On the road circuits:
McGuinness and Donald’s lap records at the Isle of Man were the bravest things I saw this year.
Battle between Audi and Pueguot at Le Mans

VW winning the Dakar
Brawn GP Team achievements
Rossi getting closer to Agostini
Peugeot at LeMans
Dirty Max vanishing act
Barring aero devices in F1
Massa’s luck
Kimi and Fisi at Spa, Vettel mastery and Barrichelo at Monza

Worst of 2009:

Henry Surtees
Donington loss
Schumacher’s abortion
McLaren Team Ethics
Sportsmanship loss

How I miss the 1500 Formula and specially those great drivers…

Audi finally being beaten at Le Mans
Aston at Le Mans
Fisichella at Spa

Worst of 2009:
Henry Surtees
Abu Dhabi representing everything wrong with F1
Schumacher coming back

Sadly the latter is going to infect 2010 as well. I am disgusted that this odious confirmed cheat is being welcomed back with anything other than hostility and blanket condemnation.

He may ultimately be the final straw that keeps me from watching my first F1 season in 22 years of being a fan.

worst
F1

The sunday of the Goodwood Revival meeting: best racing of the whole year, superb cars, brilliant atmosphere and Buzz Aldrin!!

Jenson in Brazil

Worse

What has been allowed to happen to by far the very best track in the UK: Donington Park. An absolute disgrace by all those involved. Lets hope that the circuit will rise from the ashes again and that it becomes a fitting memorial to the memory of Tom Wheatcroft

Henry Surtees

Seeing Webber win his first F1 race
Seeing “Mad Max” finally go
Listening to the Motor Sport podcasts on my ipod on the way to work
Finally hearing the Grand Prix du Roc
Seeing the F1 order overturned

Worst

Henry Surtees
Lie-gate, crash-gate and any other “gate”
Donington Park being vandalised with Ecclestone’s aquiesence
Schumacher’s return
Abu Dhabi – should we be more interested in surrounding architecture rather than the race track itself?

Worst
1 – Massa’s accident
2 – The GT1 entry list in the LMS
3 – Hirvonen loosing by a point
4 – Brabham was driving a Peugeot! :-)

WORST:
The Henry Surtees and Massa crashes…
No U.S. or Canadian races…
Valencia, Singapore, Shanghai and Malaysia…
Dearth of in-car videos for full laps…
The twilight finish at Australia…
Kimi’s obvious lack of effort excpt at his favorite, Spa.

Worst
Henry Surtees (God Speed)
Massa’s Accident (we nearly lost another racer)

JB’s overtaking his way to a World Championship.

The F1 driver menu that has developed for 2010 – in theory, 8 cars will start every race with a chance of winning it.. When was that last the case? 1985?

Worst – or at least the saddest..

Henry Surtees

The destruction of Donington Park.

The departures of Ron Dennis, Davey Ryan and Pat Symonds

Best of 2009
Max Mosely moving on
Massa’s recovery from his injuries – great news
Mark Webber’s first win – Come on Aussie, Come on!!
Jody Scheckter’s humour

Worst of 2009
Max not leaving any sooner
The complete mess made of Donnington

2010 is already highly anticipated
How good will Kimi be?
How will Schuey go?
More wins for Mark Webber?
The end of pit refueling – definately a good thing – means I don’t have to get my abacus out just to watch a race.
Casey Stoner vs Rossi

And lastly – I want to see the return of Gigi Galli!

Thanks to the team at Motorsport – another great year of reading and podcasting – keep up the good work!

Paddy

Brawn, née Honda, winning, and by a country mile. Tochigi must be soooo sad.
Jenson pulling his finger out (well, most of the season), and for having the nerve to move to McLaren for 2010
Seeing Mister DNF winning. Well, done Mark!!!
Seeing Schumacher M. falling off a bike, break his neck but surviving the crash still able to walk. You have no idea how lucky you are mister!

Worst
Cheating. All of you, even those who didn’t get caught. A plague on all your houses!!!
Alonso still being in business (would have been my comment in 2007, & 2008, too. Sorry Pedro, you might drive fast, but I remain unconvinced. Very ).
Hearing that Schumacher M. and Ross Brawn are back together again. Oh, dear.

Button in Brazil was good, just to show how good he CAN be .. whether he can do that every race – which he will have to do to beat Hamilton is another question.

Roebucks impersonation of Lauda

The worst:
Jenson Button not winning the Sports Personality of the Year Award (who is Ryan Giggs)
My mum breaking her wrist.

All the best for the New Year.
Ian.

Schumacher Return

Having my question answered in a Podcast

Having my other question answered by Nigel the next day

Seeing Felipe Massa completely recovered

Seeing Sir Stirling reach 80 still a gentleman and still kicking ass

Bruno Senna in F1, along with new teams and excited new drivers

Worst:

Nelson Piquet, Nelsinho Piquet and all the Renault Drama

Max Mosely still having some kind of influence in motorsport (not the magazine, the sport itself)

Not being able to be at Goodwood hehehe

It certainly makes young Piquet’s act at Singapore in 2008 look even more outrageous……….

I should maybe clarify my earlier note re the podcasts – my comments were cheesy, not the podcasts themselves !!

I really hope the monthly podcasts return in 2010, along with some “free speaking” guests (Herbert, Warwick ?) and the occasional impersonations of Messrs Lauda & Stewart……

- The order being shaken up.
- The sight of a Force India overtaking a McLaren on the run up to the Parabolica.
- Button winning the championship and having to race to achieve it (albeit to save himself from terrible qualifying performances).
- Webber’s recovery and first couple of wins.
- Seeing Felipe up and about after his terrible shunt.

Worst

- Anything ending with “-gate”
- All the regulations intended to help overtaking that failed.
- The fact that for a while mid-season, F1 was a soap opera that was interrupted every now and again by races.
- Politics in F1 that make top drivers look elsewhere for a job (Raikkonen being the most visible/recent example)

Jenson’s drives in the early part of the season and at Interlagos

The motorsport podcasts (bit cheesy I l know, but they are superb)

Taking my 2 sons (aged 6 and 4) to croft rallycross and both of them loving the day. Start them early !

Rossi winning the Barcelona Moto GP on the last corner.

Prospect of Kimi in the WRC

Worst bits

Mclaren saga at Melbourne / Piquet scandal

- losing good F1 people in Dave Ryan, Ron Dennis and Pat Symonds.

The Donnington mess, thank God we still have a British GP.

Merry Christmas, keep up the great work guys

I love Grand Prix racing. I have loved F1 since I was a little boy growing up in Canada watching Gilles Villeneuve monstering Ferraris…and I can’t stand it when you have drivers doing what they did with e-mails in 2007 and at Singapore in 2008.

There is a common denominator in both instances and it’s too bad that people (including journalists) look the other way and sweep things under the rug simply because that common denominator happens to be a “World Champion”.

Regardless, the last thing I want is for Motor Sport Magazine (a publication which I have often picked up at the news stands since 1985) to get sued for defamation and libel.

Merry Christmas to you and all the team at Motor Sport Magazine.

God Bless you one and all.

Worst
Kimmi’s departure
Schumacher’s return

Raikkonen:

Kimi going around the out-side of the cars ahead at La Source and winning the Belgian Grand Prix in a dog of a Ferrari. The Ferrari was so bad and Kimi was in such awsome form that it made Schumacher chicken-out of taking the seat at Monza and left Fisi to fall on the Italian sword.

Worst…

Alonso:

Either Fernando has been totally over-rated as being the “most complete driver in F1″ (whatever sillyness that means)…OR…he is the biggest cheat in F1 in recent years who has been allowed to get away scott-free (“amnesty”) yet again as he was in 2007 with “Spy-gate”.

Fernando agreed to start the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix on 12 laps of fuel…What does that say about the Spaniard?

Answer: Either he’s dumb as a brick…or he’s a cheat. If he’s dumb as a brick, then he’s hardly the “Most Complete Driver On The Grid”, is he?

Worst- Schumacher’s return

Merry Christmas.