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.”

[GSC]

Probably not the worst thing for Rosberg to be off Hamilton, they're probably going to have to double stack and he might get jumped

[GSC]

Ricciardo just ahead of Kimi.

Leaders have to pit I think, VSC

[monty junior]

Mercedes 1-2 ..

[GSC]

Verstappen got a slow stop which released Nico. Expect thats the 1-2 secure now.

[GSC]

Fernando is on it.

Hamilton opening up his lead now.

[GSC]

Bottas spins but rejoins

[GSC]

Clear dry line now, might not be long to drys

[GSC]

Verstappen fastest man at the moment, conditions suiting the RB

[GSC]

Stunning move from Verstappen

[Guest]

Imagine Rosberg will still get second as it dries.

[Mad for Chelsea]

brilliant overtake from Verstappen on Rosberg, the kid's pretty d@mn good

Hamilton will be pretty pleased with how things are going so far.

[GSC]

Fernando is a nutter sometimes

[GSC]

Massa doing a fine impression of a bus driver today

[GSC]

Verstappen wide at T1 brings him a bit closer to Nico

[GSC]

Hamilton in cruise control, Nico beginning to set purple sectors

[GSC]

Love Alonso

[GSC]

Wonder if Race Control might start sending out warnings on T1. Everyone running wide there.

[GSC]

Verstappen is getting slightly cheeky with moving on the straight now

[GSC]

Rosberg finally makes the move on Verstappen. Be interesting to see if he can catch Hamilton, Lewis wasn't exactly sprinting clear for Verstappen

[Guest]

SC start took the excitement out of it & the rain is only interesting coming at the end of a race. Pretty dull race overall, apart from watching Max. Hamilton saving tyres & I doubt Merc will allow Nico to charge at him

[GSC]

Nicos ability in changeable conditions cost us a decent race at the front, hes been well on the pace in settled conditions this race.

[GSC]

Vettel gets 5 seconds for pushing Massa off track

[GSC]

Not sure what Alonso being on the pace of both Williams says about the direction both teams are going in.

[GSC]

These tyres are a joke by the way. Doing 70% of a high tyre deg race on one set of mediums is stupid.

[GSC]

Merc just told Nico how to fix his gearbox, should be good for a laugh post race.

[GSC]

7th gears failed

[Guest]

Under investigation for the radio comments . Embarrassing really.

[GSC]

Imagine they'll argue the toss based on his gearbox could fail at any point as a safety issue.

[GSC]

If you're Merc, hes going to lose about a minute each lap stuck in 7th gear so might as well take the punt.

[Guest]

Hamilton spent loads of time trying to find the right switches inBaku. Rosberg was told chassis default 1 straight away & then was advised to shift through gear 7, which is a clear driver aid. Penalty for me. That wasn't a safety issue, under the rules. The radio restrictions are ridiculous, but if the FIA are toughening up, this has to be a penalty

[dyrewolfe]

Well quite an interesting race for the first half, but petered out for the last 20 laps or so.

Great to see the drivers fighting to stay on track and making dicey overtake attempts on wet patches.

Lewis managed the race pretty much perfectly. Good job by Nico to regain 2nd place and deal with his gearbox issues. Think the current radio rules are a joke. Teams should be allowed to advise drivers if they have problems. The only thing they shouldn't be allowed to do is coach drivers (e.g. engine, gearbox settings, best way to overtake, where losing time etc.)

Think the teams need to have a chat with Charlie Whiting and explain to him how having cars retire, when it could be avoided, is not going to help F1's popularity.

Another good drive by Verstappen - exceptional overtake on Rosberg in the wet. RB's ultimate lack of pace showed when the track dried out. Thought Ricciardo was strangely anonymous throughout - hardly saw anything of him. Still 4th place isn't too shabby.

Seems the Ferrari doesn't like rain - was surprised how much trouble both Seb and Kimi had staying on track.

Loved watching Alonso's tussles with Bottas and a couple of other guys. Looked like he was having fun for once. Good race for Force India, getting both cars in the points.

[GSC]

Not sure whether they'll win on safety groups, but clearly a mechanical fault somewhere as Nico stuck in 7th gear and told to avoid it once they told him how to reset it.

Imagine it'll be telling him how to reset it that he'll be summoned to explain, rather than the avoiding 7th gear part

[GSC]

Guess is he gets 5 seconds and drops to 3rd. Net win for Merc as Nico wasnt scoring points if it wasnt resolved.

[Fernando]

I imagine Nico will get done it's such a terrible rule really apparently going to make it worse soon aswell.

They may get away with Safety just for going driving around in 7th gear only is dangerous to other cars on track.

[GSC]

More likely the thing sets on fire and brings out a safety car or breaks and spins Nico out.

Though imagine he'd have retired before that anyway.

[GSC]

Also, others have said it, but whats the point in wet tyres if the SC is going to come out until its time for Inters. I understood in Monaco as it was a localised storm around tight circuit with no run off. But here its wide open, there wasn't excessive amounts of standing water and it was drying from the start. More than slightly ridiculous.

[GSC]

Don't sleep on McLaren-Honda next year though. Competing with Williams on the straights at times here.

[dyrewolfe]

Also, others have said it, but whats the point in wet tyres if the SC is going to come out until its time for Inters. I understood in Monaco as it was a localised storm around tight circuit with no run off. But here its wide open, there wasn't excessive amounts of standing water and it was drying from the start. More than slightly ridiculous.

Agreed. Think the SC made it look worse than it actually was - it was going so slowly the cars couldn't get out of 2nd gear and build up any kind of downforce or temp in their brakes / tyres, so they ended up aquaplaning in a couple of sections anyway.

I miss the days where the cars would pound round and you could barely see them for spray. Guess thats deemed too dangerous now.


Suppose thats another negative effects of these hybrid systems and the fact they harvest energy from the rear axle. Apparently when they cut in and out of harvesting mode, it makes the cars rather squirrelly under braking and acceleration. So maybe flat out racing in very wet conditions simply isn't feasible any more?

[Fernando]

[GSC]

Hes under investigation because they told him not to use 7th gear. Nothing else apparently.

[nathan]

Toto raises a good point, if they penalise Mercedes they will have to penalise red bull as they told verstappen over the radio that Rosberg was under investigation.

[Guest]

Did they say Rosberg may possibly require a gearbox penalty for Hungary, that's a significant penalty around that track.

[nathan]

Did they say Rosberg may possibly require a gearbox penalty for Hungary, that's a significant penalty around that track.

Didn't hear them say that, but i would presume so.

[GSC]

Believe hes fine to change it between races

[GSC]

If Rosberg really gets a penalty for being told to shift straight through 7th gear I might be done with F1.

[nathan]

If Rosberg really gets a penalty for being told to shift straight through 7th gear I might be done with F1.

It depends, if he broke the rules, he broke them despite how silly the rule is.

Surely from a safety point of view they don't need drivers going 200mph trying to figure out which buttons to press on the now complicated steering wheels

[GSC]

Its not the steering wheel thats the issue, from memory they told him not to shift to 7th, he asked whether they meant stay in 6th or shift straight to 8th gear. That they told him straight to 8th is the problem apparently.

[nathan]

Its not the steering wheel thats the issue, from memory they told him not to shift to 7th, he asked whether they meant stay in 6th or shift straight to 8th gear. That they told him straight to 8th is the problem apparently.

Yeah I was just talking about the rule in general, if they want to improve safety then surely they should allow the teams to tell them what to press.

Skipping to 8th from 6th was the solution, in that 7th gear was the issue. That's what he's in trouble for, the team telling him what to do

[GSC]

Its the clarification that he should skip to 8th rather than sit in 6th thats the issue apparently. The rest of it falls under safety yet the line is drawn there.

[GSC]

10 second penalty and drops to 3rd.

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