My pick - Top Drivers of 2009 - F1

Formula-one 2009 season is over, now it is time to rewind back the memories to find the best of the season. Obviously it is not Luca Badoer who was very disappointing :-), anyway this is not the forum to discuss his performance. I remember seeing posters comparing his pace with grandma riding an old wagon. Obviously, this thread was inspired from internet, as I see lots of polls and discussion happening around. But here it is purely based on my opinion and not influenced by others. In fact, I wanted to blog about this topic as my passion for the game have not gone down a bit even though it was yet another disappointing year for Alonso, my all time favorite.


Here goes the list;


1. Vettel - He caught my imagination after his famous monza win in 2008. Definitely he was one of my pick in 2009. He did not disappoint me. Perhaps few costly mistakes which costed the championship along with renault engine problem.  His outstanding driving was evident in Silverstone. In fact his teammate ended up using vettel setup for the race days. His four wins tell the rest of the story. Give him a decent car, I bet he can deliver.


2. Button - Obviously he made into list because of six wins and being crowned as world champion. Rest is history. Personally I felt his poor late show was disappointed, should not been the way he wanted to finish the season, perhaps any championship will not prefer doing so. Incredible driver else brawn would not have paid 8M pounds to him last year. Will the controversial diffuser, he stole the show in the first half. Six wins in 7 races is unbelievable. Other highlights include picking vital points in last stage of the season. His drive @ São Paulo is really special with good over taking but heart break for Barrichello :-(.


3. Roseberg - This star driver from Williams was very promising initially but slipped on later. Always hitting the head lines during practice and qualifying. Personally I feel if he was on a better car, then results would have been different. Well, this holds good for all drivers in market :-). His drive @ Germany was breathtaking even though did not earn him a podium. I consider him as the talent to watch out in future. But has to improve considering the way he blowed out the podium chance @ Singapore.


4. Barrichello - This could throw surprise to others but I admire the way this 37 old man drove in late stage of the session. Phenomenal is the word I can use but he did miss the luck at few vital stages of the season. Else he would have taken the championship. My heart was with him in São Paulo but he messed up. May be, I was always thinking this would be his last year. But poor williams could only afford this man with their limited budget. 


5. Webber - Astonishing come back after his injury in last November. His dream came true with his first victory @ Germany. He was instrumental in pushing brawn for the constructor championship. He delivered results through out the season. Made the most of this season. Mark, I am looking forward from you in next season.


Quite disappointing to miss Alonso/Kimi in the list, in fact they did not add any value to the title fight. But they did their best by contributing to off-track incidents. People will remember Kimi for his ice cream in Sepang (see - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B42AW-d89M). Alonso for the his involvement in "Crashgate" with Renault. However, the FIA confirmed that no evidence had shown the involvement of Alonso.

Send mails in plain text - Windows OutLook 2003

I always wanted to send/receive mails in plain text. But my outlook 2003 running on Windows XP SP2 do not provide this, as the option to enable plain text mails is always grayed out which means I can never enable this option. But I badly need this else every time when I reply a mail I need to convert it to plain text which is really painful.

But found this useful tip online to turn on the "Read as Plain Text" feature, I followed these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type regedit.
3. Locate the following registry key:
   
   
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Options\Mail
   
   
   
   
4. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWord Value.
5. With the new Dword value selected, type ReadAsPlain.
6. Double-click the new value to open it.
7. In the Value Data box, type 1, and then click OK two times.
8. Exit Registry Editor.

This works well for Outlook 2003.