By Phil Huff
April 20 2009

It is becoming increasingly difficult for a Formula One driver to talk for more than 30 seconds without throwing in a 'for sure', and it's near impossible for some drivers to even start a sentence without the words 'for sure'. Spotting this particular use of language is now becoming nearly as big a sport as Formula One itself.

"For sure it's something we're aware of," commented Major Nameup, F1's language standards adjudicator. "Whilst there's no penalty for its use currently, we are concerned about other phrases creeping in to interviews. After qualifying at the Chinese Grand Prix we managed to intercept a driver using the phrase 'it's a game of two halves', but he was as sick as a parrot afterwards."

"The boys will no doubt play it tight in the middle of the track," added F1 language consultant Elaine Conedoff, "but we're going to give 110% effort until such language use is outlawed, and then we'll be over the moon. At the end of the day, I go home."

In the meantime, we're tracking use of 'for sure' over the season. Three races in and Felipe Massa has a clear lead, with four 'for sure's' from a single interview, but Lewis Hamilton is right behind, averaging three 'for sure's' per appearance. Third is Brawn GP's Jenson Button - saying 'for sure' an astonishing 16 times leaves him way ahead in total numbers, but that's spread across seven events, brining his average down to just 2.29 per event. Fernando Alonso, realising he'd dropped some way back, made a big effort in China to recover, and jumped to fourth overall by squeezing four 'for sure's' into his qualifying press conference appearance. Mark Webber is barely making an effort, with not a single 'for sure' spoken despite having had four opportunities to do so. 

RealBrawnGP.com For Sure Championship 2009
Pos		Driver	Team	Events	For Sure	FS/Ev*
1		Massa	Ferrari	1	4	4.00
2		Hamilton	McLaren	2	6	3.00
3		Button	Brawn	7	16	2.29
4		Alonso	Renault	2	4	2.00
5		Buemi	Toro Rosso	1	1	1.00
-		Raikkonen	Ferrari	1	1	1.00
7		Barrichello	Brawn	2	1	0.50
8		Trulli	Toyota	3	1	0.33
9		Vettel	Red Bull	6	2	0.33
10		Bourdais	Toro Rosso	1	0	0.00
-		Glock	Toyota	1	0	0.00
-		Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1	0	0.00
-		Kovalainen	McLaren	1	0	0.00
-		Kubica	BMW Sauber	1	0	0.00
-		Nakajima	Williams	1	0	0.00
-		Rosberg	Williams	1	0	0.00
17		Webber	Red Bull	4	0	0.00
18		Fisichella	Force India	-	-	-.--
-		Piquet	Renault	-	-	-.--
-		Sutil	Force India	-	-	-.--

* The RealBrawnGP.com For Sure Championship monitors the official FIA press conferences. The Thursday, Friday, Qualifying and Race conferences are counted, but only for driver appearances. An 'event' is defined as one such press conference, and the total usage of 'for sure' over the season will be divided by the total number of events a driver has participated in to produce a For sure per Event figure. In the event of a draw, the driver with the least 'events' will take the lead, they having been given less opportunity to use the vital phrase.