PRIXVIEW – Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

The final race of the 2022 season sees the sun literally set on the season with a day-night race in the capital of the United Arab Emirates Abu Dhabi. The 3.281mi circuit was built as part of the development of an entertainment complex in the 2000s the circuit eye conic backdrops are Ferrari World at the Hairpin and the W Abu Dhabi – Yas Island in the marina section.

Abu Dhabi was the sports first day-night race, following on from Singapore, it has since been joined by its neighbours in Sakhir, Jeddah and Lusail. This makes FP1 and FP3 aren’t the most reprehensive sessions taking place under the sun while conditions will cool in the late afternoon/evening sessions.

The current 3.2281-mile was introduced last year with the hairpin at Turn Five being revised and dramatic changes at the end of the second sector, the series of right-angled corners were removed and replaced by a banked sweeping corner which played its role in the controversial last year, Lewis Hamilton was unable to re-pass Max Verstappen on the restart and that allowed the dutchman to take the lead and title.

Yas Marina is a circuit which seems to suit cars that perform well with long straights, but yet on the old configuration, the stop-start nature of the final sector has been changed meaning it’s no longer about good stopping acceleration into the ninety-degree corners. This could make it difficult for Red Bull to be beaten, this circuit has always tended to favour the championship-winning team/the car which is fastest in a straight line and the corners.

Sebastian Vettel, who makes what is set to be his final race start won the first two races as well as a record-equalling thirteenth win in a season in 2013, that record could go to fifteen if Verstappen takes his third back-to-back win in Abu Dhabi. 2010 highlighted the problems with the circuit and overtaking, Fernando Alonso went into the race looking to be the favourite with the German third in the championship.

Vettel took pole ahead of Hamilton and Alonso, the Red Bull driver converted pole into the lead and retained it following the restart and then controlled the lead. Alonso and Mark Webber became stuck behind the Renault of Valtiy Petrov allowing Hamilton to close the gap, despite being on heavily worn option tyres compared to the fresher, hard tyres of Alonso and Webber.

The stalemate continued for much of the middle part of the race, and with sixteen laps to go Button released Vettel, Hamilton and Robert Kubica pulling away from the Englishman. A few laps later, button released Vettel who had a twelve second lead over Robert Kubica rejoining in fourth.

In clean air, Hamilton set the race’s fastest lap on lap forty-seven, as he closed slightly on Vettel. No further passing attempts were made on track, and thus, Vettel led the race to the end, to take his fifth win of the season. The McLarens of Hamilton and Button completed the podium. Vettel took the title having not led the championship all season, beating Alonso by four points.

The following season Vettel and Red Bull had already wrapped the title, but his race was over at Turn One after a puncher. That allowed Hamilton to take the lead of the race early on, while Alonso retained second after getting passed Webber at the start of the race. That was pretty much how the race finished although Button passed Webber for third on lap.

Vettel’s third place in 2012 to beat Alonso was remarkable, the Red Bull driver had been excluded from qualifying and worked his way up to third to secure his third world title. That race saw Kimi Raikkonen’s first win for Lotus and his first since returning to F1.

Vettel continued his domination of the second half of the season in 2013 after passing teammate Webber at the first corner then going onto take a thirteenth win, tying the then-season record with Michael Schumacher.

The beginning of the hybrid era saw the start of the domination of Mercedes, the 2014 race putting Hamilton up against teammate Nico Rosberg for the title. However, while the build up as been dominated by the title battle, it unravelled early on when Hamilton pulled away and around half distance Rosberg developed an ERS issue

That lead to the German dropping down the field, while Hamilton cautiously made gains and went onto win the race. Rosberg finished outside the points while Hamilton went on to win the race by two and a half seconds. Much was made of the decision to award double points for the final race it didn’t matter in the end.

Mercedes set two new records, the first being 701 total points, the second being the margin of 296 points to second-placed Red Bull.

Rosberg would arguably lay the foundations of his 2016 title the following season, going into the final race he had taken pole before going onto take victory. The German took control of the race as Hamilton made a poor start, midway through the race the Englishman started closing the gap but was unable to enough on the final stint rejoining twelve seconds behind. Rosberg took victory by eight seconds.

2016 was controversial, while Hamilton won the race the three-time champion tried to back Rosberg into Vettel and Max Verstappen. This was in a bid to get them to pass him pushing him off the podium, thus allowing him to take his only title by five points.

Hamilton’s new teammate Valtteri Bottas took victory the following year from pole with his teammate controlling much of the race to take the victory. Although the Englishman did manage to briefly take the lead, the Finn retook the lead following the pitstops and in the closing stages the top eight, excluding Ricciardo finishing in the order they started.

Hamilton returned to the top step of the podium in 2018 winning the race from pole position. There was a dramatic incident between Romain Grosjean and Nico Hulkenberg on the opening lap, the German barrel rolling into the barrier. Apart from the opening lap incident, the race proved largely uneventful.

The then six-time champion continued the Mercedes domination of Yas Island in 2018 and 2019, both races starting with opening lap drama. 2019 saw Lance Stroll making contact with Pierre Gasly dropping them all towards the back. Bottas meanwhile made progress gaining five places on the opening lap.

Having also led every lap, taken pole position and recorded the fastest lap of the race, this marked Hamilton’s sixth “grand slam”, his last of which came at the 2017 British Grand Prix.

Verstappen broke the Mercedes domination of Yas Marina in 2020, the Dutchman lead every lap of the race followed by Bottas and Hamilton. He controversially won last year’s race and the title after passing Hamilton on the last lap, after race director Michael Masi incorrectly applied the rules.

Race & Circuit Guide

Fast facts

• The drivers are on full power for 69% of a lap at Yas Marina, including over 14 seconds on the back straight (one of the longest straights in Formula 1). Drivers make an average of 68 gear changes per lap or 3740 gear changes over the full 55-lap race distance.
• Red Bull have never failed to get both of their cars through to the final part of qualifying on all their appearances at the Yas Marina Circuit.
• In three of the first four Abu Dhabi Grands Prix, the polesitter failed to finish the race.
• Until the addition of Doha last year Abu Dhabi was the only twilight race. The race normally starts around 30 minutes before the sun sets, though the circuit’s floodlights are illuminated for the duration of the race.
• Etihad, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, is the main title sponsor of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and you can also see their planes taking off from the nearby airport when at Yas Marina.
• Red Bull have never failed to get both of their cars through to the final part of qualifying on all of their appearances at the Yas Marina Circuit.

Event timetable

What happened in 2021?

Max Verstappen beat his championship rival Lewis Hamilton by three and a half tenths to take pole. The Dutchman pulled out one of his biggest advantages of the season and set up another classic race as to win the championship they both need to beat each other on track.

Verstappen had benefitted from the tow from his teammate Sergio Perez and didn’t need the final run in Q3. A brilliant lap at the end of the session put McLaren’s Lando Norris third, the Englishman eight-tenths behind Verstappen. That put Norris a hundred and a half ahead of Perez who starts fourth, while his former teammate Carlos Sainz was fifth just under five hundredths off Perez

Hamilton had lead most of the race as Verstappen made a poor start putting him on course for his eighth title when the Williams of Nicolas Latifi crashed with five laps to go bringing out the safety car. Red Bull reached bringing the Dutchman in switching him to new tyres while Mercedes decided not to pit Hamilton fearing losing the lead to Verstappen.

With a lap remaining, Verstappen’s tyre advantage saw him pass Hamilton at the hairpin thus controversially taking the title. An immediate protest was launched along with an inquiry into the final five laps. The restart Mercedes protested as the normal rules of unlapping lapped cars wasn’t followed. In almost Hollywood ending, as the seven-time champion looked to be on course for his eighth title.

The bewilderment swept the drivers with several accusations against race director Michael Masi for not applying the rules correctly, and Hamilton saying “this has been manipulated.” Several analysts stated that Masi’s decision had direct bearing on the championship results.

The inquiry concluded that while differing interpretations of Article 48.12 and/or 48.13 “likely contributed to some of the confusion surrounding the safety car unlapping procedure”. Also, human error was the reason while the unlapping procedure wasn’t followed correctly, and a change was made to the 2022 regulations, but concluded that Masi had acted in good faith and that there could be different interpretations of the rules.

Race Result – 1) M. Verstappen, Red Bull – Honda, 01:30:17.345, 2) L. Hamilton, Mercedes, +00:02.256, 3) C. Sainz Jr, Ferrari, +00:05.173,

What to watch for?

This race throughout its history has tended largely to favour the champions and its long straights and ninety-degree corners should again favour Red Bull. Max Verstappen is on a real roll he could set a record of fifteen wins in a season if he wins this race and it would be his third win in a row in Abu Dhabi.

This is a power circuit where you need downforce, I think its hard to see Red Bull being beaten in normal circumstances.  Mercedes could be ahead of Ferrari again, George Russell took the teams ‘first wins’ of the season during the sprint at Interlagos then converted it into a maiden win and we know that they have made a lot of progress since Sakhir.

All season, Mercedes gone better at these smooth almost billiard table circuits, they also capitalised on tensions at Red Bull and Ferrari between Max Verstappen/Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc/Carlos Sainz neither wanting to help their teammate in the fight for second in the championship. I think the build up to this weekend will be dominated by what happened in Interlagos.

This being the final race there is still second and fourth to be decided, Mercedes are nineteen points behind Ferrari another victory in Abu Dhabi and an implosion for the top two could see Mercedes take second. Alpine who are in their own battle with McLaren, look pretty safe in fourth but both teams had a difficult weekend in Sao Paulo.

While the constructors’ fight will be focused on second to fifth, there is also a battle for sixth with Alfa Romeo and Aston Martin are just five points apart. This could be and is likely to be Sebastian Vettel’s final race I don’t think it’s likely given the performance of the team he can score. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the likes of Verstappen, Hamilton, Vettel, Alonso, and maybe others do doughnuts post race in celebration of Vettel’s retirement.

Everyone now appears to be free to race at the top end, this means we could have a good race however Yas Marina isn’t the easiest place to overtake. However, it will be interesting to see whether the changes in the final sector made last year and the regulation changes make overtaking easier.

2021 vs 2020 Race Data

Note – Configuration changes in 2021

2021 Lap time comparison

Tyres