It is fantastic. He has done a great deal for the sport and has done a lot of good for the country as well. A lot of great sporting personalities are coming out of the UK at the moment and that is something we should all be really proud of. As I said, Lewis is special and he underlined that by pulling off the championship. He has a great team of people around him and great machinery. We shouldn't underestimate what McLaren contributed to that championship fight. Also despite what went on off the track, he kept his head held high. There were a couple of moments when it dipped, but overall he won it in style.

Crash.net:
Felipe Massa, as you said, was very gracious in defeat and clearly had the better of Kimi Raikkonen this season. How impressed were you by Felipe?

MB:
I was really impressed with Felipe. He developed into a front running guy in the team and that is something Kimi will have to consider coming off the back of winning the championship [in 2007]. Kimi lost some prominence inside Ferrari and that is something he will want to make sure gets put back in place. When Massa came into the sport he was quite erratic and his results varied. He has gradually learnt though and got into a top team and has really made it pay now. He obviously had a great mentor with Michael Schumacher for a few seasons. But I think everybody at Ferrari was proud of what he achieved.

Crash.net:
Kimi really seemed to struggle at times, were you surprised by his lack of form?

MB:
I was very surprised because I felt Kimi would go on again after pulling the championship off. There was a lot more still to be done and there was no pressure on his shoulders because he had delivered. I thought he would be right there and in contention. At the beginning of the season he was up there and all was going according to plan. But then all of a sudden things dropped out and he went below the radar. On many occasions we saw Kimi struggle in qualifying trim, but then gradually as the race went on you would see him and the Ferrari getting it together. He would come on strong in the race itself and pull off fastest lap after fastest lap. But it was all too late then - that was very costly to Ferrari and Kimi in terms of points. He never collected enough when it mattered.

Crash.net:
Fernando Alonso ended the season very strongly and of course won in Singapore and Japan. Has he salvaged his reputation now after what happened at McLaren in 2007?

MB:
His reputation as a racing driver inside the cockpit of a Formula 1 car was never under threat. We know what his abilities are - he is a two-time world champion and we know what he can do behind the wheel. It is very evident. However, what he is like outside the cockpit is still questionable and that has probably limited him in terms of where he had opportunities to go. But, saying that, he did a great job. He is a fighter and he understands what needs to be done inside the team.

At the same point I think Renault came on strong too. The regie had a bit of a 'free-up' on the engine side and it gave them a bit more horsepower towards the mid-to-end of the season. Towards the end of 2008 Renault were consistently up there. That didn't come from aerodynamic changes nor was it a case of Fernando being two seconds a lap faster. He was doing nothing different to what he did in the first race. What happened was that he had a little bit more horsepower and a little bit more driveability to get the car round. That was the biggest plus point.

Crash.net:
Robert Kubica and Sebastian Vettel both secured their maiden wins this season and both really made a name for themselves. What did you think of their performances?

MB:
We had already seen some inspirational performances from Robert Kubica in 2007. Let's not forget either though that he was in contention for the world title this year for a long, long time. There was a bit of frustration there and he felt BMW had let him down slightly by not developing the car after he pulled that win off in Canada. But he got good experience and he is a great driver with a lot of grit. That will stand him in good stead for the future.

Vettel also did well, as you say, and he was definitely the star in the latter half of the season. He came through and once Toro Rosso got behind him and developed their car, we saw Vettel consistently putting himself in places in qualifying that nobody expected. He definitely put himself in situations during grand's prix too that everybody was shocked by - including him I would imagine. Nobody expected that little team to be doing what they were doing. They showed up the 'big brother' team, Red Bull Racing, on many occasions. Vettel drove with real maturity and a great deal of speed. In wet conditions he was one of the quickest, if not the quickest. Again he is somebody that could be a potential world champion, given the right equipment, and he has an old head on young shoulders.

Crash.net:
If you had to pick out your top five drivers' of the season, who would they be and why?

MB: