Abu DhabiGP/Fernando Collects £800 & can pass go Thread - Contains Quali & Race spoilers

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Yas Marina wants for nothing in terms of facilities. If only the same could be said of its track.

Track data: Yas Marina

Lap length 5.554km (3.451 miles)
Grand prix distance 305.355km (189.739 miles)
Lap record (race) 1’40.279 (Sebastian Vettel, 2009)
Fastest lap (any session) 1’38.434 (Lewis Hamilton, 2011, qualifying two)
Tyre compounds See drivers’ choices
2015 Rate the Race 5.25 out of 10
2015 Driver of the Weekend Sergio Perez
Yas Marina track data in full

But the circuit which has the honour of holding this year’s title-deciding race leaves everything to be desired when it comes to challenging the world’s best drivers and cars.

It’s wide, smooth, flat and – aside from a pair of lengthy straights – slow. Whatever brief the track designer was given, showcasing F1 at its best was not it.

“It’s not the most thrilling of tracks,” says master of understatement Daniil Kvyat, “as many of the corners are very similar”. Other drivers have been similarly dismissive of its untaxing, stop-start nature.

The track has produced few riveting races since it first appeared on the calendar in 2009. The surprise outcome of the 2010 title-decider and Sebastian Vettel’s race through the field two years later stick in the mind. But last year’s forgettable finale was more typical of what we’ve come to expect from this venue.

Abu Dhabi’s stable climate means we can discount the possibility of surprising weather changes playing a role in Sunday’s championship finale. But Pirelli’s decision to bring its most aggressive tyre selection could offer the drivers new strategic options this year.

A lap of Yas Marina


From the start line the drivers arrive quickly at turn one. This is the first of many 90-degree corners but is quicker than the rest, typically taken in fourth gear. Accelerating out of the left-hander the drivers approach what passes for the most interesting section on the track – the flat-out sweep through turns two, three and four.
The pit lane entrance joins the track at this point and we have seen some near-misses as drivers blend in with traffic. Fernando Alonso took a punishing ride over the kerbs here in 2013.

As the drivers leave turn four at speed they are quickly upon the next sequence of corners: a slow chicane followed by a hairpin. “You go down the hill, braking into six – very tricky braking turning into six, then straight away into seven,” explains Romain Grosjean. “You need to be well positioned for the hairpin going down the back straight. It’s tricky to get the car to turn.”

Two long straights separated by the turn eight/nine chicane follow. “Again you need to be well positioned between the left and right-hand side corners,” says Grosjean. “Then it’s another straight line on to 11, 12 and 13. It’s a triple chicane and as soon as you exit that part you go flat out then brake for turn 14, which is a 90-degree left-hand side corner.”


Following the tricky curved approach to turn 17 the final sector of the lap involves a sequence of slow bends, most of which are right-angles. “As soon as you go out of 17 you have to brake again for 18,” says Grosjean. Two left-handers lead them beneath the Yas Viceroy hotel, with a “tricky exit” as the cars straighten up ahead of the final pair of bends.
“The second to last corner is good,” comments Grosjean. “It’s high speed in fourth or fifth gear.”

After that the run-off area at the final corner invites drivers to run wide. “The last corner is very tricky,” Grosjean explains. “It’s very wide on the entry phase with the pit lane on the right-hand side. It’s not easy to find a line.”

John wrote:Under investigation. Rosberg didn't really turn the wheel, Inwouldnt punish it though

Hmm...he went very deep into the corner and only went full lock when he got to the edge of the track. 5 sec penalty about right.

Nico needs to build up that lead over Max though.

Rosberg dropping away from Hamilton and into Ricciardo's sights.

Maxie not happy with his tyres.

Hmm personally I think the penalty's a bit harsh. We want to see wheel to wheel racing, and occasionally it's going to result in a driver being forced off the track a little. There've been some good overtaking moves in midfield in this race, while the action at the front has been a little dull.

Having had such a good week-end upto that point, the start which looks like putting Rosberg down into fourth place while Hamilton cruises off into the distance is very costly indeed.

McLaren points finishes under threat due to fuel saving.

Possible rain for the last 10 laps.

Mad for Chelsea wrote:
Hmm personally I think the penalty's a bit harsh. We want to see wheel to wheel racing, and occasionally it's going to result in a driver being forced off the track a little. There've been some good overtaking moves in midfield in this race, while the action at the front has been a little dull.

Having had such a good week-end upto that point, the start which looks like putting Rosberg down into fourth place while Hamilton cruises off into the distance is very costly indeed.

For me it comes back to the argument about drivers respecting track limits. After all, you wouldn't do something like that on a street circuit with no run-off.

And so Lewis' 4th title bid continues to gather momentum.

Good race for Red Bull...really hoped Ricciardo might be able to cause Lewis some problems, but I'm sure they'll be very happy with a double podium finish.

You have to think Rosberg won't recover from a decisive and comprehensive defeat like this.

Decent points haul for Ferrari. Funny to listen to Vettel raging about blue flags again. Sounds like he's starting to lose faith in their strategists too, refusing an instruction to pit.

Good 8th place for Button...shame Alonso couldn't hang on to 10th to make it a double points finish for McLaren.

Awful race for Williams...sad to see how far they've slipped after looking like they might challenge Mercedes only a couple of seasons ago.

Good race for Red Bull then, who've moved ahead of Ferrari in the constructors, and certainly seemed to have pretty decent pace today, matching Rosberg throughout. Great result for Hamilton, obviously. With Rosberg on pole, it looked like the German could reclaim the championship lead, but his disastrous start means Hamilton now has a 19 point lead.

Would have been interesting in the last few laps if Nico hadn't had his penalty (and just how long did the team wait before starting the tyre change?!?) - he didn't seem to have the pace of the RBs, but would have had track position after the stop on softs against their supersofts. Suspect Danny Ric would have got him, but it cost him 3rd at least.

I think the penalty was borderline but justifiable, as he didn't make an attempt to turn until he was about a car and a half's length past the apex of the corner, meaning Max had nowhere to go other than the run-off (i.e. he blocked the cut-back by not turning in). I think even a hint of attempting to turn for a late apex would have been considered OK, but he just pushed too far. Lousy start though screwed his day, and he seemed very passive once behind the RBs, giving Lewis another relatively easy day (as with Hungary, I got the impression LH was driving as slowly as he could get away with, and that there was always pace there if he needed to crank it up).

As predicted that as soon as Mercedes, have a reasonable competitor, it's Rosberg who suffers and Hamilton who disappears into the sunset

Nico is now getting that same reputation Montana got, reckless. The most interesting comment at the post match interviews was Verstappen saying, when referring to the Rosberg incident "as Lewis knows". In other words he and probably the rest of the paddock consider that Rosberg is a bit of a liability at times

Haryanto dropped & replaced by Esteban Ocon

Ocon vs Wehrlein should be an interesting battle. Both Mercedes drivers and one will end up replacing Rosberg in the near future. For my money Wehrlein is overrated

It won't be an interesting battle really, in my opinion. Their racing a Manor & secondly, Mercedes have a locked in line up until the end of 2018, so hardly upon the horizon, their chance at Mercedes. I don't rate either really, the real star, or of an equivalent talent to Verstappen, is Vandoorne.

Nothing is set in stone. Rosberg might have a contract until 2018, but it doesn't mean he WILL be there until 2018.

Did you really envisage that back in 2012 Hamilton would ditch McLaren for Mercedes? Or that in 2014 Alonso and Vettel would manufacturer moved away from Ferrari and Red Bull Racing respectively?

Being a Hamilton fan & seeing what was unfolding, it wasn't a surprise he left. Hamilton's contract was expiring at the end of that year (2012), McLaren's reliability was abysmal & the rumours were strong, so it wasn't a huge surprise he would leave, once he had that meeting with Lauda in Singapore. I guess Vettel's was a surprise at the time, although looking back on it, Vettel was getting taught a lesson by Ricciardo & had a 'get-out' release clause in his RB contract, confirmed by Helmut Marko, so again can see how & why that happened, especially given RB's domination was over. Alonso to McLaren was the only one, whereby he effectively paid to get himself out of the contract, two years early & was a big surprise.

John hitting the nail on the head, as usual.

Bit of a surprise Haryanto has been given the heave-ho so soon. Even bad drivers usually get a least a full season in the lower teams. After all the chances of getting a better replacement are slim to none...and even if they do, they don't exactly have the hardware to help them shine.

This Esteban Ocon fella will need Schumacher or Senna levels of skill to make any kind of impression. The only thing the Manor has going for it is its Mercedes powerplant. Kind of like an American muscle car - fast in a straight line but shudders at the sight of corners...

Haryanto only paid up until this point with future payment for the rest which he couldn't afford now so he's going to be reserve driver.

Esteban comfortably beat Max in F3 but has been average in DTM so be interesting to see how he does assume not exactly comfortable in anything that's not an open cockpit.

Fernando wrote:
Haryanto only paid up until this point with future payment for the rest which he couldn't afford now so he's going to be reserve driver.

Ah okay - that makes sense now.

Can someone please clear this up for me. It's being reported Hamilton will take grid penalty at Spa. But I read somewhere that Mercedes will use two new engines(parts whatever they've run out off). Is it in the rules you can take two new units and only get one penalty? Seems abut unfair talking 6th and 7th extra components and only one penalty

Believe they add up. The McLarens routinely had about 200 place penalties every race after the break last year.

Yeah it's 10 places per component.

So if he changes 2 to a 6th version of that component he gets 20 places.

No sorry I didn't explain properly. I understand the 10 places per component ruling.

But in an article it says Mercedes will use to two engines in Belgium. One for practice. The other for qualifying and the race.

That's what I see as unfair. Two fresh engines but only the penalties for one.

Guessing they mean they'll use old components for practice (and likely not qualify anyway). Then swap in the new components for the race.

If he was using a 7th component he'd get another 10 places.

Hamilton has used up 5 turbocharger and 5 MGU-H. Replacing each component will result in a 10 places penalty. So 20 places penalty.
They could elect to replace both twice and only loose a further 2 places because you can't start further back then the back of the field.

The whole grid penalty system is FUBAR. If you change 2 components you may as well start from the pit lane.

1 place for each component change would make more sense IMO.

Its not like the teams do it for the fun of it after all - it costs them every time they have to use a new component.

Its starting to feel like this title race is going to be decided by reliability as much as driver skill. Wouldn't be the first time obviously, but it does detract from the achievement.

Weather forecast looks pretty good, slim chance of rain. Should be Rosberg 25 pts in the bag & just a race of the camera constantly panned on Hamilton.

All Hamilton needs to do is hope for a safety car and he'll get top 3-5

Need a spectacular accident to get a SC here. Plenty of run off everywhere. Especially now the VSC is the preferred option.

Just need to break down on one of the long straights and it'll be out.

AlciG wrote:Hamilton has used up 5 turbocharger and 5 MGU-H. Replacing each component will result in a 10 places penalty. So 20 places penalty.
They could elect to replace both twice and only loose a further 2 places because you can't start further back then the back of the field.

Jermaine2015 wrote:No sorry I didn't explain properly. I understand the 10 places per component ruling.
But in an article it says Mercedes will use to two engines in Belgium. One for practice. The other for qualifying and the race.
That's what I see as unfair. Two fresh engines but only the penalties for one.

With regard AlciG comment: Why don't they decide to replace every single component five times and effectively start again.  They would get about a 300 position penalty but it wouldn't matter as they would still be at the back.  So basically with this one "penalty" can Hamilton effectively make this the last penalty he would incur for replacement parts?  What can they get away with?  

It might seem like "cheating" but it wasn't Hamilton's fault he got all the unreliable parts - and should the championship be decided on replacement part failures rather than which "driver - team" forms the fastest overall package.

With regards Jermain's comment:  Hmmm maybe they can only get away with two replacement parts for each component ... unless they use a set of replacement parts for each test session (three), then "qualifying", then for the race ...

Nore Staat wrote:
With regard AlciG comment: Why don't they decide to replace every single component five times and effectively start again.  They would get about a 300 position penalty but it wouldn't matter as they would still be at the back.  So basically with this one "penalty" can Hamilton effectively make this the last penalty he would incur for replacement parts?  What can they get away with?  

The problem is the time it takes... After parts are replaced you need to 'run' them in practice to look them into your pool.
So changing making 5 changes to all components is not doable because of that. They might be able to squeeze 3 changes in but that would leave Lewis with not much time to get his race setup done.
That's why I think they'll do 2 changes on the 2 components he has used 5 of meaning he'll have 2 of each component left for the rest of the season.

Another factor is that Rosberg also has 2 of each component left for the rest of the season and I don't think Mercedes would want to rock the boat too much by giving Lewis 3 components

TBH even if Mercedes gave Hamilton  three new MGU-H and three ICEs he'd still be on the back foot, as Mercedes still have development tokens to use and as such Hamilton would need to take further penalties to get the updated parts

I would assume he actually has to use the new parts to count otherwise they'll be counted as new when he actually uses them.

And switching them out pretty much writes off an entire session.

Regardless would assume theres some kind of rule that staggers the penalties if someone tries this.

GSC wrote:I would assume he actually has to use the new parts to count otherwise they'll be counted as new when he actually uses them.

And switching them out pretty much writes off an entire session.

Regardless would assume theres some kind of rule that staggers the penalties if someone tries this.

Not really... he could take 3 totally new engines (which equals a change in all 6 components) resulting in him having used 6 ICE/MGUk/ES/CE and 8 TC/MGUh (don't feel like counting but probably something like 75 places) and still the only penalty would be to start at the back/pitlane.

Rules were changed and penalties don't carry over to subsequent races.

I'm going to assume there's some kind of overruling stewards discretion given he might as well take 15 new engines and this isn't really an unprecedented scenario.

Alonso looking at a potential 35-place grid penalty for getting onto his 6th batch of engine components.

Only in F1...

Don't blame Mercedes for taking advantage of the rules, essentially using it as a strategical advantage. This was changed because of the farce that Honda created last year. It's not that severe a punishment as it would of been, but Hamilton will still be denied the upgrade package latter in the year, but I'm not sure that will be a significant upgrade in all honesty, post Spa/Monza.

Just John wrote:Don't blame Mercedes for taking advantage of the rules, essentially using it as a strategical advantage. This was changed because of the farce that Honda created last year. It's not that severe a punishment as it would of been, but Hamilton will still be denied the upgrade package latter in the year, but I'm not sure that will be a significant upgrade in all honesty, post Spa/Monza.

It might be if the rumours are true.

Mercedes are being quite coy about their plans for this weekend and the rest of the season, but it is almost certain that new parts fitted to Hamilton’s car for the first session were just the start of the changes this weekend - and the whole reason for that is to ensure he has enough parts to finish the season.

As Hamilton is over the limit on the turbo and MGU-H, any change to those parts incurs a huge grid penalty. So it makes sense to make as many changes as are theoretically needed for the rest of there season and get them out of the way in one go. So a second new turbo and MGU-H are expected to be fitted for the second session. And it may well be that he takes another new power unit as well for Saturday morning.

That is not completely clear, and it is complicated by the fact that there are rumours that a significant Mercedes engine upgrade is due for the Japanese Grand Prix in October. If Hamilton takes a new ICE here, in addition to the one he used in the first session, he would then be at five ICEs, which would mean he could not benefit from the upgrade in Japan.

Even though he only has Rosberg as any kind of threat, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't want to be competing with a horsepower deficit, given how close the title race is. Nico has been able to out-qualify him with the same engine. With a power advantage he would likely win more races too.

The same was said about Ferrari's upgrade for Canada & it made little difference. Rumours about Honda too, failed to materialise. A lot could change between now & Japan, which is in five races time. Hamilton could lead by well over 25 points, so could gamble & take the penalty. Japan & Brazil could be wet, negating an engine power advantage, so all these things need to be taken into account.

GSC wrote:I'm going to assume there's some kind of overruling stewards discretion given he might as well take 15 new engines and this isn't really an unprecedented scenario.

There is none...
He could take another new engine for FP3 and the end result would be the same. But like I said earlier I don't really expect Mercedes to do that in order not to rub Nico the wrong way.

15 new engines is a huge exaggeration as you need to run the engine/components to lock them into your engine pool

Just John wrote:The same was said about Ferrari's upgrade for Canada & it made little difference. Rumours about Honda too, failed to materialise. A lot could change between now & Japan, which is in five races time. Hamilton could lead by well over 25 points, so could gamble & take the penalty. Japan & Brazil could be wet, negating an engine power advantage, so all these things need to be taken into account.

Ferrari have been in transition for some time. They only recently finished rebuilding their team...then lost the services of James Allison. Consequently development has suffered across the board.

Honda are a year behind every other engine manufacturer. Actually, if Honda are to be believed, they can achieve much higher power outputs from their engines, but are worried about reliability over race distances, so use settings that restrict the power.

Mercedes have had the twin luxuries of a relatively stable team, as well as a technological advantage. If they say they have a significant engine upgrade planned, I would tend to believe them.

Nico struggles in wet conditions, so wet races would negate any power advantage to some extent, but no racing driver likes to feel they have inferior equipment to their team mate. Even more so if the title can be decided by just a few points.

It probably won't be a significant upgrade to be honest, Merc likely have less room to improve their package than others do realistically. But it won't be worse I guess.

After all that, Mercedes actually have upgraded PU's for this weekend, using five tokens. The upgrade means Mercedes now has just six remaining, three more than Honda and Ferrari, whilst Renault have 21 remaining, having spent just 11 so far this season.

Mercedes have gone with three new engines - and this seems like the maximum they could get away given a) they only have three practice sessions for setting up the car for qualification and the race and b) they have to use the additional components on the car for them to be included.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/37203953

Ferrari had a mare. Crazy start

These pathetic Pirelli tyres are going to kill someone one day...

Sebastian having a woeful season...

Magnussen nearly killed himself

Massive accident for Magnussen

That tyre barrier will take an age to repair

Should be a red flag TBH

And to think Wehrlein called Ocon overrated. Then he goes and smashed into Buttom. What a nob

Hamilton in fifth & can now get rid of these medium tyres, thanks to the red flag. Rosberg thought he wouldn't see Lewis today, he might want to rethink that.