consisted of Denmark´s Tom Kristensen and Finland´s Juho Hänninen! Ogier´s performance was impressive although he did lose to Team Nordic´s Juho Hänninen when they competed with the S2000

It was Schumi vs. Seb at the quarter-finals in the ROC buggy!

rally cars. At the wheel of his"own car" Hänninen was extremely fast but the other cars he wasn´t able to handle as well as the rally car... However, at the final there was no question about the winner! Schumacher beat Kristensen and Vettel beat Hänninen so it was 2-0 for Team Germany! Schumi and Sebastian took their 5th consecutive Nations Cup win so they seem to be totally unbeatable! I guess the two legendary German had quite a party on Saturday evening... ;) At least their performance had lost its sharpest magic overnight when there was time to crown the champion of the champions! Sebastian made it only to the quarter-finals where he competed against his compatriot Schumacher in the ROC buggy... Schumi won the battle which meant that Seb was out of the race! Schumi didn´t make his way through to the final, either and last year´s champion of the champions Filipe Albuquerque got out of the race long before quarter-finals already. Button had some impressive battles, so did the DTM champion Tomczyk but the final was between Denmark´s Tom Kristensen and the Frenchman Sebastien Ogier! Ogier took a sweeping victory by beating Kristensen 2-0 first with the world touring race car and then with the KTM X-Bow. The both drivers knew how to take the audience after the final. Both Ogier and Kristensen made some very impressive doughnuts and they both made a few laps of honour waving to the fans. I was pretty ashamed of the German fans who left the arena right after the final and didn´t watch the victory celebrations. I would have wanted to see Vettel taking the crown but I have to say Ogier really deserved to win that day, no doubt about that and he knew how to entertain the audience! I would have loved to see Schumi and Seb making laps of honour after their Nations Cup win but unfortunately they didn´t.

Ogier the champion, Kristensen the runner-up.

Describing how it was like to witness the event live there at Esprit Arena is difficult indeed...! It was an event I had been waiting for for 8 months! And I have to say I enjoyed every second of it truly. Many of the German motorsports fans were watching the show drinking beer at the same time but I didn´t need any alcohol to get tipsy! I was absolutely overwhelmed with excitement and thrilling motorsports action... Seeing especially Sebastian Vettel driving live in front of my very eyes was an absolute dream come true for me! If there was a remote control with which you could control your life, the Race of Champions would have been a moment when I would have clicked the "pause" button! Usually you run a busy life and you aren´t able to enjoy the moment you are living in but at Esprit Arena especially on December 3 the time virtually stopped and I enjoyed every second I experienced! I know I´m not a typical Finnish mother of three sons in her thirties... Not every Finnish mother flies across Europe to see Sebastian Vettel drive, not everyone even has a possibility to do so... So I know I´m privileged in that way. Although I also had some difficult moments during my trip all those were definitely worth suffering so that I could experience this magnificent and magical event!

Brazilian GP: Finally Webber got his slice of the glory!

Brazilian GP was supposed to be a rain-hit race! Everyone on the grid started on soft tyres because rain was expected at some point of the race. Against all odds we saw no rain at Interlagos today. Despite the lack of rain we saw a thrilling race indeed!

Sebastian on pole got another perfect start and started pulling a gap to his rivals  from the very first lap. Webber was able to maintain his second place while Alonso jumped Hamilton for 4th place. I had expected the race to be a mind-blowing show of Super Sebastian and it certainly looked like that after the opening laps... Until I heard on Vettel´s team radio that he had to manage a gear-box problem! After the race Team Principal Horner said that they had the problem from the lap five already! My heart was pounding and I was soooo afraid that Sebastian wouldn´t be able to bring his RB7 to the chequered flag!

Another difficult race for the 7-time world champion Michael Schumacher! He tried to overtake Senna in his Renault on lap 10 but they ended up colliding to each other... The collion caused a left rear puncture for Schumi and Senna´s front wing was damaged and both had to pit after the incident. The incident seemed a bit contradictory for me to judge which of the drivers was at fault... If I should have named either one, I guess I would have named Schumi to be at fault. So I was a bit surprised that it was Senna who got the drive-through penalty for causing a collision! Anyway, the race was over for both of them.

Button and Alonso had a battle of their own. On lap 11 Alonso was able to get pass Button quite unexpectedly. It was the same place where Schumi and Senna had collided previously and according to Button he had to back off because of the debris on the track. However, Button managed to take his position back from Alonso later on in the race.

There was another radio message for Sebastian saying that he had a serious gear-box problem! He had to turn down the engine and shortshift and use higher gears throughout the race... His team-mate Webber took over the lead from Vettel on lap 30. I have to say that at that stage of the race I had my suspicions... Was the gear-box problem real or was it an excuse to make Webber win the race to reach the runner-up spot in the championship standings? Considering that the German had a serious (!) gear-box problem he was able to set impressive lap times! Unlike Hamilton who also suffered from a gear-box problem and who had to retire the race due to the gear-box failure! Assuming that Sebastian´s gear-box issue was real his 2nd place was an absolutely brilliant achievement, sensational driving without destroying the gear-box for good!

Just before retiring Hamilton once again had intense wheel-to-wheel battle with Massa! But this time both drivers seemed to honour the spirit of good sportsmanship and fair play and we didn´t see any collisions between these gentlemen today!

So Webber ended up winning the race (his first win of the season) and Sebastian managed to bring his car home after a difficult race and made it a 1-2 for Red Bull. Button finished 3rd after being much more competitive on the harder tyres. Webber seemed surprisingly lame on the team radio after winning the race. I couldn´t help wondering if he also wondered about his team-mate´s gear-box problem... Webber is a real racing driver who wants to earn his victories and hates the idea that it would be handed over to him artificially. That´s one reason why I appreciate the Australian, his attitude is admirable.

Brazilian GP / Qualifying: Emotional 15th pole of the season for Sebastian!

So now it is happening, the final GP weekend of the season! I´m feeling pretty wistful because after tomorrow´s race there will be no Formula 1 racing for the next 4 months! And a weekend without F1 doesn´t really feel like a weekend at all... But let´s not worry about it yet because there´s still one more race to go!

There were predictions that it would rain at some point during the qualifying session so almost all cars went out when the Q1 got underway. No matter if it rained or not, I personally had only one prediction: Sebastian Vettel would be on pole! I do realise that no-one can succeed all the time and I would have understood perfectly if Seb hadn´t taken the pole today... But the 24-year-old German just surpassed all my expectations! He was the only guy to go under 1.12 minutes and what a lap he did...! He had the fastest lap time already after the first runs but still he managed to improve his lap time by a few tenths in his second run. And despite the predictions we saw no rain during the entire qualifying session.

Like many times earlier this season, there were no real surprises at the qualifying today. What caught my eye today was that in Q2 Senna in Renault was in P9 whilst his team-mate Petrov was unable to make his way through to Q1 and qualified 15th. Senna´s performance has been very impressive. Rosberg in his Mercedes made an impressive effect on me in Q2 aswell by getting P2 just behind Vettel. Though in Q3 his pace didn´t turn out to be so competitive after all... His team-mate Schumacher had difficulties once again to reach the Q3 but he made it by a hairbreadth.

Like I already told, the Q3 was a mesmerising show by Super Sebastian! No rival of him had any chance to challenge the Red Bull driver for pole today! Red Bull made it a front row lock-out as Webber qualified 2nd. Button managed to make a very decent lap aswell and he starts from P3 tomorrow followed by his team-mate Hamilton in P4. Rosberg splits the Ferrari duo by reaching P6.

Super Sebastian has been on pole numerous times this season but there´s something extraordinary about this one. This isn´t just any pole, this is the 15th pole of the season for Seb which means that he has just broken Nigel Mansell´s record for most pole positions in a season! No wonder the flying German seemed so emotional after the race. How can he do it...? He made absolutely no mistakes on his final flying lap which has been charasteristic of him during this season... I don´t know if there´s some Christmas magic or something but I´m totally amazed by Seb´s driving! He says there´s no secret how he´s able to pull out the few tenths every time they are needed but there must be something... If there´ll be no technical issues I know tomorrow´s race will be mind-blowing dominance by Sebastian!

Breaking Mansell´s pole record isn´t the only historical thing about Sebastian this weekend. I read in the Finnish newspaper this week that the President of Finland would have been willing to invite Sebastian to the Independence Day reception taking place in Helsinki on December 6th. I´m soooo sad that he is unable to attend because it would have been a huge honour both for him and the Finnish people! Though Sebastian joked about getting invited there last year after winning his first world championship I´m quite sure that he couldn´t have expected in his wildest dreams that the President of Finland would actually REALLY invite him there... Double F1 world champion is a busy man for sure but I do hope from the bottom of my heart that Sebastian´s Finnish physio Tommi Pärmäkoski has got the invitation to attend the reception. With his work he has raised awareness of Finland in the world and spread a wonderful positive image of Finland. Not to mention his work which has been absolutely phenomenal! The team work between Sebastian and Tommi seems to be pure magic :D:D

Abu Dhabi GP: first DNF of a season for Sebastian!

I have to admit I had such huge expectations for the race right before the start. The race, however, got a very unpredicted turn right after the lights had gone off. Sebastian on pole got a fantastic start and was in lead going to turn 1... Then he suddenly spun off the track with a puncture of his right rear tyre! So the race was over for him before it even got started... Very very disappointing to see Sebastian limping back to the pit lane and facing retirement due to the damage in the rear suspension. Sebastian himself looked very disappointed. I´m sure he had expected Abu Dhabi GP to be another success story for him. It doesn´t comfort a lot but nobody can have success all the time. Setbacks are part of motorsports...

So because Vettel was out of the race, the lead was all Hamilton´s. Alonso took a brilliant start from P5 and managed to overtake both Webber and Button. At first the race seemed a bit boring because Alonso couldn´t quite catch Hamilton to challenge him. Luckily we did see some entertaining battle between Webber and Alonso for example. Webber could possibly have reached the podium today without the delayed first pit stop that he had... I don´t know what exactly went wrong but the pit stop lasted at least 5 seconds longer than it should have! Even Massa got ahead of Webber so they had an intense battle with each other aswell...!

Button in his McLaren had some problems during the race and his pace was about a second slower than his team-mate´s. After the race Button told that he had issues with the KERS system. But in spite of the difficulties Button finished the race third. Tyres played a significant role today aswell. In the second pit stops all other top drivers put the prime tyres on except for Webber who continued the race with option tyres and pitted on the final lap to fullfil the tyre regulation! Hard to say but it could have been the right call if there hadn´t been any problems in the first pit stop... I was kind of sad for Mark really. I would have liked to see him on the podium after a difficult season.

People have naturally different opinions but I was glad to see Hamilton winning the race instead of Alonso. Hamilton desperately needed this win! After all the difficulties and setbacks that the man has faced during this season, both professional and personal, it was gratifying to see Hamilton win today. Hopefully his battered self-esteem gets better after this impressive victory. Me being a person with very low self-esteem I can understand how much this win must mean to Hamilton. Button´s 3rd place with all the KERS issues was impressive aswell.

Abu Dhabi GP / Qualifying: Vettel takes record pole!

The framework for the GP weekend at Abu Dhabi couldn´t be any more spectacular! The atmosphere is visually outstanding! The darkening night of Abu Dhabi brings its own magic to the Formula 1 world... So does definitely the unstoppable German Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel! Once again he stole pole position from Hamilton (and everyone else) and equalled Nigel Mansell´s record of 14 poles in a season!

Q1 held no surprises really. Except for Barrichello in his Williams. He had suffered an oil leak earlier and the mechanics weren´t able to fix his car in time for the qualifying so the Brazilian wasn´t able to set a lap time. His team-mate Maldonado didn´t have a very good day either. He had to take the ninth engine of the season so he was handed a 10-place penalty which means that the Williams duo will start last on the grid. No wonder everyone is expecting Kimi Räikkönen to come back! Maybe the flying Iceman would be the magical driver to improve Williams´pace in a radical way... The team desperately needs significant improvement!

Same old story in Q2, too. The top 5 teams were Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes GP and Force India. The Toro Rossos weren´t able to make their way through to Q3 today. Hamilton topped the standings after Q2 and he seemed extremely fast and dangerous. But when Q3 got underway, the story got a new turn...!

The conditions had changed a bit after Q2. The evening had darkened and the track had cooled down a bit. Hamilton set an impressive lap time at his first attempt, so did his team-mate Button. But when it mattered the most there was no stopping the incredibly fast German! Super Sebastian was able to snatch over a tenth off Hamilton´s lap time and he made it the 14th pole of the season! Even wow sounds too dull a word at the moment... The young German is absolutely mesmerising in his glistening bling-bling helmet, there are no words to describe his performance well enough... Hamilton starts P2 and his team-mate Button P3. The McLaren duo split the Red Bulls. Webber had a tricky session and was left 4th.

Indian GP: The statistics tell more than a thousand words...!

There was absolutely no doubt about Sebastian Vettel´s superiority today! I don´t even have to think up any new words that would describe the young German´s dominant performance today. The statistics tell more than a thousand words: pole position (the 13th of the season), all laps lead from start to finish, the fastest lap of the race and the race win (11th of the season) for Super Sebastian... The man is getting so amazing that I should invent whole new words for his performance...!

Back to the start. Vettel took another superb start and was able to maintain his lead. Button´s performance has been phenomenal in the last few races and he had the perfect opening lap: he was able to pass both Webber and Alonso and he managed to keep up with Vettel´s pace. However I have to say that the race was a bit boring! Don´t get me wrong, I enjoyed every moment of the race with Vettel in the lead but there wasn´t as much overtaking as I had predicted because there were two separate DRS zones at the Buddh International Circuit.

Like many other times before during this season there was McLaren´s Lewis Hamilton in the limelight with Ferrari´s Felipe Massa -again! The incident happened on lap 24 when Hamilton tried to overtake Massa from the inside. Massa ended up crashing to Hamilton but both of them were able to continue the race. Hamilton had to pit to get a new front wing and the stewards gave Massa a drive-through penalty which was the right call in my opinion! Massa left no room for Hamilton although he must have seen Hamilton alongside him... And not even Hamilton can be at fault every time a collision takes place on track! Hamilton´s race, however, was ruined after the extra pit stop and he finally finished 7th. Massa had to retire some laps later after his front-left suspension got loose. I have to admit I was a bit gleeful just for Hamilton ;)

The inaugural Indian GP was lacking some thrilling wheel-to-wheel battle. Vettel lead all laps and Button was able to maintain the 2nd place just about 3-5 seconds behind him. Webber was third until the second pit stops when Alonso managed to overtake him and he finished the race 3rd leaving Webber 4th. At least there was no need for any team orders by Red Bull! Schumi performed extremely well and finished 5th right ahead of his team-mate Nico Rosberg.

It feels absolutely right that Vettel, Button and Alonso wanted to dedicate their achievements to Dan Wheldon and Marco Simoncelli who got killed recently in the fatal accidents. Like Vettel said at the press conference after the race, it´s kind of mixed emotions. On one hand this is extremely sad time in the world of motor sports but on the other hand I would say that we´re experiencing something utterly amazing at the moment. Record after record gets broken when Vettel gets loose! And what is best about this triumph is that regardless of unbelievable and utterly staggering permormance on track and ultimate success the young man has been able to keep his feet firmly on the ground! I have said this also before but I can´t help underlining how much I admire and appreciate the young Red Bull driver because of his attitude! Attitude like this cannot be taken for granted.