2013 Abu Dhabi GP - Yas Marina

[Mika1]

Last season Lewis Hamilton nailed the 3rd sector, I expect a good result here, maybe P2.

[subasurf]

I don't have much memory of the previous races on this track (currently downloading last years race so I can see what the track is really like in a race).
Is it safe for me to assume that this track demands far less in tire strategy than we're use to? Doesn't look like a track that would cause significant wear on the rubber, unless of course, they raced during the middle of the day.

[SectorOne]

Now that Mr. Finger and RBR have both championships in the bag I`ll ask you guys to vote which will be the best Vettel`s approach for the next 3 races:
1. He must start at the last position on the grid;
2. He must start on Webber`s car and have the 10 th place on the grid;
3. He must start at his qualy original place but he must race with just one eye sight;
4. Same as above but he must race with a hand tied;
5. Same as above but he must lap everyone but Mark.
Fill free to add new situations in this above list ...

7. let him enjoy the magnificent RBR here as well. I´d like to see what the car can do around here, should be interesting.

As far as Hamilton taking pole, forget it. The Mercedes is like night and day from the 27 which he tossed around beautifully.
It doesn´t even seem to retain the key difference between the two cars that is a solid rear end.
I´m surprised they haven´t moved in a more super strong front end type of machine instead, the RBR and the 27 has been that and they have proven success.

[Juzh]

Is it safe for me to assume that this track demands far less in tire strategy than we're use to?
Doesn't look like a track that would cause significant wear on the rubber, unless of course, they raced during the middle of the day.

We have soft and medium as we had in india. Abu dhabi has no fast corners to talk about though so I think it'll be a comfortable 1 stopper. Soft should do a reasonable distance unlike in india, and medium will last as long as you want it to.

[godlameroso]

Turn two and three are pretty fast, in race trim anyway, the last two turns in the final sector are very confusing, and although not very fast almost impossible to get right.

I also think with the softer rubber we could see pole in the 39's.

[godlameroso]

OK so now Vettel is invisible because we know he's going to win, much more interesting would be seeing Fernando choke and be overtaken in the WDC as well as Ferrari in the WCC if Alonso has another bad race and Raikkonen wins in a repeat of last year, he'd be in third and facing a tough climb back into second. Considering they're teammates next year it would definitely make things tense at Ferrari. The Mercedes seems more than capable of matching the Lotus's pace in this and the next circuit as the corners are similar, if Brazil is hot and dry the Lotus might just be unstoppable.

[Chuckjr]

I think He can pole here. There are times when he can be up to 1 second faster over a lap, maybe it's enough to beat vettel by a couple hundreths. As for the race, this is a vettel win.

Lol!! 1 second a lap faster....now that's funny!!

The RB9 will crush all comers just like it has for the last few races.

[tim|away]

Here's what the bookies think (ladbrokes in this case) who's going to win the Abu Dhabi GP. I've added the percentages.

Driver            Odds         Percent
--------------+-----------+--------------+
S. Vettel           2/5          71.43
M. Webber           5/1          16.67
R. Grosjean        14/1           6.67
L Hamilton         16/1           5.88
F. Alonso          20/1           4.76
K Raikkonen        20/1           4.76
N Rosberg          22/1           4.35
F. Massa           100/1          0.99
J. Button          150/1          0.66
S Perez            250/1          0.40
N Hulkenberg       250/1          0.40
D. Ricciardo       750/1          0.13
J-E. Vergne       1000/1          0.10
P. di Resta       1000/1          0.10
E. Gutierrez      1000/1          0.10
A Sutil           1000/1          0.10
V Bottas          2000/1          0.05
P. Maldonado      2000/1          0.05
G Van Der Garde   5000/1          0.02
C Pic             5000/1          0.02
M. Chilton        5000/1          0.02
J. Bianchi        5000/1          0.02

[ringo]

I think He can pole here. There are times when he can be up to 1 second faster over a lap, maybe it's enough to beat vettel by a couple hundreths. As for the race, this is a vettel win.

Lol!! 1 second a lap faster....now that's funny!!

The RB9 will crush all comers just like it has for the last few races.

I think you will be able to find really massive gaps here; maybe not at second exactly. Abu Dhabi is like Canada for Hamilton. It's not unusual for him to take 0.8s or 0.6s chunks out of his teammates or rivals. Looking into Q2 sessions as well also shows that there is generally a huge gap, sometimes almost a second.
So i don't think a pole position is out of the question. The likelihood is worth the gamble.

2012
Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:41.497 1:40.901 1:40.630
Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:42.342 1:41.873 1:41.290

2011
Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:39.782 1:38.434 1:38.622
Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:40.227 1:39.097 1:38.631


2010
Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:40.335 1:40.119 1:39.425
Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:40.877 1:40.014 1:39.823

2009
Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:39.873 1:39.695 1:40.948
Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 1:40.666 1:39.984 1:41.615

The real question is, how much faster is the redbull, will the team turn up the wick and run the engines into oblivion since they technically don't need those v8s anymore?
Will all bindings be lifted and they run the car at 100% full steam?

[raymondu999]

Here I've done up the numbers for you.

2012: 0.660
2011: 0.009 (quite sure that's not a second ahead)
2010: 0.398

I left out 2009 because Heikki had a gearbox problem in Q2, and your comparison with Vettel doesn't stand, seeing as they had (and have) different cars.

As such he's had a mean gap of 0.356. Hardly even the 0.8s/0.6s chunks you speak of.

If you were to analyse Hamilton's sector times from past years, you would see that his advantage all comes from S3. At S1/S2 he's only negligibly better than his teammates at best, and at worst he cocks up; for example in 2011 where he was a lot slower in S1 and S2, meaning his 0.411 S3 advantage over Button means he was only able to outdo Button by 0.009

[CHT]

Here's what the bookies think (ladbrokes in this case) who's going to win the Abu Dhabi GP. I've added the percentages.

Driver            Odds         Percent
--------------+-----------+--------------+
S. Vettel           2/5          71.43
M. Webber           5/1          16.67
R. Grosjean        14/1           6.67
L Hamilton         16/1           5.88
F. Alonso          20/1           4.76
K Raikkonen        20/1           4.76
N Rosberg          22/1           4.35
F. Massa           100/1          0.99
J. Button          150/1          0.66
S Perez            250/1          0.40
N Hulkenberg       250/1          0.40
D. Ricciardo       750/1          0.13
J-E. Vergne       1000/1          0.10
P. di Resta       1000/1          0.10
E. Gutierrez      1000/1          0.10
A Sutil           1000/1          0.10
V Bottas          2000/1          0.05
P. Maldonado      2000/1          0.05
G Van Der Garde   5000/1          0.02
C Pic             5000/1          0.02
M. Chilton        5000/1          0.02
J. Bianchi        5000/1          0.02

I would put my money on webber for the next 3 races not because he will be faster than SV, but I think Vettel will move over for webber swansong race

[FW17]

I would put my money on webber for the next 3 races not because he will be faster than SV, but I think Vettel will move over for webber swansong race

I wouldn't if had been called a f*****n kid!!

[Jonnycraig]

Here I've done up the numbers for you.

2012: 0.660
2011: 0.009 (quite sure that's not a second ahead)
2010: 0.398

I left out 2009 because Heikki had a gearbox problem in Q2, and your comparison with Vettel doesn't stand, seeing as they had (and have) different cars.

As such he's had a mean gap of 0.356. Hardly even the 0.8s/0.6s chunks you speak of.

If you were to analyse Hamilton's sector times from past years, you would see that his advantage all comes from S3. At S1/S2 he's only negligibly better than his teammates at best, and at worst he cocks up; for example in 2011 where he was a lot slower in S1 and S2, meaning his 0.411 S3 advantage over Button means he was only able to outdo Button by 0.009

=D>

It's worth pointing out as well that with Hamiltons 2,2,1 qualifying in the past three years, Button has been 4,3,5 which show how strong McLaren have been around Abu Dhabi in recent times. 2009 is irrelevant as we had refueling and Hamilton was first to pit of the front runners.

[iotar__]

Long straight and some forgettable corners but the paddock and hotel are nice which is more important.

Circus with track limits continues, http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/3025 ... ck-limits/ :
"FIA made clear that it will not accept drivers running wide and gaining advantage at Turns 6, 9 and 12" + some very specific clarification about turns 8/9 .

What do they mean with "won't accept"? Like Hulkenberg India overtaking farce?

[ecapox]

It is just like a bank, after being robbed, and having done nothing to catch the thiefs say "We will not tolerate any stealing from this bank. If you do, you are subject to terrible things."