Gifts for him F1 style

You've looked online, you've traipsed around the high street and if you don't find something soon your favourite F1 driver will be unwrapping socks and aftershave. Stop worrying, because F1 Prattle has got you covered with its list of gifts for the F1 driver who has everything.

Pastor Maldonado 

I know some of you will expect Pastor to be on the naughty list with nothing but a stocking full of coal to look forward to but if you're feeling generous then this Panel Damage Checker will allow Pastor to get his Lotus looking shiny and new for his next on track adventure!

Fernando Alonso & Ron Dennis

Sometimes, despite your best intentions, things just don't work out. So if we have a repeat of 2007 at McLaren then this exquisite shredder will make short work of that three year contract.

Max Verstappen

The 17 year old has done some practice sessions but I think it would be irresponsible to let the youngest driver do a full race without L Plates. When he gets points he can rip them up, cracking photo opportunity.

Kimi Raikkonen 

After such a disappointing year it's time to get everyones favourite Finn smiling and what better way than an ice cream maker (additional alcohol optional). Please remember to remove the instructions before you give it to him or prepare to be told "I know what I'm doing"

If you have any ideas yourself please comment below, there are team principals hunting around Tescos looking for inspiration right now that need your help!

Merry Christmas all!

Why Adrian Newey was bad for Formula 1

Adrian Newey has had an amazing career in F1 and is an undisputed genius of aerodynamics, but it is a genius that has harmed F1 by showing the limitations of the series.

Firstly, when we look into Newey's trophy cabinet we see unprecedented success and dominance, Since his first constructors championship in 1992 with Williams, Newey's cars have won 45% of the championships they have entered, a success rate that not even Schumacher can touch. Newey's cars have brought drivers titles to Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve, Mika Hakkinen, and Sebastian Vettel, a total of 10 drivers titles since 1992. If you could get yourself in an Adrian Newey car there was a 50:50 chance you would only have to beat your team mate to win the drivers title.

So why is F1 Prattle condemning all this aero-alchemy? Well firstly I wouldn't be the only person to question the quality of the drivers who have won in a Newey car. I believe that Formula 1 needs to find a way of ensuring that the stars of F1 are the drivers and that when a driver wins a world title we are in no doubt that he was the best driver that year, not that he was in the most aerodynamically efficient car.

I would propose that we give the teams an identical chassis and aero package and this would have three main benefits, number one, we would bring more manufactures into F1 as their engine would become the star of the engineering package and engine technology is more transferable to their road cars. Number two there would be massive cost savings on wind tunnels and aero development (not to mention that bright green flo-viz paint), which would help the smaller teams not only with finances, but also with competitiveness. Thirdly, we would give more drivers the capability to win the world championship if we look at this year, and assume the Mercedes was the best engine, we could potentially have had the drivers from Williams, Force India, Mclaren and the works Mercedes team competing for the title.

I have great respect for what these aerodynamicist wizards, but their importance should be nullified for the sake of the sport. Newey, Bell, Costa and Byrne should not be the names that are responsible for F1 success.

Please comment below and share your views

Who will replace the Iceman in 2016?

Ferrari, the poisoned chalice of modern Formula 1, will be looking for a replacement for the outgoing Kimi Raikkonen in the coming months, but who are the contenders for this prestigious seat?

Firstly, it must be noted that there are two drivers who could have been considered but are instead a reminder of the dangers of the sport that we all love. Robert Kubica and Jules Bianchi have both suffered horrific injuries which will rule them out of the Ferrari drive which they had been previously linked to. Robert Kubica began his career in the Italian formula Renault 2000 series and had received admiring glances from Ferrari before his accident in rallying, Stefano Domenicali had admitted that there was a test drive waiting for Kubica at the end of the 2011 season. Bianchi has been part of the Ferrari young driver program since 2009 after impressing in a test when Ferrari were assessing their options, on the back of Massa's own injury. If these tragedies had not occurred we may have even been looking at a Kubica, Bianchi partnership for 2016.

So who does this leave Ferrari with? I believe that Perez has burnt his bridges with the Scuderia, and hardly impressed at Mclaren but his German team mate at Force India may be a more safe pair of hand for the 2nd Ferrari. Hulkenberg was nearly signed instead of Raikkonen last year, a bad decision in hindsight, and F1 fans have long been asking when will we see the like-able German in a car deserving of his talents? He clearly has the speed, a pole position in his first year in Brazil in his first year, is evidence for this but I worry that the Hulk will instead turn out to be the new Nick Heidfeld, and continue to be a nearly man.

An option from outside of Formula 1 is Raffaele Marciello, a member of the Ferrari young driver program and impressive race winner in tricky conditions at Spa in GP2 this year. I'm sure Ferrari would love to put him in as he would be the first Italian in a Ferrari since Fisichella's unfortunate stand in appearances at the end of 2009.

I feel Ferrari will try to replicate their greatest period of success and pick the driver most suited to the Barrichello role of 2nd driver and keep 'baby schumi' smiling. and put the young Italian in the car provided he can demonstrate consistent speed in the 2015 GP2 season.

Failing all this there may be a double world champion on the market in 2015 if a repeat of 2007 takes place at Mclaren. Stranger things have happened...

What's the point of a test driver?

Gutierrez has been unveiled at Ferrari as a test driver, coinciding with a host of new Mexican sponsors for the Italian team, so the question has to be what is the role of a test driver in modern F1?

Massa and Alonso are two examples of how in the past a driver could go to a high profile team and learn his trade from a world class driver, in Massa's case he calmed down his tyre melting sideways style under the tutelage of Schumacher and then, after taking full advantage of unlimited testing mileage, take the seat of an unwanted driver, in Alonso's case the seat of Jenson Button. (Which he nearly did again last week)

What's the role of a test driver today? There is ofcourse simulator work to be done but the value of this is debatable. Kimi doesn't really bother with it even if he has to learn a new track and Ferrari famously struggle to get any of their off track developments to cooperate with on track gains.

So what will Gutierrez's 2015 entail? There will be no practice sessions for him, he will be left to do the publicity events, a drive up the famous hill at Goodwood and numerous burnout sessions in cities across the world in an out of date car. If he's lucky he won't embarrass himself like Verstappen and Kobayashi and crash the car in front of a bewildered crowd.

So Gutierrez gets nothing from the experience, surely his two years at Sauber have shown him to be no worthy replacement for Raikkonen, so he will sit on the sidelines like an unwanted sub until his sponsors no longer pay.

We need testing back in F1 to bring through talent in F1 and allow drivers to develop at a big team like Massa and Alonso did or we will end up with a field of GP2 drivers whose talents have not had the knowledge and race craft of this generations superstars passed on.

We are the dreamers

Fernando Alonso signaled his impending arrival at Mclaren this week by tweeting "we are the dreamers", a nod to Honda's advertising slogan, but has Alonso sleepwalked his way into another uncompetitive car?

No doubt the allure of driving for an iconic car and engine partnership has its charms and it surely can't get any worse than the 2014 Ferrari, but perhaps Alonso would have been better advised to draw upon the recent performance of both Honda and Mclaren in F1 when making his decision to leave Ferrari?

Mclaren have won one constructors championship in F1 since 1991, 23 years with one championship, and the less said about Honda's last participation and exit of F1 the better.

Alonso won't be the only world champion drawn into a 2015 dream as Vettel steps into the Spaniards, not so prancing horse at Ferrari. Vettel has already talked about the 'fairy-tale' of driving the car he saw his idle Michael Schumacer driving when Vettel was a boy.

The F1 romantic in me would love to see an epic title fight next year, between arguably the three best drivers in F1, but I think Mercedes will be untouchable until at least 2016.

Let's hope that McLaren can give Alonso a car deserving of his talents and Ferrari give Vettel the chance to demonstrate 2014 was an off year, and he has the talents deserving of four world titles.

Let's believe in dreams.