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.”

[dyrewolfe]

Worst race of the season. Disappointing anti-climax in the end, no action, no SC & just a load of easy DRS aided overtaking. Hamilton threw the race away in Saturday, once again that Mercedes shows its vulnerability in dirty air. As for the radio ban, I had no real issue with it before, Hamilton fiddling around for half a race just denied us any chance of seeing him or Kimi actually fight fairly, just penalises the driver & the viewers. Excellent from Perez, once more. Went to McLaren too early, but now seems to of developed into a real consistent force. I see no real reason why he could not replace Kimi.

Completely agree!

Fair enough the team shouldn't be able to tell drivers how to drive the circuit (i.e. where they are losing time, what settings to use for a particular bit of track, lap times of / gaps to rivals etc.) but when the car has problems, they should be able to advise the driver what to try to remedy the situation.

Really felt for Hamilton and can fully understand his frustration.

[Guest]

As Ricciardo said, anything mechanical/engine related or that could endanger the driver, radio communication should be allowed. Telling them where they're losing time or how to drive, should be rightfully banned. Not difficult to implement that or differentiate between the two.

As for the expected carnage, you could argue that's the difference between F1 standard of drivers, compared to GP2 drivers. I mean, Palmer was the GP2 champion & he is distinctly average, releatively few champions from GP2 make the step up, if anythbig the real stars jump from junior catergory racing, straight to F1. It's like being selected for the England team at 17 or 18 & not playing for the U-21's. As for conspiracy theories, that's nonsense. You just don't want to be driving that Mercedes in dirty air for too long, otherwise it's weaknesses are exposed.

As for the title, only a 24 point lead for Nico, so Lewis did a good job of limiting the damage.

[Fernando]

Being in a wrong engine mode isn't a safety issue it's a technical issue. Ive always been of the opinion unless it's a serious issue effecting the car as in it's going to break down then no communication unless pitting/SC/Letting know where car behind is if on a slowdown lap in qualifying to move out way or blue flags.

Apparently both Mercedes had this issue according to Toto but Nico figured what was wrong in a half a lap due to a previous change he made.

Wolff said: "We don't know how much it is. As per the data, it is 0.2secs per lap but it must have felt like much more because the engines was de-rating between Turns Two and Three where you expect the biggest boost and that probably subconsciously affected him.

[Guest]

As Alonso stated, it's too complicated for drivers & fans, it's 'spaceship' technology which is too confusing. How on earth is being in the wrong engine mode, not a safety issue? Did you not see the domino effect it caused at Barcelona? Obviously not. The engine mode is a dangerous position to be in, Rosberg was endangering himself & the drivers behind, by going so slow at Barcelona. Hamilton was endangering himself & others, by losing concentration at a street track, by focusing on dials, instead of the race track. Race drivers of the past never had to learn about every single engine mode setting or inside every mode setting, there being another huge number of sub-sections, in regards to the engine. Drivers of today need to be system managers it feels, it's not what should be happening, I want to see them race & show their ability, what got them in f1 in the first place, not how good they're at pushing buttons.

As someone posted, telling them where to brake or where they're losing time should be banned, but anything like what we saw on Sunday, is no fault of the driver.

[GSC]

It's not really a safety issue, the red light comes on the back of the car when it's de rating.

[dyrewolfe]

It's not really a safety issue, the red light comes on the back of the car when it's de rating.

Not directly, in and of itself, but as Liam pointed out, Hamilton was spending a lot of time looking at his steering wheel...which could very quickly become a safety issue / lead to an accident.

I also fully agree with Alonso's stance that the cars are ridiculously complicated to drive these days.

They should either do away with the multitude of engine, gearbox and other settings, or at least drastically reduce them. Either that, or keep them, but make it so they can only be adjusted in the pits, freeing the driver to concentrate on driving.

I'd prefer one of the first two options, as simplifying the cars means there is less to go wrong.

[GSC]

To be honest dyre, you'd struggle to justify Hamilton staring at his steering wheel as a legitimate safety concern to me. Or at least nobody considered it as such when Nico complained about messages on his steering wheel in Canada.

I too would be up for vastly simplifying what drivers are actually doing however.

[Guest]

Rosberg's messages in Canada were in regards to high brake temperatures having been in dirty air. He simply had to find clear air, in order to control these temperatures, along with saving fuel. That is not a safety concern or anything remotely related to Hamilton's engine mode issues. Hamilton had to constantly look at the wheel, adjusting his concentration from track to steering wheel, Nico just had to back-off & find clean air, while remaining fully focused on racing, hence why he was making places up, whereas Lewis was going backwards.

[Fernando]

1- Hamilton ended up 5th he didn't go backwards
2- He could of just left it alone and accepted the 0.2 sec deficit and got on with it.
3- 0.2 over a lap is nothing that would cause a safety issue unlike when Nico's dropped into harvesting mode.

[dyrewolfe]

1- Hamilton ended up 5th he didn't go backwards
2- He could of just left it alone and accepted the 0.2 sec deficit and got on with it.
3- 0.2 over a lap is nothing that would cause a safety issue unlike when Nico's dropped into harvesting mode.

IIRC he was around 3-4 seconds behind Perez at one point (before he overtook Kimi). He finished around 20 seconds behind Raikkonen. If thats not going backwards, I don't know what is.

[Guest]

1. He went from just over 2 or 3  seconds behind Perez, to finishing over 30 seconds behind him. That's going backwards, irrelevent of no position change.

2. Why on earth would a racing driver, accept a 0.2 deficit? He's there to drive as quickly as possibly, gain positions & points to Rosberg. Toto stated it was 0.2s on the data, however, Paddy Lowe said it was more, due to the nature of the track layout & the fact Lewis was not driving to the maximum of his ability, due to impaired concentration.

3. Nobody suggested a 0.2 loss is the 'safety issue' here. If you'd read the posts, you'd know the safety issue is the driver losing concentration, his vision being directed every five seconds at the steering wheel, instead of on the track. That's pretty simple to understand.

[Fernando]

If it was that much of a safety issue he should of retired the car instead of placing 21 other cars in a dangerous situation

[GSC]

Sorry, "I was too busy fiddling with the steering wheel to watch the road" isn't a valid excuse for me to drive dangerously let alone professionals paid millions to drive a car. If his driving deteriorated as a result, than that's his issue, not a safety issue. Merc even told him to stop messing around and just finish the race as is.

[Guest]

You either side with it's a potential safety issue or it's not, I guess. The latter, obviously won't take notice, until someone has been severely injured or killed, as a result of another driver being distracted at the wheel, unnecessarily, when someone over the radio could just solve the issue immediately.

[GSC]

Yeah, like telling him to stop Wee weeing around with the switches and concentrate on driving a car that was far more than 0.2 secs per lap faster than every other car.

[GSC]

While we're at it, every car needs to be painted matte black so other drivers aren't distracted by the sunlight being reflected by other cars. #f1safetyconcerns

Actually to be fair that's a more legitimate safety concern than someone playing with the steering wheel.

[Guest]

Good one, find that on twitter, did you?

Yeah, like telling him to stop Wee weeing around with the switches and concentrate on driving a car that was far more than 0.2 secs per lap faster than every other car.

Except that it wasn't, seeing as he couldn't pass Sergio Perez

[GSC]

but from what we have seen I would estimate it at 0.2 seconds a lap

-Toto Wolff, Executive Director of Mercedes F1 Team

[Guest]

but from what we have seen I would estimate it at 0.2 seconds a lap

-Toto Wolff, Executive Director of Mercedes F1 Team

Toto Wolff is an executive director, he's not an engineer. He's essentially a big-wig, who has very little knowledge of any of the technical side of the sport. His whole career has been about investing & the sports management, so I really have desire to believe anything he says about data, neither do you, from past posts you've made about him. Paddy Lowe stated he would of lost more than 0.2 seconds a lap, but that's all irrelevant really, seeing as my point was about it being a safety issue.

Hamilton could not pass Perez, focused or not focused on the steering wheel, such was it impacting his race.

[GSC]

I mean I'm going to guess Toto has access to the people that do specialise in analysing the data given he is their ultimate boss. I'm pretty sure he wasn't standing at the end of the start finish straight with a stop watching timing how long it took Hamilton.

[GSC]

But regardless, it isn't a safety issue, he could've left it alone, as advised by the team, and coped with a small performance decrease (as measured by his own team). If he hit someone while playing with the steering that's entirely on him driving dangerously, the stewards certainly wouldn't be about to let him off.

[Guest]

I'd class this as a 'potential' safety issue, because any driver behind the wheel fiddling switches, looking at your phone or changing the radio, is raising the risk of causing an accident. Pretty simple to understand & it was pretty simple to understand that Hamilton was clearly distracted & rattled, something which would affect a person's driving ability. Just because a situation with Hamilton did not unfold at Baku, in terms of a collision with another driver, doesn't stop it from being a 'potential' safety issue.

Having said that, this wasn't a Rosberg/Barcelona situation or a 'one corner' loss of speed situation, this was just a standard, consistent loss of power for a sustained period, it wasn't a major loss of pace, whereby someone coming from behind, could suddenly be caught out by a slowing vehicle. Hamilton could control the situation, but being down in fifth, knowing he needed to make up positions, meant his desire to fix the situation, over-rided his desire to conform to the team's demands of just bringing the car home, which is understandable, given he's fighting for a championship & wanting to score more points.

As for the estimated 0.2s loss per lap, I think it's clear he was losing slightly more than that. He then turned the engine down towards the latter stages, so that would of enhanced the gap to Perez/Kimi & the overall time lost.

[dyrewolfe]

Spot on John - saved me from saying pretty much the same thing.

[Jimpy]

but from what we have seen I would estimate it at 0.2 seconds a lap

-Toto Wolff, Executive Director of Mercedes F1 Team

Toto Wolff is an executive director, he's not an engineer. He's essentially a big-wig, who has very little knowledge of any of the technical side of the sport. His whole career has been about investing & the sports management, so I really have desire to believe anything he says about data, neither do you, from past posts you've made about him. Paddy Lowe stated he would of lost more than 0.2 seconds a lap, but that's all irrelevant really, seeing as my point was about it being a safety issue.

Hamilton could not pass Perez, focused or not focused on the steering wheel, such was it impacting his race.

Does your carer know you're on here?

[Guest]

Carlos Sainz extends his contract with TR, until the end of 2017

[Guest]

Hamilton confirms he had engine failure at the end of Baku & has taken his fifth & final engine in Austria.

''We are putting in the last new engine this weekend and so at least one race I will start last and will need a sixth and even a seventh engine for later on in the season," he said.

Nico has four engines still remaining.

[Guest]

Hamilton is on his fifth turbo & MGU-H. He's only on his third ICE, MGU-K, electronics & energy store. It will play a big factor at some point, unfortunately. I'd expect the team will take the penalties in Spa or Monza.

I think Vettel has a five place grid penalty this weekend.

[Jermaine2015]

Weekend seems to be a straight fight between Nico and Hamilton.

Factoring in Sebastian's 5 place pen, everyone else is racing for 3rd...

[Guest]

Rosberg crashes in P3 due to suspension failure. Definite worries for Mercedes with graining too

[Jermaine2015]

Ferrari look surprisingly living in practice 3 all the more pain with Sebastian with the penalty

[GSC]

5 place penalty for Rosberg for gearbox change

[Guest]

Not surprised the gearbox needs replacing, was a significant impact. Another race, whereby the two Mercedes boys are separated

[GSC]

Kvyat out.

Wehrlein makes Q2

[GSC]

Right rear suspension fails on the Toro Rosso

[Guest]

Driver error, going that wide, but questions might be asked about these curbs. Think that's three suspension failures now

[GSC]

There was a late night for a few track engineers in Baku after P2 removing some kerbs, might be the same here.

[GSC]

Looks like the left started to fail first on replay.

[GSC]

Remain of the opinion that they should keep all 4 wheels within the white lines and avoid the kerbs anyway.

[dyrewolfe]

Remain of the opinion that they should keep all 4 wheels within the white lines and avoid the kerbs anyway.

Exactly!

The kerbs are there to prevent drivers abusing the track limits.

The drivers know they're there. They know they risk damaging the car if they drive over them...so just don't do it.

Not exactly rocket science.

[Guest]

Merc missed a trick in q2, will be on different tyres to Ferrari/RB at the race start. Wet q3 now

[GSC]

Might rain anyway so could end up being irrelevant tomorrow.

[Guest]

Hamilton pole
Hulkenberg 2nd
button 3rd

[dyrewolfe]

WTF?

How did Button get 5th? Will start 3rd with Rosberg and Vettel getting penalties!

Undoubtedly will get swamped at the start, but still a nice little boost for McLaren.

Hamilton over 0.5sec quicker than Rosberg. Great quali by Hulkenberg too.

[GSC]

Button was the last guy to do a lap on a drying track. As we saw in Spa 2013, when the tracks drying, lap times improve by the minute.

Some relief for Rosberg, his 5 place penalty is actually only a 4 place penalty because Vettels was applied first.

[GSC]

Anyway, Hamilton should win this race at a canter, Hulkenburg & Button are unlikely to threaten. If he can't get off the line, he could fall close to Rosberg however. Only a short run into T1 though.

Rosberg should still finish 2nd if he stays out of trouble. Theres no Williams ahead to hold him up on a straight, only really Ricciardo is capable of giving him grief you suspect.

[Guest]

Vettel's tyre explodes . SC out

[dyrewolfe]

Bloody tyres AGAIN!

Sooner they dump Pirelli the better!

Not Vettel's greatest fan but even I felt sorry for him there.

[toml]

Why did vettel go into reverse when he crashed and reversed across the track?

[Guest]

Rosberg has 12 laps older tyres than Hamilton, should be the difference maker

[dyrewolfe]

Rosberg and Hamilton 1-2.

Wonder if Lewis will develop mysterious car problems or simply be given team orders?

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