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

[Fernando]

First topic message reminder :

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.”

[Jermaine2015]

Max and Sebastian could be brothers with their love of moaning...

[Guest]

Hamilton in fourth. Rosberg must be nervous

[Jermaine2015]

Max's driving leaves a lot to be desired. Borderline cheating

[Jermaine2015]

Hamiltom switches to three stops. I'm guessing he could try the super soft at the end.

[Jermaine2015]

Amazing pass by Checo on Massa at the end of the long straight.

[Guest]

Rosberg wins, Ricciardo 2nd & Hamilton third

Pretty much a get out of jail free card for Hamilton this weekend.

Hamilton leads WDC by 9 points.

[GSC]

I completely forgot this was on tv.

I keep waiting for the stewards to step in on Yung Max. He defends like a 12 year old on xbox live. Someone should point out he only makes these great overtakes because other drivers treat him with the respect he refuses to give others.

At some point Kimis just going to put him on the grass to make a point.

[Fernando]

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

nailed it

[Jermaine2015]

Watched the race again, and the post race presentation. Found it pathetic that Rosberg was getting booed. It was his fault Verstappen is a douche. I'm not Rosberg's biggest fan, but stupidly heckling someone isn't good.

[Jermaine2015]

Felipe Massa has announced his retirement from F1 at the end of the current. The veteran Brazilian will be best remembered for his near title triumph in 2008. Wish him the best for the future, he was a top guy.

Fellow Brazilian Felipe Nasr set to inherit the seat with his big sponsorship cheque...

[Guest]

Good time to bow out, nothing worse than lingering about. I hope he takes Button with him & we get to see Vandoorne next season. If Force India finish above Williams, then Nasr is a certainty.

[Jermaine2015]

Sergio Perez says he will announce 2017 plans at Singapore...pretty sure he's eyeing up a works drive with Renualt...

[Fernando]

Apparently Alex Lynn may get the Williams drive if Button doesn't

[GSC]

Think Button will retire.

Suspect Williams will take the best sponsorship available. Their relative spending power has been exposed with the Merc engine losing some of its advantage.

[Guest]

Fully expect Vandoorne at McLaren, the amount of media coverage he's doing, points towards his impending entry into F1. Bild reporting Perez to Renault, which could see Wehrlein at Force India, which makes sense, as Mercedes need him to develop at a more competitive team.

[Jermaine2015]

Wehrlein overrrated, only hyped in Germany because of his ethnicity...Ocon linked with Renualt as well

[GSC]

Massa never quite came back from that injury, sadly he'll always be somewhat of a nearly man. Nice guy though.

[Jermaine2015]

Ferrari have used their final three engine tokens. FIA have warned Verstappen about his over aggressive driving style

[Guest]

Sergio Perez signs new contract at Force India

Hamilton pole by 0.4 tenths at Monza. Rosberg second & Vettel third

[dyrewolfe]

No surprises in quali. Congrats to Hamilton for his 5th Monza pole...equalling Fangio and Senna.

Improved performance from Ferrari, locking out the 2nd row. Bottas takes 5th, Red Bulls 6th and 7th, Force Indias 8th and 9th. Gutierrez doing well to get 10th in the Haas.

[Guest]

Three issues for Hamilton now are getting a good start, mechanical reliability and the flat spot on the tyres he is starting off on. Hamilton thinks it is minor (or maybe he is just saying that not to give anything away). Toto Wolff thinks it should not be a problem but the team will look at it and consider whether they can appeal to get it changed on safety grounds.

From the BBC online qualification commentary:

14:12
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff also said that Hamilton's flat spot "isn't really bad", but that the team will assess it overnight.

They could look at getting it changed on safety grounds. We probably won't know until tomorrow.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/formula1/37168716

[Guest]

Jenson Button signs new two-year role at McLaren-Honda, focusing on team & car development. Stoffel Vandoorne to drive for McLaren in 2017.

Interestingly, if Alonso retires at the end of his contract (2017), there is the option to take Button on for 2018.

[Jermaine2015]

Essentially the Button deal means if during pre season in 2017, Alonso doesn't see there being any chance of race wins/championships, Button can be shoehorned back into the team should Alonso quit...Seems an odd move by Button, he could've taken a big payday from Williams and cruised around the midfield( much like the majority of his career) but instead he's now just a RP tool for McLaren-Honda...

[Jermaine2015]

Ferrari could be leading into turn 1 tomorrow if they can rediscover their rocket starts from earlier this season

[dyrewolfe]

Essentially the Button deal means if during pre season in 2017, Alonso doesn't see there being any chance of race wins/championships, Button can be shoehorned back into the team should Alonso quit...Seems an odd move by Button, he could've taken a big payday from Williams and cruised around the midfield( much like the majority of his career) but instead he's now just a RP tool for McLaren-Honda...

Well it seems to suit Jenson. According to the BBC article he wants a break from F1 to do other things and he came to this arrangement with Ron Dennis. It also suits McLaren as Alonso won't commit beyond 2017 until he sees what next season's cars are like.

Looking forward to seeing what Vandoorne can do over a full season.

[Guest]

Looks comfortable for Rosberg

[dyrewolfe]

Well, Hamilton keeping things interesting by fluffing his start. Came back well but Rosberg too far ahead by then to challenge for the lead. Third to sixth as per grid positions.

Had one eye on the cricket most of the race.

[Guest]

Hamilton needs to work on his starts. It still looks like Rosberg is better than Hamilton with the starts. It seems that Hamilton had too much wheel spin - put the power down too quickly. When Rosberg has a poor start he tends not to fall back to sixth. Hamilton is the better race driver.

Can we compare Alonso and Vettel? It seems to me that Alonso was more successful at Ferrari than Vettel. Did Vettel lose something in the last year at Red Bull when Ricciardo outperformed him?

[dyrewolfe]

Hamilton needs to work on his starts.  It still looks like Rosberg is better than Hamilton with the starts.  It seems that Hamilton had too much wheel spin - put the power down too quickly.  When Rosberg has a poor start he tends not to fall back to sixth.   Hamilton is the better race driver.

Can we compare Alonso and Vettel?  It seems to me that Alonso was more successful at Ferrari than Vettel.  Did Vettel lose something in the last year at Red Bull when Ricciardo outperformed him?

Nope, IMO Ferrari have just fallen further behind. It was well publicised that Vettel didn't like the hybrid systems when they were introduced and struggled to adapt. He's probably overcome that problem, but still needs Ferrari to deliver a car that can match / beat Mercedes.

Some major changes ahead next season, so lets wait and see...

[Guest]

Hamilton needs to work on his starts.  It still looks like Rosberg is better than Hamilton with the starts

It's a responsibility of both to continue to strive towards improving their starts. I wouldn't say Rosberg is any better than Hamilton, it's alternates on a weekend basis, just look at Hockenheim

[GSC]

F1 to be sold to Liberty Media.

Cynic in me suggests nothing will change. Maybe a couple of token measures

[Guest]

I just heard that they plan on lowering the hosting fee with a view of having around 25 races a year (good luck) to cover that lost revenue. Plans to overhaul promotion & marketing, to further unlock social media avenues, which F1 is currently not utilising to its maximum, unlike other sports.

[dyrewolfe]

F1 to be sold to Liberty Media.

Cynic in me suggests nothing will change. Maybe a couple of token measures

I dunno. I think American business sense could lead to some pretty major changes.

For one thing they will want a substantial return on their £6.5bn investment. Its been well publicised that both race attendances and TV audiences have been falling (globally) for a number of years and they will want to do something about that.

I can see them putting some serious pressure on the FIA, the teams and anyone else they need to, to level the playing field in technological / engineering terms and perhaps change / scrap some of the more ridiculous rules.

I can see them wanting to steer F1 somewhat in the general direction of NASCAR and Indycar, which would probably make it more popular in the US and depending on the changes, revive interest across the rest of the world. You can bet Liberty will also be working closely with Gene Haas, with his insider knowledge and financial clout.

I think they'll be sensible enough not to want to make F1 an Indycar clone, but I'm sure they'll have some ideas on how to make the sport more interactive and appealing to casual fans, which apart from the broadcasting / media side of things, to make it more accessible, will likely include ways to create closer racing and more mixed results...to make more people want to watch in the first place.

Well, I can dream, I suppose...

[Guest]

If Formula One is a Golden Goose they will probably end up killing it as they demand more and more golden eggs or decide to change the Goose for something else in search of ever greater returns.  Money men and globalisation (maximising the market and exploiting market differentials) are not always conducive to sport.

[dyrewolfe]

F1 has done a pretty good job of that already. There is currently far too  much self-interest and elitism, which has got the sport into its current situation...along with a misguided sense of developing technology for manufacturers to use in their road cars.

Americans may not be good at much, but they usually know how to put on a good show and market stuff to the masses.

Thats why I think they will make a serious effort to get the rules and regs changed, so that all teams can compete on a relatively level playing field, instead of the financial gulf between the top teams and everyone else (and the R&D advantages that provides). They may not succeed, but would expect them to at least try.

They will realise (hopefully) that a number of fundamental things have to change, in order to stop the sport being a 1 or 2 horse race every season.

Closer racing = more general interest = more money (in theory anyway)

[Fernando]

Bernie staying for 3 years once takeover is completed.

[Guest]

Nothing much can be done until 2020 anyway, so I'm guessing they keep him on, until the expiration of the Concorde agreement & commercial contracts of F1?

[dyrewolfe]

Ugh. So 3 more years of the status quo?

I wonder if Liberty will be happy to put up with that, or try to find some way of amending...or even ripping up the existing contracts?

Also, if Bernie is staying on, will he follow through with his announcement to end the current financial reward structure for the teams and introduce a new performance-related scheme?

[Guest]

Looking forward to Singapore this weekend, we could finally have a race on our hands, with Ferrari & RB extremely competitive. Don't think a team has ever had a 1-2 here & four of the last five race winners, have gone on to win the championship.

[dyrewolfe]

I'll only look forward to it if Ferrari and Red Bull show real promise in quali (i.e. qualify ahead of Mercedes).

Unusual to see Toto Wolff being catty, dismissing RB's high downforce setup, saying its only good for circuits like Singapore and Monaco and that the team with the best overall compromise wins the championship.

Wonder if that means he expects Lewis and Nico to struggle?

[Jermaine2015]

Mercedes seem to have resolved this issues from last year. Despite Hamilton being only 4th in FP1, he was using the soft(as was Rosberg) and Hamilton was only 0.6 behind Verstappen whom was using the ultra softs. Rosberg planted his Mercedes into the wall at the slow chicane towards the end of FP1, but aside from a broken wing nothing rode was damaged aside from his pride.

[Jermaine2015]

Rosberg fastest in FP2 from the Ferrari of Kimi Raikonnen. Lewis Hamilton twice fluffed his fast lap on the ultra softs and finished 7th. Hamilton also suffered a hydraulic problem which restricted his running and didn't allow him a long run simulation

[Guest]

Hamilton is third & paying the price for awful Friday & sat morning. Rosberg pole with ease, with Ricciardo second

[Jermaine2015]

Rosberg's first lap in Q3 was simply amazing. Hamilton's car has a problem according to Toto Wolff

[Guest]

Hamilton's car has a problem according to Toto Wolff

Sounded incredibly evasive when having to address Hamilton's car problems with ted kravitz. said he 'thinks' it will be fixed by the time qualifying came around. Looks like it wasn't.

Still a good job by Nico & if he starts well, then he should be able to control tomorrow's race.

[Guest]

A lot of uncertainty about Hamilton's car - will it last the race being the biggest concern.  Rosberg looks invincible and so for him he just needs to get a good start and then it looks like plain sailing.   With regard Hamilton it looks like damage limitation. Verstappen in fourth with the upgraded Renault engine could be the maverick in the field with his uber aggressive driving, but maybe he is too far back to trouble Rosberg.

[Jermaine2015]

A lot of uncertainty about Hamilton's car - will it last the race being the biggest concern.  Rosberg looks invincible and so for him he just needs to get a good start and then it looks like plain sailing.   With regard Hamilton it looks like damage limitation.  Verstappen in fourth with the upgraded Renault engine could be the maverick in the field with his uber aggressive driving, but maybe he is too far back to trouble Rosberg.

Ricciardo has Verstappen covered.

[Guest]

Mind-numbingly boring opening stint & a load of conserving brakes. Rosberg leads & in control

[GSC]

Would make my year if Kvyat runs Verstappen off the road.

[GSC]

Kimi closing in on Hamilton for 3rd. Ricciardo isnt making massive gains into Rosberg as of yet with a tyre advantage.

Keep an eye on Vettel if the brakes continue to fall away.

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