The 2012 Formula One season has wound up and what a stonking season it was. Congratulations to Sebastian Vettel in winning the driver's crown becoming the sport's youngest triple world champion. He also joins Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher in the exclusive club of winning three consecutive titles. Kudos also to Red Bull Racing for also winning three consecutive constructor's championships. A marvellous achievement for such a young F1 team, which remember morphed out of the Jaguar ashes in 2005.
    The unpredictable nature of this season made foreseeing a winner event to event nigh on impossible. Strategy was always hard to anticipate. Was this down to the Pirelli tyres and their widely acknowledged narrow operating temperatures? Friday practice sessions from Round 1 at Albert Park to Round 20 at Interlagos saw all teams putting down as many laps as possible in a bid to comprehend their rubber and how it reacted to differing fuel loads, circuit configurations and temperatures. The F1 governing FIA asked Pirelli to come up with even more aggressive compounds for 2012 compared to 2011, and on many occasions we saw various cars' tyres insist on their drivers pitting as grip dramatically decreased in the space of a couple of laps.
    We as fans love the fact that Formula One is rarely processional these days. With KERS and DRS spicing up the racing, were Pirelli the overriding factor in contributing uncertainty to this year's fantastic F1 season which celebrated eight different winners? Let us know what you think. Send formulafrontrow.com an email at: [email protected] or simply leave a comment.
    Roll on 2013.
    

    Who ever said the Abu Dhabi GP is dull? What an edge of the chair race it was, with Kimi Raikkonen nonchalantly winning for Lotus.
    However there was one image that stuck in our mind. That is Nico Rosberg unavoidably vaulting his Mercedes over the abruptly stricken HRT of Narain Karthikeyan. Fortunately neither driver was hurt and replays show what an excellent job the high cockpit side bodywork did in protecting Karthikeyan. Not that long ago it was a similar scenario at Spa with Lotus' Romain Grosjean and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso. A simple yet effective increase to driver protection introduced only a few years ago. Helmet design and construction standards have also increased dramatically since Ferrari's Felipe Massa's near career ending accident at Hungary in 2009. But the work is never done is it? Currently the FIA in conjunction with the F1 Technical Working Group are testing forward roll hoops, canopies and windshields to protect the driver from a frontal impact taking into account the resulting deflected flying debris. Improving driver, marshal and spectator safety is a task with constantly moving goalposts. Let us know what you think. Email us at: [email protected] or simply leave a comment.
    This weekend's penultimate 2012 F1 GP at the newly constructed Circuit Of The Americas in Austin, Texas should be epic. An undulating, purpose built F1 circuit. Bring it on.
    Final thought. At the start of the year formulafrontrow.com was talking about how exciting it is to have an unprecedented six world champions on the 2012 F1 grid. Well, five have now won at least one race, the other is retiring. Ouch!