Ok so I'm a massive nerd as regular readers (and friends who I've forced to look at this blog) will know. As part of my nerdiness, I tend to notice really stupid things and one of these stupid things relates to F1 and its staff. Towards the end of 2009, I noticed that drivers and officials in F1 would say 'For Sure' a heck of a lot - to the point where it became distracting during the course of a weekend. Being a nerd, I decided to look into this further for the 2010 season, and I kept a 'For Sure' count on Microsoft Word. Basically, I would note down the name of the person (driver, team boss, engineer, presenter, whatever), count how many times they said 'For Sure' in a single interview and then produce a total at the end of a race weekend. Every practice session, qualifying session and race was covered, and every instance of 'For Sure' was counted. Yeah, nerd.
At the end of the year, I looked back at the totals for each race weekend for each person and added all of these together. In doing so, I was able to find out who stuck to the typical interview phrase the most. Lee McKenzie once stated that the worst offender for 'For Sure' was Jenson Button. However, my detective work (and frankly, lack of anything better to do) quashed this idea. As a result, I can announce that the person who is clearly obsessed with the phrase 'For Sure' and as such is now the 'For Sure Champion 2010' is Ferrari man, Stefano Domenicali! Well done to him! Since conducting 2010's investigation of 'For Sure' usage, I've only ever referred to Domenicali as Stefano 'For Sure' Domenicali!
With this pointless competition over in 2010, I had to continue the pointlessness in 2011. However, I noticed that this time round drivers have added a new phrase to their interview techniques. The phrase? 'Obviously'. I hate this more than 'For Sure'. Why? Well, if it's obvious, why are you saying it?! Nevertheless, I endeavoured to count the instance of 'Obviously' alongside its brother 'For Sure'. This year I'm also counting team efforts in interview styles. Obviously, the result is ongoing and for sure we won't know the winner until the end of the season finale, however if you're betting people and want a tip, I'd back Red Bull for the 'Obviously' count. A certain Australian who celebrated his 35th birthday recently is way ahead... Approaching the 100 'Obviously' milestone... I will obviously announce the winner of this pointless, nerdy competition at the end of the year. Who knows, Red Bull might be celebrating more than a driver's and constructor's championship in 2011...
