While the Championship battle has been nothing to shout about, 2011 has undoubtedly produced some great races. Yet, there seems to be something missing from this season. That extra ingredient that adds a dash of spice to Formula One… a juicy dose of controversy.
 

 
It’s a thought that has been bothering me in recent weeks, but which came back to me yesterday. I first read about Massa’s instructions to “destroy” Hamilton’s race in Singapore a few days ago on Sidepodcast, long before the British media fell on the quote like a pack of hungry wolves. Yet it was Autosport’s headline that stood out for me: “Radio broadcast revelation stokes Massa and Hamilton collision controversy”.

Firstly, because as controversies go, this one is pretty lame. Hamilton and Massa have a coming together while racing each other, and despite Hamilton picking up a penalty, Massa still has a bee in his bonnet about it all. It’s not a controversy, what it is, is time to move on.

Except somebody at FOM does indeed feel the need to stoke the non-controversy. This caused certain elements of the British media to go into meltdown and in turn prompted Ferrari’s eclectic Horse Whisperer to start quoting Shakespeare – always a worrying sign at the best of times even if it is Much Ado About Nothing.

Of course, you always got a feeling it was a quiet week when so much time had to be devoted to Kimi rumours. Really, the nearest we’ve had to a controversy this year is not going to Bahrain, except that not going to Bahrain is not all that controversial when you think about it. There have been rumblings about Red Bull overspending but as has been pointed out to me, there’s a good reason people don’t write thrillers about accountancy.

2011: Great races but that’s only 19 days of the year. It almost enough to make a guy start longing for the return of Max…

Credit: Pirelli Tyres