FOrmula One is watched like no other sport. Leaving aside her glamorous excesses, a boring career and the gallows come out. A boring Wimbledon finale or a highlight of the Champions League doesn't make tennis or football in general an unnecessary parade, but F1 is always against it.
As a fan of the 21st century, I have always been told that it was better in someone else's time and that F1 was no longer what it was, but 2012 changed the game.
The season started with seven unprecedented different winners and newcomers Sergio Pérez and Romain Grosjean challenged the status quo with their obedience on the podium. As the season set in, it became clear that it was a two horse race. The mercurial and romantic Fernando Alonso against the mechanical and relentless Sebastian Vettel.
The two were double champions, Alonso with Renault in 2005 and 2006, and Vettel with the supreme Red Bull conquering the previous two seasons, but no one expected Alonso to be close to the German. . The Ferrari had been a car disaster, but its remarkable ability to dig deeper than anyone meant it followed Vettel by just 13 points before the end in Brazil.
Vettel started three places higher on the grid, but the clouds were floating in the Brazilian sky and there was a lingering feeling that this grand prize would not be a procession. The lights went out and 30 seconds later, Vettel was going downhill at turn four.
Critics argued that Vettel could not overtake. Sitting while watching 23 escapes, it was time to prove them wrong. Alonso may have jumped to a winning position in the championship, but this gigantic 71-lap race had many twists and turns. Mark Webber and Felipe Massa were angry with their respective teammates' rival and, like Kamui Kobayashi, torpedoed, without driving the following year and with nothing to lose.
In the midst of all these mid-grid breaks, there was a race to be won. Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button McLarens fought in front, Nico Hülkenburg (Force India) lighting the track behind.
When the sky opened and closed on a whim for the next hour, an anxious Hülkenburg misjudged the wet surface by advancing its head and Hamilton became a shock absorber. The Briton's last race for McLaren would end with him parked against the barriers, probably wondering if Mercedes would bring him the fading shots at McLaren. Button finished first, but that was the minor story of the day.
A bruised Vettel spent the race sculpting across the field and making a healthy contribution to the record of 144 overtaking. Alonso couldn't do much; the second was its roof. Michael Schumacher, completing his second F1 spell in mediocrity, made no effort to prevent Vettel from jumping for a vital sixth place, a symbolic gesture of a legendary German passing the baton.
A late security car claimed there would be no more tail bites and both teams knew this. The Red Bull pit wall was agitated, awaiting confirmation in two laps, while the Ferrari garage was heartbroken and silent.
Alonso was standing next to his car in the rain, looking vaguely and waiting for a little podium celebration, knowing full well that it was his best chance for a third title. He was a man who hadn't gone bad all year, losing only twice points to a professional Grosjean. The following season would repeat the same order, but a 155-point spread told a more serious story.
When the nostalgic aspire to the era of Hunt and Lauda, or of Senna and Prost, it would be odious if the duel of 2012 was not celebrated in the same way.