Mitch Evans is GP3 Champion!

New Zealand motorsport has witnessed a golden moment with Mitch Evans crowned GP3 champion for 2012 in the most dramatic fashion. Auckland-born Evans started the critical sprint race at the back of the grid after retiring from the feature race at Monza.

Evans was well up into the points when he suffered a rear tyre puncture. The puncture forced Evans to pit and he was stuck in 20th, well behind the leaders, Daniel Abt and Tio Ellinas who were duelling for the lead. Abt had to win to take the championship but his tyres faded in the lead and Cypriot Ellinas passed him at the end to win the final race of the GP3 season.

In the end, Evans finished level on points with Abt but took out the title on countback of wins.

Mike Thackwell

It has been rather quiet on the New Zealand motorsport front in recent times with Scott Dixon leading the way in America in the Indycar series but there hasn't been a Kiwi driver in Formula 1 since Mike Thackwell raced in the 1984 German Grand Prix. Hopefully Mitch Evans could end that drought - and he certainly has one accolade on his CV that could help him get a drive in F1 in the near future.

For now though, Evans and New Zealand motorsport should celebrate a very glorious moment.      

4 Father and Son Winning Combos

On Sunday, Nico Rosberg became the 103rd Grand Prix winner when he was the first driver to take the chequered flag in Shanghai's Chinese Grand Prix. With this win, Nico Rosberg joined a very small but illustrious group of father-son drivers who have both tasted success in racing.


So how does the list look now?

The Andrettis (Mario, Michael and Marco)
Mario Andretti moved to America early on and carved a niche in Indycars becoming a multiple Indycar champion and Indy 500 winner in 1969. He moved to Formula 1 and became world champion in 1978 with Lotus. Shortly after, he returned to America to race in Indycars and would continue to race well into the 1990s just as his son, Michael emerged on the scene. Michael Andretti won the 1991 Indycar title before moving to Formula 1 in 1993 where he was far less successful being Senna's teammate.

He returned to Indycars the year after but surprisingly never won another title and even more surprisingly, never won the Indy 500 - his luck there well known as the Andretti Curse. Third generation, Marco is now also a fully fledged Indycar racer, and finished a close 2nd in 2006 to eventual winner, Sam Hornish, Jr.

The Rosbergs (Keke and Nico)
Keke Rosberg was a late starter in Formula 1, making his debut in 1978 at age of 29. However, he would make up for it by winning the world championship in 1982 with Williams, the same year he took his first Grand Prix win in Dijon. He moved to McLaren in 1986 and retired shortly after, later claiming he retired "too soon". Son, Nico was born just before his retirement in 1985 in Wiesbaden in Germany and followed his father's footsteps into Formula 1.

This time, he would be one of the youngest drivers ever to make their debut in 2006, this time with the Williams team. His time there was fraught with an uncompetitive and unreliable car although he produced some stunning performances in his maiden season, including the fastest lap in his first ever Grand Prix. He moved to Mercedes in 2010 and two years later, would win his first Grand Prix in Shanghai - he is the first son of a living world champion to win a Grand Prix. Could history repeat itself for the Rosbergs? Well, if Mercedes do manage to find some consistency with their tyres to compliment what is essentially a very good aerodynamic package in 2012, the former Brawn team could be the team to beat this season.
  

Dad Gilles with young Jacques

The Villeneuves (Giles and Jacques)
Gilles Villeneuve burst onto the F1 scene when multiple world champion, Niki Lauda, left Ferrari for Brabham. He became one of the most popular drivers in F1 thanks to his aggressive driving style and some memorable races including the 1979 French Grand Prix in Dijon where he banged wheels with Rene Arnoux in the dying laps. Sadly, Gilles would never win a world title his talent deserved and died in qualifying for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix.

Son, Jacques, made his name in Indycars and became champion in 1995 and also won the Indy 500 that year. He made his switch to F1 the year after with the highly successful Williams-Renault team and just missed out to team-mate Damon Hill for the title. He would make amends in a thrilling battle with Michael Schumacher the following year. Thereafter though, Villeneuve's career would peter out in uncompetitive Williams, BAR and BMW Sauber chassis before he pulled the pin on F1 after being shunted out by Robert Kubica in 2006.

Graham with son, Damon

The Hills (Graham and Damon)
Graham Hill was one of the golden generation in the 1960s, becoming double world champion in the iconic Cosworth DFV-powered Lotus 43. His F1 career probably went on for too long as he delved into winning with his own chassis. Hill died in a plane crash in the 1970s as oldest son, Damon was in his teenage years. Damon initially stayed away from car racing but after a change of heart, switched to car racing and finally made it to F1 via the Williams-Renault team in 1993 as teammate to Alain Prost.

Damon Hill was set to be supporting teammate to his world champion teammates, until tragedy struck in 1994 and Senna was killed at the San Marino GP. Hill was immediately made team leader, a role he relished as he took the title fight to Michael Schumacher to the final race in Australia in 1994. After enduring a torrid 1995, Damon became the first son of a former world champion to win the world title in 1996, fending off another famous son, his own team-mate, Jacques Villeneuve. Damon was ignominiously dropped from Williams for Heinz-Harald Frentzen and forced to defend his world title in an uncompetitive Arrows in 1997. He joined Jordan the next season and won his last ever race at Spa in 1998 before retiring in 1999.

2011 in Review: Motorsport

In the first of my reviews of the year of sport, I look back at the year of 2011 in motorsport.

Unfortunately, 2011 will be remembered as one of motorsport's darker years with the death of two of its great stars, Dan Wheldon and Marco Simoncelli. Their deaths at the end of October were a timely reminder that motorsport is still a highly dangerous sport even with safety standards at an all time high.

In fact, it should be said that without those standards, more of their colleagues would be dead. It is a testament to the work the FIA has done since that dark day in May of 1994 when motorsport lost its greatest star of time, Ayrton Senna.

Speaking of Senna, the iconic yellow and green helmet made some comeback this year - on the big screen with his namesake's film - the best sports film ever made in my opinion, and on the track courtesy of the nephew Ayrton himself rated highly.

I thought Bruno Senna did really well taking over from Nick Heidfeld midway through the season at the Renault team. It has to be remembered that taking over mid-season isn't what it was 10 years ago - there's no more mid-season testing and any testing you want to do has to be done on race weekend.

Thus it was a surprise that it was announced Romain Grosjean would be Kimi Raikkonen's teammate for next year. Having said that, Grosjean does have a GP2 title under his belt and is claimed to have matured greatly since his very auspicious debut in F1 4 years ago.




Having said that, maybe Senna might be driving a Williams next year. Who knows? Ayrton's great nephew certainly deserves a drive in F1 and the chance to prove he is as good as the plethora of champions we now have in F1.

Despite Vettel's utter domination, this year's F1 was quite a nice vintage courtesy of DRS, KERS and those Pirelli tyres. There was a lot more overtaking and strategy - and a lot of very exciting finishes.

Pirelli created a tyre that is a bit like a Kookabura cricket ball after being hit by Dave Warner's heavy bat. That along with rules requiring all drivers to use both hard and soft compounds in the race meant we had some crazy race finishes.

In the end, Sebastian Vettel stood tall and continued to show he belongs in F1's elite. Yes he had the best car in the field by a country mile but the fact that he utterly destroyed his capable teammate, Mark Webber, shows the Monty Python German from Hoffenheim is indeed special.

Jenson Button also had a brilliant season and deserved his runners-up finish. Yes he wanted to be champion but given the circumstances, second behind a genius of a driver is not bad at all. Will he remain ahead of Hamilton next season - who knows.

Of the rookies, Sergio Perez and Paul di Resta stood out with Perez even touted as a replacement for the lacklustre Felipe Massa.

As for Massa, 2012 looms as a big year for the likeable Brazilian. Felipe is clearly not the same driver after his horror shunt in qualifying for the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix and surely with Ferrari lagging behind Red Bull and McLaren, an underperforming Massa will have to be cut loose.

So a classic season in F1 closes and another one looms - one that could break records for length. Vettel's domination may be nice but let's hope McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and even Lotus can really close that gap to the Red Bulls. Given a quarter of the 2012 field have been crowned world champion, that would be great.

In other news, Dario Franchitti won the Indycar championship on the same weekend Dan Wheldon died. It was the Scotsman's third championship but it will be one he won't quite remember as fondly as the other two. Casey Stoner won the MotoGP title for the second time - the short Australian still looks as young as the day he made his MotoGP debut back in 2001.

Driver of the year? Sebastian Vettel. Easily. The German is not only fast but very likable. And he's very intelligent too. Could get even better. Will he stay at Red Bull though?

RIP Dan Wheldon & Marco Simoncelli.