[Official] Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Grand Prix Weekend Thread - Round 21 of 21

[Aysedasi]

Not scintillating......

[S griffin]

Great gesture at the end with the three champions going side by side on the cool down lap.

Vettel looked like the champion he is in this race. Great races by the RBRs too. Bottas off the boil, no wins this season, although he was unlucky at times

Leclerc looked good, he was mixing it with the big three teams at the beginning

Few crucial retirements today. Very end of term feel today

[djinvicta]

There was some great elbows out action with Esteban and Max!...still fighting...

[djinvicta]

I heard a radio call from Max telling his Engineer to "listen listen". What was going on there? I missed the replies.

[bella]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

By the lack of postings about today's GP, I am left to assume that everyone was stunned in to inaction by a scintillating race! Or are you still asleep from boredom?

gave up ten laps from the end and went into town

i was just sat there thinking “there’s something really wrong with this entire f1 thing but i can’t put my finger on it”. it also happened to be the first race i’ve been able to watch some of as well. i know we’ve got hundreds of pages of threads debating what’s wrong but it’s none of that. this coming from someone who used to tape the bbc 5 live coverage to listen to on the bus home from school...

[Taxi645]

I didn't understand Red Bulls strategy with Daniel. I thought they were letting go that long to get Hyper's. Going to supersoft's, he could've stopped much earlier and be a thread to at least Vettel.


Did they choose for next years side of the garage?




P.S. scary how Verstappen couldn't even pull out of Ocon's slipstream. They must've been on a very high downforce set up relatively.

[TrapezeArtist]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Both championships are over, so Bottas didn't need to push himself and would Lewis really want Ocon as his wingman?

He went into the race fourth in the drivers championship and had a decent chance of jumping Kimi into third. Instead he slipped down to fifth. He seems a nice bloke but I really don't think he's cutting the mustard. I definitely could see him being "rested" in favour of Ocon.

[TrapezeArtist]

Originally Posted by djinvicta

I heard a radio call from Max telling his Engineer to "listen listen". What was going on there? I missed the replies.

The Engineer went all Kimi on him. Something like "I'm always listening to you. You don't have to tell me to listen to you."

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by TrapezeArtist

He went into the race fourth in the drivers championship and had a decent chance of jumping Kimi into third. Instead he slipped down to fifth. He seems a nice bloke but I really don't think he's cutting the mustard. I definitely could see him being "rested" in favour of Ocon.

I mentally switched off, after 10 laps or so, so fair point. I wonder though how Lewis will feel if Ocon replaces Bottas?

[TrapezeArtist]

A few random thoughts from the race:

Hulkenberg's roll was very low impact but it was a bit scary to see him trapped in the car with flames at the back end. Thankfully F1 cars don't self-ignite like they used to, but with the high cockpit sides and the halo they absolutely mustn't. What did he say? Something like "I'm hanging here like a cow"?

Verstappen's pass of Ocon was unnecessarily rude. He seems to be still bearing a grudge from what I think was largely his own mistake in Sao Paulo (though I know not many agree with me).

Some of the passing and repassing in the two DRS zones was fun to watch. As well as a few other well-executed moves.

The Red Bull-Renaults passed the Torro Rosso-Hondas at about 40-45 laps. Behind the scenes, I think RBR might be quite worried about their engine choice for next year. McLaren beat Torro Rosso quite comprehensively over the season. As did everyone else apart from Williams.

I don't understand how Bottas got away without a penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. He gained more than either Ocon or Alonso, who were both penalised.

Talking of Bottas, I thought he was very lacklustre in the race, even though he qualified well. If they had been running 1-2 at the end, I was quite expecting Lewis to move over for Valtteri, both to repay him for earlier in the season, and to help his points in the WDC.

Ferrari are releasing Kimi to test his Sauber this week. Renault are releasing Carlos Jnr to test the McLaren. But Red Bull are blocking Dan from doing the same. Does this tell you something?

[Adam43]

Ocon showed exactly what to do in that situation. If they’d crashed you could argue it was Verstappen’s fault, but points for the team were important. Shame it didn’t lead to any.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by Adam43

Ocon showed exactly what to do in that situation. If they’d crashed you could argue it was Verstappen’s fault, but points for the team were important. Shame it didn’t lead to any.

To me, this is the type of nonsense that the stewards should jump on Max for, his behavior is over the top, and he should not gain an advantage from it, it should not be everyone else's job to get out of his lordship's way.

[TrapezeArtist]

Originally Posted by wnut

To me, this is the type of nonsense that the stewards should jump on Max for, his behavior is over the top, and he should not gain an advantage from it, it should not be everyone else's job to get out of his lordship's way.

Good point, but unfortunately there is 30 years of precedent pointing the other way. It worked for Senna. It worked for Schumacher. So....

[Lancsbreaker]

Despite the normal doom-mongers' "it was boring" comments, I enjoyed most of the race. Lots of elbows-out action down the field, and a certain amount of strategic (mis)calculation.


Couldn't understand how Vettel could suddenly produce a mega lap with a few laps to go.....if he could pull that speed whu didn't he push earlier and put Hamilton under some pressure?


Agree about the nice "3 champions" choreography at the end - nice bit of showmanship

[Akrapovic]

Verstappens move was rude, but there's not really a problem with it. Montoya drove like that and we loved it.

[Cinghio44]

Originally Posted by Lancsbreaker

Couldn't understand how Vettel could suddenly produce a mega lap with a few laps to go.....if he could pull that speed whu didn't he push earlier and put Hamilton under some pressure?

I was surprising too. But I think he lost a lot of time lapping the backmarckers in the last 6-7 laps. Then when he was clear he made the fastest lap. However he would have not won

[Akrapovic]

Because if you push like that for a full stint you destroy the tyres. You have to nurse these tyres for a full stint. The 'trick' with the current Pirellis is to be able to extract just enough speed out of them without destroying them. With a couple of laps to go, tyre life no longer matters.

They can all drive 2 seconds a lap faster than they currently do. But they'd need more pit stops.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by TrapezeArtist

I don't understand how Bottas got away without a penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. He gained more than either Ocon or Alonso, who were both penalised.

I think that was explained by his slowing down, to restore the amount of gap that had existed to Verstappen before leaving the track.

Alonso set the fastest middle sector when he did it, gaining about 1.5secs!!

[Greem]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

I think that was explained by his slowing down, to restore the amount of gap that had existed to Verstappen before leaving the track.

Alonso set the fastest middle sector when he did it, gaining about 1.5secs!!

Yeah, but Alonso missed the apex at T9 (I think!) and drove across the painted run-off. Didn't he have 15 or 20s of penalty time at the end after doing it more than once, or was I dreaming that?

[Greem]

Due to being at Rockingham's last ever race meeting on Saturday I missed qualifying, and then yesterday I was installing a dishwasher so I had to wait until last night to watch the race.

It was OK, entertained me in parts but I spent as much time catching up on Facebook as I did watching it. Some of the DRS moves were pretty spectacular, and the see-saw nature of the circuit layout created some good swap/swap/swap again moves.

It definitely had an end-of-term feel though.

And Will Smith. Why?

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Greem

Yeah, but Alonso missed the apex at T9 (I think!) and drove across the painted run-off. Didn't he have 15 or 20s of penalty time at the end after doing it more than once, or was I dreaming that?

Yes - that's what I was referring to.

Bottas made a mistake, which inadvertently resulted in a gain. He made amends for this, so no punishment was required.

Alonso, in response to being requested to gain an extra point (he informed his engineer that he already had 1800, so didn't need another), decided to short-cut T9 to make a statement.

[Greem]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Yes - that's what I was referring to.

Bottas made a mistake, which inadvertently resulted in a gain. He made amends for this, so no punishment was required.

Alonso, in response to being requested to gain an extra point (he informed his engineer that he already had 1800, so didn't need another), decided to short-cut T9 to make a statement.

Ah, skim-reading threads the morning after does make for a sore brain - I thought we were still on the 'fastest lap at the end of the stint' chat there, my bad.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Greem

Ah, skim-reading threads the morning after does make for a sore brain - I thought we were still on the 'fastest lap at the end of the stint' chat there, my bad.

[S griffin]

Fred's were so blatant, but as it was his last race, we can forgive him

[TrapezeArtist]

Originally Posted by Greem

And Will Smith. Why?

Ditto all the other slebs that clutter up the grid and the pit garages. Martin Brundle used to be the worst for fawning up to them, though DC is not much better. Thank God for the Fast Forward button.