2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Yas Marina, Dec 10 - 12

[Jolle]

Hopefully it will be an exciting and clean race from both title contenders.

Unfortunately, only one of the contenders needs a clean race.

I can see Suzuka 1990 type move being tried, sadly.

I said much the same thing to a colleague earlier, I see a Suzuka 1989 as being more likely though; the former would be seen as a deliberate move and should then result in a Schumacher ‘97 type penalty.

However….
I would love to see the last race being won and a worthy champion crowned. Either of the two would be a worthy champion if there is no foul play. If that doesn’t happen the sport is tainted. Again.

And if… let’s it be obvious and not a Singapore ‘08 type of play.

[Jambier]

Hopefully it will be an exciting and clean race from both title contenders.

Unfortunately, only one of the contenders needs a clean race.

I can see Suzuka 1990 type move being tried, sadly.

….
I would love to see the last race being won and a worthy champion crowned. Either of the two would be a worthy champion if there is no foul play. If that doesn’t happen the sport is tainted. Again.

I don’t understand people keeping telling this.

Formula 1 is not monotype. So it is not « you get the same car let the best win »

It makes no sense at all. Some have better cars than other, everyone plays with their strength or weakness.

So for that last race VER strength is only one: more wins

That’s why it make sense to leverage that, whereas Hamilton have the better car so wants a clean race to be able to cruise in front to title

[javspace]

I'm wondering, what are the chances hamilton taking a new engine for this race. I mean the new PU is now 2 races old and the pace he was running in SA, I'm pretty sure it has deteriorated in power somewhat. So maybe take a 5 place grid drop, avoid the race start melee, and breeze past max when he gets a chance and is safe to do so on the straights.

Obviously would help making that decision after practice1 to see how the new layout suits them.

[dans79]

I'm wondering, what are the chances hamilton taking a new engine for this race. I mean the new PU is now 2 races old and the pace he was running in SA, I'm pretty sure it has deteriorated in power somewhat. So maybe take a 5 place grid drop, avoid the race start melee, and breeze past max when he gets a chance and is safe to do so on the straights.

Obviously would help making that decision after practice1 to see how the new layout suits them.

That really depends on the structural changes thats were made. this ICE is supposed to be 630g heavier if memory serves, and the team didn't do that for no reason at all. Thus the engine might not degrade as much as it did at the start of the season!

[Bill_Kar]

Maybe I'm wrong, but the fact that new turn 5 is not so slow, launching onto the first straight, will help Mercedes a lot.

I noticed in Jedda, they were mighty coming from turn 27.

[Swifty]

I'm wondering, what are the chances hamilton taking a new engine for this race. I mean the new PU is now 2 races old and the pace he was running in SA, I'm pretty sure it has deteriorated in power somewhat. So maybe take a 5 place grid drop, avoid the race start melee, and breeze past max when he gets a chance and is safe to do so on the straights.

Obviously would help making that decision after practice1 to see how the new layout suits them.

Hamilton did what he did with this wing:


Any loss of power from the PU won't be enough to stop the man, the advantage is far too much. The engine won't melt in two days.

[Gillian]

This new race thread is only half a day old and all it is talking about is
that dirty Max is definitely going to crash Lewis out of the race!
The "2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix - Jeddah, Dec 03 - 05" thread is even worse!
This is really not normal anymore. You don't see that on any forum, so toxic, yuck!

The problem is that Hamilton is being very impolite and driving as if attempting to deny Verstappen the title! Wolff and Hamilton just don't seem to have Horner and Verstappen's best interests at heart (vice versa too of course).

I'm sure Verstappen would prefer to have a much faster car that could pull away easily, so attack and defence on or over the limit would not be required, but rather an easy DRS drive by!

My hope is that everyone keeps their cool and we see a clean and respectful race with both Verstappen and Hamilton completing the full distance without incident.

Yes, hopefully RBR have a clearly faster car and can take a 1-2 without incident and with a large margin.

Desperate tactics will only occur if the RBR is, sadly, too slow.

Folks seem to ignore the only reason Verstappen was passing and driving over the limit is because the RBR was too darn slow. A 1s/lap advantage in Jeddah would've made victory a trivial matter for the Red Bull driver.

But it's sure funny to see so many ppl distressed .. lighten up lads !

Last chance for Honda to win the driver's championship in an official capacity, with the relative laps led the WDC should already be secured for Verstappen and Red Bull - Honda...

It is bizarre that it is not. Despite suggestions of clean racing, Mercedes have hardly ensured a season "without incident" either, and have seemingly cost RBR a number of points.

I want the fastest driver/car combination to win FAIR & SQUARE. I am almost certain I will be disappointed.

But the Mercedes is the faster car now, even though the Red Bull was the better car overall and should have already won the WDC title.

A Mercedes WDC win would hardly be the correct result given the relative laps led.

Your suggestion is essentially that Verstappen should just concede and not even try?

Great post as always.

I don't agree with some things Verstappen did, he went too far last race. But I get why it's happening. He's been far better than Hamilton overall this year and to see if all falling away in the end... The kid is giving everything he's got and more but he knows the car at this point just isn't fast enough anymore. I don't care how cold he can be, it will hurt.

And Hamilton... He's not a dirty driver but he's no saint either. His approach is just very subtle, just like his mind games. Verstappen is anything but subtle. It's easy to just blame everything on Verstappen but you can also point out very unsporting moments from Mercedes/Hamilton.

Last race was dreadful, the FIA was a mess and Verstappen went too far. Still doesn't take away what a fantastic driver Verstappen is. Doesn't make him a villain either.

And I know it might be hard too believe, especially when you are a diehard British fan of Hamilton but I genuinely do not believe Verstappen will try too crash Hamilton out of the race. But believing that or not will depend on your view on Hamilton and how much you (want) to understand of who Verstappen is.

I think Hamilton will win this race, no matter how hard Verstappen is going to race him.

[dans79]

And I know it might be hard too believe, especially when you are a diehard British fan of Hamilton but I genuinely do not believe Verstappen will try too crash Hamilton out of the race.

Come on man, Hamilton has lots of fans outside the UK.

[Gillian]

I hope we get an actual real fight this race, 2 greats with a competitive car battling out for the WDC. But I think Mercedes will have a too big advantage for that.

[west52keep64]

Last year he started on pole and just disappeared in to the distance, and that was when the Mercedes had a much bigger performance advantage.

I think the changes made for this year will work in merc's favor tho. The 4-5 flip flop chicane is gone, so is the left-right-left-left sequence at the end of the back straight.

From the first corner up until the first hairpin, it is a longer full throttle section than it used to be, followed by two long straights in combination no doubt will favor a stronger engine. It can also open up charge/deployment strategies massively if it comes to a head to head during the race.

One last thing is, Lewis was coming back from covid last year, and probably wasn't %100. Personally, I'll be impressed if MV actually manages to disappear like he did last year.

All of this is fairly speculative. The Red Bull limbo wing is back, so I don't expect Mercedes will have a significant straight line advantage at Abu Dhabi. I just can't see Mercedes dominating this. The Verstappen + RB combo is going to be right there, exactly where it needs to be.

[codetower]

Press conference lineup for Abu Dhabi

[max_speed]

You mean where he had the inside line to the turn, and the driver on the outside turned in on him hoping he would jump out of the way, and just wasn't able to get out of it quick enough? I think a lot of people remember that.

Not to mention and all the fake new and strait up factually incorrect garbage posted about it. for example the constant claim he didn't make the turn even though video evidence clearly shows he did in spite of heavy contact (that would have substantially unsettled the car aerodynamically and mechanically)!

I am hoping for an outcome that will make sure luck evens out over a period. I am not interested in individual driver's Intentions and fans justifications. If we include Baku as well Verstappen had more bad luck than Hamilton. Hope luck strikes and spoils the party of liberty media's well planned , executed drama.

You think so? How it's been played, it's you get to play the cards you're dealt with by the FIA whether you like it or not imo. I felt like that especially considering now they go in the Final round on equal points. It's like the FIA shoves both team towards this finishing order.

If it happens again in Abu Dhabi, then I think FIA is biased.

My friend, we fans are naive. F1 is show business, after covid impacting business for last year, this year has presented Liberty an opportunity to make all amends. FIA is like refree in football they can be influenced. End of the day money rules. Without FIA help final showdown was not possible.

[Bandit1216]

Most Dutch fans are fan of Verstappen, not the sport unfortunately.

Exactly, so many die hard dutch fans of verstappen that have no clue about the actual sport. All they know is Max can do no wrong.

Yes which is sad. Even more sad because Verstappen actually is pretty damn good so when you appreciate that, you get labeled a Verstappen fanatic. Which is also unfair.

That's sad indeed. I follow Max since he's about ten, because I was already watching before his father joined F1. I was an early adopter before the whole of the Netherlands even knew Jos had a son. Jos was always downplayed because he was in the gravel too much. One person ones said Jos was far better then everyone knew. That person did know a thing or too. It was Michael Schumacher. Now I tend to avoid conversations with most of those fan boys sadly because it is indeed broke now. Yes, I support Max, but he's not perfect!!

but now on the race; does the new layout suit RB or Merc?

[FWandE]

My friend, we fans are naive. F1 is show business, after covid impacting business for last year, this year has presented Liberty an opportunity to make all amends. FIA is like refree in football they can be influenced. End of the day money rules. Without FIA help final showdown was not possible.

I have been watching F1 for a very long time....all the way back to the Hill (Graham) Stewart rivalry and even a bit earlier. Yes F1 is much more of a business now but it has been pretty big business all along with the wealthy and famous attracted to it. The Monaco GP does not exist by accident. Anyway my point is that all through that time there have been accusations of favoritism and rigging of results none of which seem very likely. The FIA has been accussed of being in the pocket of various big car manufacturers Ferrari, Mercedes, Honda and more. It has been accused of being anti various teams e.g. Lotus & Williams at various times and in favour of those same teams at others.

A more critical look suggests this is all just paranoid nonsense usually promoted by various fans and supporters of the teams & sometimes by the teams themselves.

You are correct to say that the F1 bosses want an exciting championship to go down to the wire because that is best for business. What they can do is tinker with regulations & rules, they have done this many times over the years mostly without success.

I doubt that the FIA or anyone else has much influence over the stewards or the race directors decisions. The teams will try to influence both as much as the rules allow but ultimately both will protect their autonomy because their decisions can be life & death decisions. I see no evidence of the stewards consistently favoring one driver or one team over others. That doesn't mean that I agree with every decision they make, far from it, but they don't appear to have any consistent bias. Nor do their decisions indicate that they are deliberately trying to manipulate the season to have a last race showdown. Last race showdowns are a rarity. We have one this season because the regulation changes combined with the abilities of Max & Lewis & their teams has led to two drivers from different teams being tied on points going into the last race. You can argue that the regulation changes were designed to hurt Mercedes (they probably were) and you can question decisions by race control and the stewards because both are human and will make mistakes but there is no evidence that the whole season or any part of it has been rigged to create this outcome.

[Jolle]

For all the Dutch viewers, this will probably be the last race of Olav Mol and his team.