Why 2010 wasn't the greatest season ever

Yes it was a magical season - and probably the most intense and fascinating that I have covered - but is 2010 going to go down as the great season in Formula 1 history? My simple answer to that is a resounding: NO!

It may have been the first time in history that we have had a four-way driver shoot-out at the final round of the season. And it may be one of the many seasons when in the cold light of day we can easily point out the missing points and small changes of circumstances that would have handed the world title to any of the five men who had a proper shot at it. But what excited me most is not what we saw this season - but where F1 is heading to.

Ever since the Schumacher-Todt-Brawn-Bridgestone alliance was ripped apart, F1 has been engulfed in ultra-close campaigns and some great end-of-season drama. And it is remarkable that the title fight has gone down to the wire four out of the last five years - although only in 2007 was this anything other than a straight head-to-head.

This year though was something really magical - for there were a whole host of dynamics at play. And while, as so often happens in F1, the quickest driver in the quickest car came out on top at the end of the season, boy did he leave it all in the last chance saloon.

It has been a campaign of high drama and fluctuating fortunes. Throughout it all Red Bull Racing has had the fastest car, but at no point over the campaign was there ever a feeling that Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were ever going to run away with it.

That was partly fuelled by the early season finishing record. But then coming into play were the mid-season team-mate tensions that erupted so publicly in Turkey and Silverstone - before they made their final death roll on the eve of the Brazilian Grand Prix.

From the outside, Red Bull Racing never seemed a team at ease with itself until the final week of the season - when the final delivery of the constructors' championship and a totally on-form Sebastian Vettel left few doubting that the right man and team had come out on top in the end.