I don’t know what it is with F1 drivers, but “for sure” seems to be ingrained into their vocabulary. Let’s have a look at a few choice quotes from last weeks Belgium Grand:

Lewis Hamilton: I don’t know whether it has caught me out but, for sure, experience is always an advantage (link)

Kimi Raikkonen: The neck is OK, it’s not perfect but it’s definitely OK and for sure it’s going to be like normal in the next races, so that’s not a worry. (link)

Fernando Alonso: I tried quite hard in the first stint to keep pace with Felipe, just hoping around the pit stop time to make up a position but slowly they were disappearing and after the first stop, for sure, we didn’t see them anymore. We lack a little bit of pace in the race. We were quite OK in qualifying but for sure in the race we were off the pace by a couple of tenths today. (that’s just two sentences! link)

Kimi Raikkonen: For sure it’s nice. For sure it’s my favourite circuit, it was even before I came into Formula One, so it’s nothing to do with if I win or lose here. (link)

Felipe Massa: Well, for sure as Kimi said there is not a long way to go but we are still fighting. I will not give up until I see that the calculation is not there anymore. (link)

Who do you think started this trend? Who do you think!

Michael Schumacher: I feel I could win the race. I feel very good inside. For sure, in qualifying, I will be 100 per cent …

But for sure, he has asked me as well if there was any chance of me changing my mind, as have many people … 

And then step by step you come back and think that this season is finished, for sure, but then you regain your normal lifestyle and my normal lifestyle is being a racing driver; (link)

Michael Schumacher: For sure he will fight a lot and hopefully we can finish in the front and make a first and second. (link)

Michael Schumacher: We have found a good solution on this. It is for sure much safer to use it. We have just to see if it is comfortable for every driver to be used. …

Yes for sure. To me this is the most critical point on the new regulations. (link)

Actually I don’t think Schumi is really to blame, I just think it’s a strange quirk of the Formula 1 world. Next time you watch a driver interview see how many you can count.

As a further example, not only did Kimi win this weeks race but he also won the “for sure” contest in the press conference with six, Fernando had five and Felipe trailed badly with just the one.