2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Yas Marina, Dec 06 - 08

[Sphere3758]

Charles and Lewis were almost level a breast of each other after turn one, Charles on the right, Lewis on the left, it's just that the sea seemed to part open for Charles on the right side. Instinct? Luck? Who knows, but Charles had some serious pace in that first stint. Bodes well for next year's car..

Top drive from Carlos too. It's a great end to his four? years at Ferrari.

It was quite clear that the strategy of Lewis was the optimal one. As the temperatures dropped, there was some graining on the hards for everyone. So, while he drove a phenomenal race, Lewis also had the preferable strategy in retrospect.

Charles made it happen without an alternate strategy which was way more impressive imo. He had to actually make the overtakes, not just sit and wait for everyone to pit.

[Mosin123]

Charles and Lewis were almost level a breast of each other after turn one, Charles on the right, Lewis on the left, it's just that the sea seemed to part open for Charles on the right side. Instinct? Luck? Who knows, but Charles had some serious pace in that first stint. Bodes well for next year's car..

Top drive from Carlos too. It's a great end to his four? years at Ferrari.

It was quite clear that the strategy of Lewis was the optimal one. As the temperatures dropped, there was some graining on the hards for everyone. So, while he drove a phenomenal race, Lewis also had the preferable strategy in retrospect.

Charles made it happen without an alternate strategy which was way more impressive imo. He had to actually make the overtakes, not just sit and wait for everyone to pit.

i thought LH pace on the hard was impressive, if he finished 25 secs behind his team mate, he wouldnt be near 4th.

[search]

Charles and Lewis were almost level a breast of each other after turn one, Charles on the right, Lewis on the left, it's just that the sea seemed to part open for Charles on the right side. Instinct? Luck? Who knows, but Charles had some serious pace in that first stint. Bodes well for next year's car..

Top drive from Carlos too. It's a great end to his four? years at Ferrari.

It was quite clear that the strategy of Lewis was the optimal one. As the temperatures dropped, there was some graining on the hards for everyone. So, while he drove a phenomenal race, Lewis also had the preferable strategy in retrospect.

Charles made it happen without an alternate strategy which was way more impressive imo. He had to actually make the overtakes, not just sit and wait for everyone to pit.

i thought LH pace on the hard was impressive, if he finished 25 secs behind his team mate, he wouldnt be near 4th.

Hamilton was quicker all weekend, but to fair, he also benefitted a bit from Russell getting stuck behind Gasly for most of the first stint, and everyone else in between pitting early.

This way, the strategy played out perfectly. With more, slower guys guys starting on hards as well, the result would have been different. The Mercedes wasn't really a car to pass with today.

[cplchanb]

Absolutely mental, making that much fresher set of mediums stick on the outside of a car on graining hards, total goat move.

Started 16th, drove through the field to beat his team mate who started 6th without any assistance from safety cars or even really incidents ahead. Beat Russell on pure pace.

Decent race agreed. Leclerc started 19th and finished 3rd for reference.

He benefited from being on the outside of the accordion where perez spun. Meanwhile, hamilton was stuck being sandwiched in that incident

[PlatinumZealot]

Very happy for MCL......been supportung them since 1999.

Yeah.....dam you VER! You will NEVER EVER win another WDC, this will be the VR curse to the next level

Their WCC just doesn't feel the same to me even though I was longing to see the next one. I guess because the cars are not silver anymore it just feels like a different McLaren without Ron Dennis.

[PlatinumZealot]

The Ferrari race pace was extremely strong though. The old tyres masked it in the second stint. If Leclerc hadn't a penalty i think he could have troubled Norris after the first round of pitstops.

[megasyxx2]

Very happy for MCL......been supportung them since 1999.

Yeah.....dam you VER! You will NEVER EVER win another WDC, this will be the VR curse to the next level

Their WCC just doesn't feel the same to me even though I was longing to see the next one. I guess because the cars are not silver anymore it just feels like a different McLaren without Ron Dennis.

Evolution maybe?

[SharkY]

To sum up the 2024 season - final charts of WDC & WCC:


It's clearly visible, that given the slow start of McLaren and Ferrari's mid season downgrade, the title was always in Max's hands. The field was just to compressed for any major revolutions.
After China Norris was fairly consistent, despite his or the team's mistakes. Piastri on the other hand, shined through the middle of the season, however faltered a bit in the end.
Leclerc's Canada to GBR run is sorry to look at, apart from that a good season for him. In comparison, Sainz kept it steady through that difficult time for Ferrari.
Mercs were nowhere at the beginning, but managed to capitalise on other's problem mid season - their glory run. Interestingly, Russel's and Hamilton's graph have a very similar shape, with a 3 race offset mid season and Lewis struggled much more than George in the end.
And that leaves Perez. Well... after Miami he was driving on the level of Alonso in AMR. He managed to score 45 pts in the last 18 races (it's 37 for ALO), while all the others gained around 200 in that period.



Here we've got an ultra steady McLaren and Ferrari's mid season upgrade blunder that cost them WCC. Given that Red Bull had 1,25 drivers, Mercs actually were very parallel to them in the second half of the season.

All in all, it's been a great year! I can only hope, that the competition remains fairly similar in 2025.

[stephen]

It was heartbreaking to hear Lewis on the radio with Bono and Toto. What a send off.

[FW17]

Too bad we dont get pictures like this in F1 Abu Dhabi

[r85]

Too bad we dont get pictures like this in F1 Abu Dhabi
https://i.imgur.com/sHtFWHg.jpg

Didn't someone throw that fridge out the window?

[cplchanb]

a surprisingly calm thread...only 15 pages of posts....

[outer_bongolia]

Because you do not want to crash ?

So you agree then that it was overly optimistic and the penalty was deserved so stop posting asking how Verstappen deserved it

Still, point remains that a 10s penalty for such first lap incidents is rather rare, and it's not uncommon in these situations for the outer car to go wide, while the inner is summoned to simply give the place back.

Verstappen's signature dive bomb messed up Piastri's race and he again ended up in a better position. His prior dive bombs in Austria, Austin, Mexico messed up Norris' races and he always ended up in a better position - even when he was penalized. For all practical purposes, he is very experienced with his dive bombs by now and will not stop unless he ends up worse.

The punishment has to fit the crime. "Give back the place gained" (i.e. fall behind the person you messed with) should have been the penalty.

[megasyxx2]

So you agree then that it was overly optimistic and the penalty was deserved so stop posting asking how Verstappen deserved it

Still, point remains that a 10s penalty for such first lap incidents is rather rare, and it's not uncommon in these situations for the outer car to go wide, while the inner is summoned to simply give the place back.

Verstappen's signature dive bomb messed up Piastri's race and he again ended up in a better position. His prior dive bombs in Austria, Austin, Mexico messed up Norris' races and he always ended up in a better position - even when he was penalized. For all practical purposes, he is very experienced with his dive bombs by now and will not stop unless he ends up worse.

The punishment has to fit the crime. "Give back the place gained" (i.e. fall behind the person you messed with) should have been the penalty.

Ver is a total arse! He's no different than stroll really

[Tvetovnato]

Why even compare Hamilton’s and Leclerc’s drives in the first place? The Ferrari was a quicker car in the race as evidenced by the gap from Sainz to Russell, so what Leclerc did (even on a different strategy) will never say anything how they did in relation to one another. Both drove very good races is all you can say, and end it there.