2. KERS played a bigger part in races than anybody realised
The dramatic increase in overtaking this year was widely attributed to the arrival of Pirelli and Drag Reduction Systems in F1.
But the return of the Kinetic Energy Recovery System, after its enforced 'sabbatical' in 2010, also contributed quite a bit to the racing throughout 2011.
KERS brought an average one lap benefit of 0.45s, and intelligent application of it by drivers could prove decisive in the races.
Take the opening lap of the Indian Grand Prix: Schumacher had qualified down in 11th place on the grid, and knew that he needed to make progress early on if his race afternoon was not going to be compromised by getting held up by slower cars.
A lot of drivers may have thought about deploying their 6.7s of KERS off the line, to grab places into the first corner.
Schumacher played a different game. He used no KERS off the line – and instead saved it all for the huge run down the long main straight. That decision meant that by the end of the run to Turn 4, he had a 7.4mph advantage over other cars that had KERS, and an 11.2mph advantage over those with no KERS. That was why he was able to move up four places so swiftly…
There were other occasions too when KERS use was as decisive – even if fans did not appreciate at the time what was happening.
When Lewis Hamilton slotted past Sebastian Vettel for the lead during the Chinese Grand Prix, at the time it was thought that his fresher tyres had simply given him better traction out of the preceding corner.
But data analysis showed that he had activated KERS at the exit of Turn 6 – a place on the track where KERS is not normally used – to give himself a 5.6mph boost to pounce on Vettel.
Mercedes HPE managing director Thomas Fuhr says: "What was a bit frustrating was that there were a lot of things that people on the outside did not know about – and they were the result of KERS. It was only after you looked at the data afterwards that you knew that KERS was involved."