MOTORSPORT: F1 magic but worries for Webber

24-carat golden moments from Interlagos
What a superb finish to the Formula 1 season. It's been said F1 is an acquired taste. Indeed it is. Amid usually processional races the magic moments are few and far between.

But when they come along they can be truly magical -- as in Brazil on Monday morning.

For most of the final round of the F1 season it seemed that McLaren's Lewis Hamilton would comfortably take the fifth place he needed to be world champion.

Then, suddenly as the rain came in the closing laps and most cars dived into the pits to change tyres, for a couple of minutes Ferrari's Felipe Massa was set to be champion.

For 20 seconds or so it even seemed he was world champion. Then, even more suddenly, Hamilton swept by the snail-paced Timo Glock's Toyota still on dry tyres, he was back in fifth place, and the crown was his.

So Hamilton fulfilled his destiny. The youngest world champion. The first black world champion. Britain's first F1 world champion since Damon Hill in 1996.

Whatever anybody thinks of some of Hamilton's attitudes, he is a worthy champion. Indeed, for the sport a wonderful world champion.

Now the Tiger Woods tag he has worn since his arrival on the F1 scene has some substance.

The final score was Hamilton 98 points, Massa 97.

The Brazilian drove a faultless race in front of his adoring home crowd -- as he had done before at Interlagos. His performance on and off the track was championship stuff but ultimately it was not enough this time.

We'd love to see Massa now get a title in time, although this is not a kind sport and he may never have a better chance.

Apart from Hamilton, there are many other genuine stars in what is a new golden era of F1. There's
>> Fernando Alonso. How was he second in that race? How did he win two GPs recently in a Renault? How did he score more points than anyone in the second half of the season?
>> Sebastien Vettel. The youngest driver in the field. Winner of the Italian GP. And the man who so nearly denied Hamilton the championship.
>> Kimi Raikkonen (a record-equalling 10 fastest laps this year, but not enough wins), Robert Kubica (a maiden GP win, a title contender for 17 rounds and equal third with Raikkonen in the end), and Nico Rosberg (even if the decline of the Williams team masked it towards the end of this season).

Massa is no Ayrton Senna, but he has one thing in common with his legendary countryman. As Senna did in 1989, Massa won the most races this year without becoming champion.

But, if F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone's proposed Olympic model for the drivers' championship -- with gold, silver and bronze medals for the podium placegetters -- was in place, Massa would have the title today, courtesy of six wins this season to Hamilton's five.

It wasn't to be though, and Hamilton is THE MAN.

Stats and Vettel's arrival don't bode well for Webber
Now that brings us to the Australian angle on F1 and our man Mark Webber.

Remember at the outset, please, that we have been staunch defenders of Webber throughout his seven seasons in F1, and indeed this author for years on Webber's way up to the big league.

We highlighted here on Boxing Day 2006 an F1 Racing magazine article that listed Webber among the 50 quickest GP drivers in history. (That column is here)

Qualifying has been Webber's forte, and an indicator of his ability. We all know that his F1 career has been plagued by mechanical shortcomings, and he has never had the advantage of being in one of the top two teams, Ferrari and McLaren, or BMW or Renault -- although he could have gone there in 2005.

But, all of the above aside, after seven years some things have come into focus for us, brought on by the imminent arrival of Sebastien Vettel alongside Webber at Red Bull Racing next season.

Vettel is something special. Perhaps the equal of Hamilton, perhaps even better.

Driving for Scuderia Toro Rosso, which three years ago was F1's poor relation Minardi, Vettel not only won a GP this season but finished eighth in the world championship with 35 points, while Webber was 11th of the 18 drivers who scored points.

Vettel had the same Adrian Newey-designed chassis as Webber at Red Bull, and admittedly he had a Ferrari engine behind him rather than the Renault powerplant Webber did -- but which Alonso also had.

Webber qualified 10 times in the top 10 this year -- a commendable performance. Indeed, four times in his F1 career he has qualified on the front row of the grid.

Only twice in 18 races this year was he outqualified by teammate David Coulthard, and only once on merit. Again highly commendable.

The 32-year-old Webber scored 21 points this season -- less than two-thirds of 21-year-old Vettel's tally with Toro Rosso. But, and it is this that has influenced our thinking, Webber collected only three points in the last 10 races.

We came across some interesting comments in the Bleacher Report (bleacherreport.com), which said: "Had the season ended after France (the French GP was on June 22), Webber would have probably been the inspiration of the season.

"Mark took 18 points in six races -- an astounding (average) sixth per race.

"Putting behind him a torrid start, retiring on the first lap in Australia he fought back with five points finishes in a row and a fourth place in Monaco.

"Sadly the Achilles heel of Red Bull, their development programme, struck once (again) and its weak Renault engine combined against Webber and he scored just three points from the next 10 races. A sad way to end a promising season.

"Best moment: Second on the grid in Silverstone (British GP) was pretty mega and generally he qualified excellently (as usual).

"Worst moment: Had a chance for a podium in Singapore but sadly the car gave up on him after 29 laps."

The Australian public regards Webber -- unfairly we have always felt -- as a serial underachiever.

But what all of the above, and especially his results over the second half of the season just finished, has brought into focus for us is how Webber really stacks up -- especially on the traditional point-scoring system (10, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1 for the top six placegetters) rather than the system used since 2003 (10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 for the top eight placegetters).

The history books are showing that from 123 GPs Webber has accumulated 100 points.

He has had (only) two podiums -- at Monaco in 2005 and the European GP at Germany's Nurburgring in 2007. His best finish this year was fourth -- at Monaco.

We, more than most, acknowledge the positives, but there are negatives too. And too many of them.

Had the scoring system not changed in 2003 Webber would have 37 points, not 100. That is, or would be, 37 points from 123 GPs.

It would have been six points this year, instead of the 21 the more generous system gave him. Webber has now done almost as many GPs as the 126 fellow Australian Sir Jack Brabham drove from the mid-1950s until 1970.

Admittedly in comparatively better teams, much of the time his own, Brabham won three world titles and accumulated 253 world championship points.

Webber has now driven more GPs than Australia's 1980 world champion Alan Jones (116). Jones notched up 199 world championship points, again in comparatively better equipment than Webber -- especially when AJ was with Williams on its way up, while Webber was there on its slide.

Under the old scoring system Webber would only be shown with points from 18 of his 123 GPs, instead of the 37 that he is because of the change in '03.

Put another way, Webber has finished seventh or eighth in 19 GPs since 2003. (He was also eighth in 2002 French GP when the points only went down to sixth).

Under the more charitable scoring system that sees almost half the modern field of 20 awarded points Webber is credited with scoring a point or points in more than 30 per cent of his GPs.

But calculated under the old scoring system that strike rate drops below 15 per cent -- to 14.63 per cent. That means a point or points about every seven races.

Webber's podium strike rate is only 1.62 per cent. These are worrying numbers, especially with Vettel about to come on board at Red Bull.

Webber has generally outperformed his teammates, except perhaps for Nick Heidfeld briefly at Williams in 2006. He also has shown himself capable of producing surprises when his talents have been questioned most.

The numbers above are not so much about talent but cold, hard results. Yes, there are reasons why Webber's career has not yielded what he -- and the Australian public -- would have hoped. But there is little room for sentiment in the sport and business of F1.

Perhaps Webber will find something extra up against Vettel, but we have doubts.

Flavio Briatore, who ultimately controls Webber's career, said recently that Toro Rosso driver Sebastien Bourdais was too old at 29. Perhaps he meant too old to be getting to grips with F1, rather than too old for F1 per se.

Whatever, where does that leave Webber at 32? And with Vettel the coming man. A very rapidly coming man.

Out of patriotism, at least, we hope it's not the case, but if Vettel outshines our man in the first half of the 2009 season we wonder whether Webber will have a future in F1.

Formula 1 world drivers' championship final standings -- Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, McLaren-Mercedes) 98 points, Felipe Massa (Brazil, Ferrari) 97, Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, Ferrari) 75, Robert Kubica (Poland, BMW-Sauber) 75, Fernando Alonso (Spain, Renault) 61, Nick Heidfeld (Germany, BMW-Sauber) 60, Heikki Kovalainen (Finland, McLaren-Mercedes) 53, Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Toro Rosso) 35, Jarno Trulli (Italy, Toyota) 31, Timo Glock (Germany, Toyota) 25, Mark Webber (Australia, Red Bull Racing) 21, Nelson Piquet (Brazil, Renault) 19, Nico Rosberg (Germany, Williams) 17, Rubens Barrichello (Brazil, Honda) 11, Kazuki Nakajima (Japan, Williams) 9, David Coulthard (Great Britain, Red Bull Racing) 8, Sebastien Bourdais (France, Toro Rosso) 4, Jenson Button (Great Britain, Honda) 3.

F1 constructors' world championship final standings -- Ferrari 172 points, McLaren-Mercedes 151, BMW-Sauber 135, Renault 80, Toyota 56, Toro Rosso-Ferrari 39, Red Bull-Renault 29, Williams-Toyota 26, Honda 14.

Sebastien Loeb - the WRC's five-star man
All of the above about F1 overlooks -- and we apologise profusely for leaving it so late in today's report -- the brilliance of another driver -- rallying's Sebastien Loeb, now that sport's record five-time world champion.

Third place in last weekend's Rally of Japan clinched the Citroen superstar's fifth title, which puts the Frenchman one ahead of Finnish greats Tommi Makinen and Juha Kankkunen.

Ford drivers Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala finished first and second in the horrendous conditions in Japan, while Australia's Chris Atkinson was fourth in his Subaru -- 3 minutes 42.4 seconds behind Hirvonen.

Atkinson's Norwegian teammate Petter Solberg was a premature retirement but, resuming under the WRC's special rules, ended up with four fastest stage times.

Atkinson remains fourth in the championship, but now levelled by Latvala.

Suzuki had its best event, with Swede Per-Gunnar Andersson fifth and Finn Toni Gardemeister sixth.

Citroen leads the manufacturers' championship by 11 points from Ford, the champion manufacturer the past two years.

The remaining round is the Rally of Great Britain in Wales on December 5-7.

Hirvonen's third victory of the year compares with 10 this year by Loeb, who has 46 career victories since 1999.

All things considered -- and we have championed NASCAR's Kyle Busch for much of this season, and F1's Hamilton and Alonso too -- Loeb may very well be the best driver on earth at the minute.

World rally drivers' championship standings -- Sebastien Loeb (France, Citroen) 112, Mikko Hirvonen (Finland, Ford) 102, Dani Sordo (Spain, Citroen) 59, Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland, Ford) 50, Chris Atkinson (Australia, Subaru) 50, Petter Solberg (Norway, Subaru) 41, Francois Duval (Belgium, Ford) 22, Henning Solberg (Norway, Ford) 22.

WRC manufacturers' championship standings -- Citroen 175, Ford 164, Subaru 93, Stobart-Ford 64, Suzuki 28, Munchi's Ford 22.

Very dark red ink now on our GP
The Australian Grand Prix Corporation's annual report surfaced in the Victorian Parliament last week and showed a loss of more than $40 million on the F1 race last March.

On top of the $34.6 million last year that's now almost $75 million of red ink in two years.

The rate of increase in the losses has been slowed, but more concerning, in light of the global financial meltdown, is the prospect that the GP's corporate income could collapse.

The costs of staging the event are already twice the revenues but a big dent in corporate sales could see the bleak picture in the annual report even worse next year.

Before we know it the loss could be out to $50-55 million. At the top of that range the "damage" over three years would then be around $130 million.

We might take a more detailed look at the AGPC's annual report another day.

Now for Bahrain and Alonso's future
Time has not been on our side this week, but -- as always -- there is plenty more happening.

The V8 Supercars are off to Bahrain for the 12th of 14 rounds of that championship this weekend.

News is breaking that Jason Bright will reconnect with Stone Brothers next year, running one of its new FG Ford Falcons under his own banner next season.

And WA's motorsport future is coming to crunch-point, with developments brewing on Wanneroo/Barbagallo Raceway.

Whether the eventual outcome will be palatable to V8 Supercars Australia it's too early to say. However, we shall endeavour to take a look at all these mattes in our next column.

Renault is to name its 2009 F1 drivers on Wednesday. All eyes and ears will be on whether dual world champion Fernando Alonso stays -- or is succumbing to Honda's offer. Or even whether a door may yet open for him at Ferrari.

There's talk that Swiss-born Frenchman Romain Grosjean, a protégé of Alain Prost, may get a Renault "guersney" in place of Nelson Piquet Junior.

The A1 GP series is in China this week for its second round and Marco Andretti -- Michael's son and Mario's grandson -- will be representing the US, while Ashley Walsh will become Australia's rookie driver in practice but the main duties still with John Martin.

In light of our commentary on Mark Webber above it is important that another Australian F1 prospect emerge.

We've commented here before that West Australian teenager Daniel Ricciardo looks our best prospect after winning the West European Cup in Formula Renault, and he's set to take an important step up next year -- joining top British Formula 3 team Carlin.

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