2018 Abu Dhabi GP [Yas Marina]

[Nitrodaze]

http://www.motorsport-magazin.com/images/700/q_80/sw_adrivo/se_sutton/0544052.jpg
https://www.abudhabi-grand-prix.com/img/events/circuit/2883.jpg

Once again F1 returns to the lush track of Yas Marinas in Abu Dhabi. This is a night race, hence a truly remarkable floodlit track courses its way through the desert night. Unfortunately, we arrive here with both championships won by Mercedes and Hamilton. Thus, this weekend is a race for pride.

Yas Marinas has been on the F1 calendar since 2009. A Tilke designed track with 21 corners stretched over a 5.554km lap. A full grandprix here is 55 laps covering a race distance of 305.470km from lights to flag. It was the venue of Rosberg's only F1 world championship title that ended in one of the most tense closing lap of the end of any season in F1. As Hamilton intentionally backed Rosberg into the reach of Vettels's Ferrari. One of the races that demonstrated how principled Vettel is; as a human being. Any other driver on the grid would certainly have tried to seize that advantage to steal the win from the squabbling Mercedes cars.

Vettel was the first winner of this track. Both Vettel and Hamilton are the most successful drivers to race this track with three wins each. Petronas Mercedes is the most successful team at this venue with four wins. Valtteri Bottas holds the fastest ever lap and fastest race lap record round this track. Bottas was also the last winner of this race. With championship out of the way, Bottas is the favorite to win this race.


This is the last F1 race for the following drivers:-

Fernando Alonso
Stoffel Vandoorne
Estaban Ocon
Marcus Erickson
Sergey Sirotkin

[N4D13]

The thing I'm looking forward the most of this race is seeing Vandoorne's last race in F1 on a car especially designed to mark Fernando Alonso's last race in F1. Now that's an undignified way to leave.

[Nitrodaze]

Who is your money on? Who is going to win this race?

[N4D13]

The thing I'm looking forward the most of this race is seeing Vandoorne's last race in F1 on a car especially designed to mark Fernando Alonso's last race in F1. Now that's an undignified way to leave.
I stand corrected. Vandoorne isn't sporting the Alonso livery. That's odd - I thought teams weren't allowed to split their liveries between two cars?

Nitrodaze, I'd put my money on Vettel to win this one, if only because the fast Mercedes drivers seems to be on the back foot for this race after the Brazil engine troubles. Although Merc are saying that his engine is fine, so who knows...

[Starter]

Who is your money on? Who is going to win this race?
It's hard to go against this year's results, so Hamilton.

[Bagwan]

Toto needs Valterie to win , to keep him from being the only Merc driver in forever to not win a race .

[The Black Knight]

Gonna go with Lewis to win this. Was going to be at this race but had to cancel in the end. Great seeing Lewis keeping the pace up at the end of a season for a change. This will probably be the first race in years that I won’t be able to watch live. Enjoy it folks!

[truefan72]

Verstappen is a dirty driver
Oh no...kimi. ��

[truefan72]

Smh @ Ferrari
Useless mercedes strategy

[truefan72]

Dirty vestappen punts bottas
...but bottas too. Another dissapointing drive

[Nitrodaze]

Dirty vestappen punts bottas
...but bottas too. Another dissapointing drive

Yea twice Verstapenn drove into other drivers. First Ocon and then Bottas. Very fiersty [a bit naughty] drive. I really can't wait to see him in a car good enough to get into thick of the championship fight.

Bottas disappointed in a car that won the race. I think he is spent as a Mercedes driver but his connection to Toto has seen him getting another chance in the 2019 season. But really, l don't see him in the car in 2020 , well that depends on what he does in 2019 of course.

Overtake of the race was by Vandoorne. We get a glimpse of the magic of Vandoorne that we have seen alot of in F2 but has unfortunately not materialized in F1. Which is a great shame, Vandoorne is a great driver we may be deprived from seeing his true talent.

I kind of think Ricciado was robbed of the podium by the Redbull strategy. But it is his last race for Redbull and this is the sort of goodbye he was afforded to give the team.

Great to see Hulkenburg survived that barrel roll, the Sophia Floersch crash in F3 seem to be a premonition and both drivers walked away from it which is brilliant.

Sainz and Leclerc did an excellent job.

[Nitrodaze]

A very nice touch with Hamilton and Vettel giving Alonso a champion's farewell. A triple doughnut by a Mercedes, Ferrari and Mclaren on the pit straight was something very special.

[BigWorm]

Bottas gets fifth in the standings. Quite remarkable to do so in the Merc.

[Nitrodaze]

Bottas gets fifth in the standings. Quite remarkable to do so in the Merc.

Bollocks
Top three would be respectable. Fifth is pathetic really in a car that won both titles.

[N. Jones]

Can't agree that Max is at fault. He had no room to go anywhere but into Bottas.
I agree that Bottas is not in a good place driving along side Hamilton.

[Nitrodaze]

If anything, Bottas' fifth suggest that he stopped trying after he was out of contention for the title. Only doing enough to be noticed. Mercedes's titles is mostly due to Hamilton really; especially when it mattered.

But one has to acknowledge that the development of the car was orientated towards Hamilton's preference once it was clear that Bottas was out of contention. Even so, he should be comfortably in the top three which would have been respectable under the circumstances.

Some races, Bottas was just difficult to watch. He drove like he was out of his depth. His tyre management was very poor and he was always easy picking for the Redbull pilots. If you put out a vote of confidence in Bottas right now, l doubt he would attract 20% of the votes.

[BigWorm]

Bollocks
Top three would be respectable. Fifth is pathetic really in a car that won both titles.

Remarkable for the wrong reasons ;)

[Firstgear]

Bollocks
Top three would be respectable. Fifth is pathetic really in a car that won both titles.
Give him back the 8 points that he lost in Sochi due to team orders and he'd be third overall. So you're saying his results are respectable then?

[Nitrodaze]

Give him back the 8 points that he lost in Sochi due to team orders and he'd be third overall. So you're saying his results are respectable then?

I think he should have been aiming for 2nd place. Minus the eight points, he should still have been 3rd and in the top three. With hindsight, Hamilton would have still won the title without those eight points, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

From what l have seen since he joined Mercedes, he is not of the caliber of Rosberg. He showed promise in the first half of the season and had some bad luck, but it is how you bounce back that show the measure of a man. He didn't and was a very sorry sight at some races. He is lucky that he has one more chance in 2019. I doubt he would have lasted this long if he was at Redbull. Kyvat was performing better compared to Bottas but still got shafted for Verstapenn,.

[Nitrodaze]

Remarkable for the wrong reasons ;)

I don't see a right reason for finishing fifth in a championship winning car.

[Firstgear]

I think he should have been aiming for 2nd place. Minus the eight points, he should still have been 3rd and in the top three.
I think he should have been aiming for first. I'm not really a big Bottas fan, but I think all F1 drivers would be aiming for first. I am curious though, why you think Bottas should have been at least third to be respectable, seeing as you've been saying all year that Ferrari have the fastest/best car?

[Nitrodaze]

I think he should have been aiming for first. I'm not really a big Bottas fan, but I think all F1 drivers would be aiming for first. I am curious though, why you think Bottas should have been at least third to be respectable, seeing as you've been saying all year that Ferrari have the fastest/best car?

My thinking is simple, he should be the first of the drivers out of contention for the title. He should be aiming to be ahead of Kimi and giving Vettel a fight for 2nd place to be a credible Mercedes 2nd driver. That would at least convey an argument that he was good enough to fight for the title if he did not have some bad luck . As it goes, he doesn't remotely look like a championship material but a great support driver. And not so great one if 2018 is anything to go by.

You have to look at Alonso in a crappy Mclaren to see what a championship material look like. Even with a poor car, he drives as if he is contesting for the title. The same can be said for Ricciado, Verstapenn, Leclerc, Magnussen, Gasly or Ocon. These guys have cars that are not good enough to win the championship but they drive the wheels of those cars like their life depended on it.

I really cannot say the same for Bottas in the 2nd half of the season. At some races he was just doing enough but not really trying; if he qualified behind Hamilton. We respect drivers that archive more than their circumstance limits them to archive. A reason why Alonso is a legend and highly respected. The same reason why we think Verstapenn is a potential world champion.

[N. Jones]

I think Valterri is just a beaten man after having Hamilton as a teammate these past few years. As Nico said on the Sky broadcast, Bottas needs to find a way to get back in the game mentally and fight Hamilton next season.

[truefan72]

My thinking is simple, he should be the first of the drivers out of contention for the title. He should be aiming to be ahead of Kimi and giving Vettel a fight for 2nd place to be a credible Mercedes 2nd driver. That would at least convey an argument that he was good enough to fight for the title if he did not have some bad luck . As it goes, he doesn't remotely look like a championship material but a great support driver. And not so great one if 2018 is anything to go by.

You have to look at Alonso in a crappy Mclaren to see what a championship material look like. Even with a poor car, he drives as if he is contesting for the title. The same can be said for Ricciado, Verstapenn, Leclerc, Magnussen, Gasly or Ocon. These guys have cars that are not good enough to win the championship but they drive the wheels of those cars like their life depended on it.

I really cannot say the same for Bottas in the 2nd half of the season. At some races he was just doing enough but not really trying; if he qualified behind Hamilton. We respect drivers that archive more than their circumstance limits them to archive. A reason why Alonso is a legend and highly respected. The same reason why we think Verstappen is a potential world champion.

agreed.

Bad luck is part of F1 unfortunately.
Hamilton had is share in 2016 and still finished a close 2nd. He showed fight
Vettel had his share along with some mistakes in 2018 and he still showed fight after to finish 2nd

Bottas, in comparison had 2 cases of bad luck (Baku and France) and 1 team order (Sochi), in which (let's be honest) Hamilton would have probably overtaken him anyway
The notion that he was unlucky in 2018 is overblown in my book. Ricciardo...that is bad luck!

what was more evident was his lack of pace or fight. In most of the races he simply was not up to speed in a car that if driven aggresively and deftly, was a potential race winner in almost every race.
Even if he qualified well, he usually losses spots the race or get's passed. That is unacceptable. Everyone was like "Now that the championship is won, we will probably see a bottas charge to race wins". Instead Hamilton took both Brazil and Abu Dahbi in dominant fashion, Quali and Race, to finish the season with 11 wins and a dominant WDC.

I have a new found respect for Rosberg, and honestly feel that Mercedes committed to Bottas too early in the season.
In hindsight, they probably would have placed Ocon in that 2nd drive.
Even if he wasn't going to beat Hamilton outright, He would have provided a bit stiffer competition and more importantly offered a more serious challenge to the Ferrari's and RBR's

[Firstgear]

My thinking is simple, he should be the first of the drivers out of contention for the title. He should be aiming to be ahead of Kimi and giving Vettel a fight for 2nd place to be a credible Mercedes 2nd driver. That would at least convey an argument that he was good enough to fight for the title if he did not have some bad luck . As it goes, he doesn't remotely look like a championship material but a great support driver. And not so great one if 2018 is anything to go by.

You have to look at Alonso in a crappy Mclaren to see what a championship material look like. Even with a poor car, he drives as if he is contesting for the title. The same can be said for Ricciado, Verstapenn, Leclerc, Magnussen, Gasly or Ocon. These guys have cars that are not good enough to win the championship but they drive the wheels of those cars like their life depended on it.

I really cannot say the same for Bottas in the 2nd half of the season. At some races he was just doing enough but not really trying; if he qualified behind Hamilton. We respect drivers that archive more than their circumstance limits them to archive. A reason why Alonso is a legend and highly respected. The same reason why we think Verstapenn is a potential world champion.
I think Hamilton has driven better this season than any other. Would you agree? If so, why do you think that is? Do you think he would've driven just as well with Alonso or Verstappen or Ocon as a team mate?
Mercedes do not need Bottas to be right there with Hamilton - rubbing shoulders (or wheels as Rosberg sometimes did). They also don't need a team mate that will take Hamilton out of his game mentally. At the beginning of the season Mercedes would of had one goal, that being 2 titles. For that they need Hamilton at 100% with no team mate interfering in any way, and someone else (like Bottas) who is quick enough to secure the WCC but not so big headed that he interferes with Hamilton.
I'd speculate, that if you'd put Alonso or Verstappen or Ocon beside Hamilton, there would be enough in-team fighting and on track clashes that there would be a significant loss of points for Mercedes. This would result in less pressure for Vettel, making him less desperate and less likely to make the mistakes he made throughout the season. Maybe even enough of a difference for the title.
Two super, ultra, hyper Alpha males are not the way you win titles.

[Nitrodaze]

I think Hamilton has driven better this season than any other. Would you agree? If so, why do you think that is? Do you think he would've driven just as well with Alonso or Verstappen or Ocon as a team mate?
Mercedes do not need Bottas to be right there with Hamilton - rubbing shoulders (or wheels as Rosberg sometimes did). They also don't need a team mate that will take Hamilton out of his game mentally. At the beginning of the season Mercedes would of had one goal, that being 2 titles. For that they need Hamilton at 100% with no team mate interfering in any way, and someone else (like Bottas) who is quick enough to secure the WCC but not so big headed that he interferes with Hamilton.
I'd speculate, that if you'd put Alonso or Verstappen or Ocon beside Hamilton, there would be enough in-team fighting and on track clashes that there would be a significant loss of points for Mercedes. This would result in less pressure for Vettel, making him less desperate and less likely to make the mistakes he made throughout the season. Maybe even enough of a difference for the title.
Two super, ultra, hyper Alpha males are not the way you win titles.

I see your point but l don't fully agree. I think Hamilton would relish the fight and it would make for a great spectacle. To be fair, Bottas did show some spunk in the first half of the season where he was able to get the most out of the troubled Mercedes car than Hamilton, out qualifying Hamilton most to the time. Any team want two drivers that can race each other hard respectfully in such a way that the racing do not result in loss of constructors points.

The ideal pairing was Hamilton and Rosberg without the personal vendetta element. By this l mean, if one driver is unable to win, the other should be good enough to take the win if the car is capable of producing a win on the occasion. When the one driver earns enough point to establish themselves as the clear option to take the fight to the opposition, then the other must be fast enough to finish second and not lower than third. It would be particularly sweet for the team if their drivers finish first and second in the drivers championship to demonstrate that they have the best driver pairing in the paddock.

When Bottas joined Mercedes, the benchmark for him was to match Roberg. If he could do that then we would say that he would win championships if Hamilton is not on his game. As it stand, l don't think anyone can say that Bottas can win championships in a Mercedes even if Hamilton was not driving the Mercedes.

He is not a thoroughbred, hence other drivers don't have the track respect for him that they had for Rosberg. That is because those drivers like Vettel, Verstapenn and Ricciado think they can win the driver's title given the car Bottas was driving. Of course they have to beat Hamilton to have such a chance. But anyone who knows anything about racing would say without a doubt that any of these three drivers have a higher chance of winning the driver's title in the Mercedes, if paired with Bottas.

[journeyman racer]

Everyone's a psychoanalyst. Bottas in a beaten man? I don't think so. We don't know what happens behind the scenes. It seems his races are most compromised.

If Bottas beat Hamilton in the wdc - Everyone would scream that MB were favouring Bottas.

If Bottas finished behind but within range of Hamilton in the wdc and behind Vettel - Everyone screams that MB should use Bottas to help Hamilton.

Bottas finishes miles behind Hamilton - Everyone screams he's not good enough and he should received the death penalty. Put in a dope like Ocon, a touring car driver racing in F1.


As it turns out, enforcing team orders in Russia didn't help Hamliton win the wdc. but it did cost Bottas 3rd.

[jimclark]

Everyone's a psychoanalyst. Bottas in a beaten man? I don't think so. We don't know what happens behind the scenes. It seems his races are most compromised.

If Bottas beat Hamilton in the wdc - Everyone would scream that MB were favouring Bottas.

If Bottas finished behind but within range of Hamilton in the wdc and behind Vettel - Everyone screams that MB should use Bottas to help Hamilton.

Bottas finishes miles behind Hamilton - Everyone screams he's not good enough and he should received the death penalty. Put in a dope like Ocon, a touring car driver racing in F1.


As it turns out, enforcing team orders in Russia didn't help Hamliton win the wdc. but it did cost Bottas 3rd.

Agreed.

(That's better. That random F1 stats thing is ponderous. ;) :))

[N. Jones]

Nitrodaze -

Gotta disagree with you here. Two drivers fighting for the title in the same team causes issues that end up hurting both drivers. 2007 McLaren comes to mind, along with That late 80's-early 90's rivalry. Look what happened with Vettel-Webber and Rosberg-Hamilton. Two drivers in the same team and only one world title. That cannot be.
Let's say Bottas was in the fight for the title. Does he hold up Kimi in Italy for Lewis? I highly doubt it. He also made it awfully hard to pass him in UAE, even though everything was decided by that point.

I hear what you are saying but I cannot see any good coming from two drivers in the same team fighting for the title.

[Nitrodaze]

Nitrodaze -

Gotta disagree with you here. Two drivers fighting for the title in the same team causes issues that end up hurting both drivers. 2007 McLaren comes to mind, along with That late 80's-early 90's rivalry. Look what happened with Vettel-Webber and Rosberg-Hamilton. Two drivers in the same team and only one world title. That cannot be.
Let's say Bottas was in the fight for the title. Does he hold up Kimi in Italy for Lewis? I highly doubt it. He also made it awfully hard to pass him in UAE, even though everything was decided by that point.

I hear what you are saying but I cannot see any good coming from two drivers in the same team fighting for the title.

I agree on the point about two drivers fighting for the title, a proper fight between Hamilton and Bottas for the 2018 title would have handed the title to Vettel that already had Kimi as wing man.

my point is where one driver is out of contention for the title, he should not simply stop trying because the championship is no longer in reach. Unfortunately, that is what Bottas appear to have done. He appeared to stop trying to at least aim for the 2nd place.

[N. Jones]

Yeah, that is where Rosberg was thinking he might have been mentally beaten, hence the people who passed him at UAE. I don't know if that is true or not but I think Bottas does not to refocus for 2019.

[The Black Knight]

Yeah, that is where Rosberg was thinking he might have been mentally beaten, hence the people who passed him at UAE. I don't know if that is true or not but I think Bottas does not to refocus for 2019.

I wrote a post here about two years ago where I called out this frailty of Bottas. He has improved somewhat with Mercedes but he almost always goes backwards in the race. I don’t really understand why Mercedes signed him initially. I always knew Rosberg would potentially be able to beat Hamilton over the course of a season, I just don’t see it happening with Bottas.