Seven things we learned from the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

And breathe. Method 1’s 24-race marathon is finished, dusted, and to be firmly ensconced within the historical past books; it is already gone from current to previous tense on Wikipedia.

It has been an awesome 12 months for F1, as expectations of one other Max Verstappen title rout have been firmly dispelled because the rising forces behind Crimson Bull nudged it off its perch. Verstappen overcame the renewed problem to maintain his fingers on the title belt however, on the idea of this 12 months, he’ll have his work minimize out to assert a fifth.

The remaining unfastened ends have been tied up on the Abu Dhabi finale, as McLaren laced up its first constructors’ title in 26 years to place Ferrari’s rising problem firmly to mattress. In his controlling victory on the Yas Marina circuit, Lando Norris took the oh-so-coveted vice-champion accolade to go down in historical past as certainly one of seven billion individuals who did not win the F1 title in 2024. Higher luck subsequent 12 months, chap.

An intense battle for sixth within the constructors’ championship additionally reached its conclusion: in a season-long combat contested by Haas and RB, the honours went to Alpine because of a dramatic restoration within the ultimate quarter of the season (plus a useful little bit of luck with inclement climate in Brazil). There’s nonetheless a number of issues left to resolve away from the circuit, particularly the Crimson Bull and RB line-ups, although Sergio Perez positively has a contract and positively will not be going anyplace…

So, for the ultimate time this 12 months, let’s do that: here is all the things we discovered on the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

1. McLaren goes by hell and again once more for first constructors’ title since 1998

Norris, Piastri and Brown are simply a part of the large effort to push McLaren again to glory

Photograph by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Pictures

In 1998, McLaren ended a barren spell within the mid-Nineteen Nineties because of the Adrian Newey-penned MP4/13 chassis and a powerful line-up in Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard, and got here away from the 12 months with each titles in tow.

The group was again on the entrance of the sector however, someway, did not win one other constructors’ title for 26 years. Hakkinen received the drivers’ title in 1999, however Ferrari swung the groups’ crown by 4 factors albeit after having its disqualification on the Malaysian Grand Prix overturned regardless of apparently unlawful bargeboards. The Prancing Horse then adopted up on this in 2000 to embark on a streak of dominance whereas McLaren paled compared.

The 2007 season ought to have been the 12 months when McLaren secured its ninth constructors’ championship, if not for a Surrey copy-shop proprietor blowing the whistle on the spouse of technical director Mike Coughlan – a request to photocopy 780 pages of confidential Ferrari paperwork had not gone totally underneath the radar…

McLaren contended for titles within the early 2010s, however couldn’t defeat Crimson Bull over that point interval earlier than enduring a regression over the subsequent few years. Poor vehicles in 2013 and 2014 led to a disastrous change to Honda powertrains, and its continued plummet led to Zak Brown arriving in 2016 and taking the highest job from 2018. Due to his knack for pulling in companions and placing individuals in the precise locations, McLaren’s fortunes picked up. Now, it has a title to point out for the final 5 – 6 years of regular, sustainable regrowth.

Norris largely carried the title fortunes on his personal again in Abu Dhabi, whereas Oscar Piastri needed to get better from being nerfed off the highway by Verstappen and his personal penalty for ramming Franco Colapinto into Flip 6 throughout mentioned restoration. So long as Norris received, McLaren had the deal sealed – and Ferrari couldn’t apply sufficient stress to drive the Briton right into a mistake.

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Piastri added his personal level into the combo after rising to tenth by the tip as a ultimate garnish for the group’s championship win. Neither Norris or Piastri have been born when McLaren final received the title – for these at Woking who’ve remained on the group in that point, it has been an extended previous highway again to the highest.

2. The Prancing Horse cannot catch Workforce Papaya

Norris was capable of maintain Sainz at bay to clinch the producer’s title for McLaren, regardless of a late-season Ferrari surge

Photograph by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Pictures

Ferrari had a jolly good go at getting concerned in Method 1’s constructors’ battle however, regardless of the colossal strides the group has made operationally and with its race tempo over 2024, it did not have fairly have the legs over McLaren to shut it out.

By way of Charles Leclerc’s Monaco win, Ferrari not less than stayed in contact with Crimson Bull within the constructors’ standings however, after its disasterclass in Canada, it misplaced vital floor and was later overtaken for second by McLaren in Hungary. At one level, Ferrari was over 70 factors away from the highest of the championship, however Crimson Bull’s declining fortunes and Sergio Perez’s lack of contribution introduced the defending champion outfit into view.

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Ferrari moved forward of it in Mexico, and bought to inside 29 factors of McLaren for the ultimate 4 races. The hole was simply 21 factors by the tip of Qatar, leaving Ferrari needing two robust outcomes from Sainz and Leclerc and hope different outcomes went its approach to snatch a primary constructors’ title since 2008.

However Norris was too robust to beat, as Ferrari ceded a tenth or two to McLaren over the weekend. It tried to place McLaren underneath stress with a number of pitlane dummies, hoping to entice Norris to anticipate and canopy off an imaginary pitstop, however the Briton’s hole was too nice – he was within the place the place he may merely reply to no matter Ferrari did. There was little that Maranello’s most interesting may do besides hope that Norris encountered strife, however that finally by no means emerged.

3. Verstappen vs Russell, spherical two; Wolff vs Terrier, spherical 348

Russell was joined by Wolff for a rare press convention earlier than the weekend

Photograph by: Ronald Vording

First, congratulations should go to Max Verstappen on his announcement that he’s to be a father, though he already considers himself a “bonus” dad to his associate Kelly Piquet’s daughter. Verstappen is somebody who has nice appreciation for his shut family and friends, and one imagines he is very pleased for his household to develop. And, even with the genetics of a Verstappen-Piquet youngster, the Dutchman may be very a lot hoping his youngster would not fancy following within the household enterprise…

Proper, that is the great bit out of the best way – it is now time to show our consideration to Verstappen’s cleaning soap opera-adjacent argument with George Russell. After Qatar qualifying, Verstappen was most aggrieved at Russell’s antics within the stewards’ room and accused him of heavy lobbying to present him a grid penalty.

Russell took his proper of reply and said that Verstappen’s behaviour within the stewards’ room was additionally questionable and advised that the eventual race winner had a) threatened to place him right into a wall and b) had spent lots of the stewards’ assembly swearing.

First criticism: okay, high quality, it is most likely truthful to be aggrieved at that. Second criticism: shades of Milhouse shouting “Mother, Bart’s swearing” when Bart Simpson merely requested to have a go on the blue-haired poindexter’s new copy of Bonestorm. All this, weeks after the GPDA said it needed drivers to be handled like adults…

Verstappen stood his floor, Russell stood his, prevented one another on the drivers’ end-of-year dinner, then the entire thing fizzled out as everybody bought bored of the entire fiasco. Skilled sports activities dads Toto Wolff and Christian Horner, nevertheless, needed to rekindle a relationship that Horner described as “love-hate, in that he likes to hate me”. Wolff was notably aggrieved at how the Crimson Bull group principal had labelled Russell as “hysterical” and referred to Horner as a “yapping little terrier”.

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Requested to reply in Friday’s press convention, Horner reeled off a tangent in regards to the completely different terriers he’d owned in an uncharacteristically jaunty cadence, clearly having ready the night time earlier than within the mirror. He then concluded his canine musings with the sentence “…however I might fairly be a terrier than a Wolff”.

Finish of season delirium, it appeared; everybody had gone barking mad in a season dogged with drama. It mastiff taken Horner all night time to provide you with that joke.

4. Perez’s defiance lastly wavers – however he nonetheless has a contract for 2025

Perez has been insistent on his return to Crimson Bull subsequent season, although that confidence modified on Sunday night

Photograph by: Crimson Bull Content material Pool

If you happen to have been in completely any doubt, Sergio Perez has a contract for subsequent 12 months. To be truthful to the beleaguered Perez, it have to be more and more troublesome to reply the inevitable query about his future after ending exterior of the factors once more in a race-winning automobile. He cannot say “I do not know what the longer term holds”, as a result of that weakens his place; Crimson Bull provided him a contract earlier this 12 months, he signed it, and since then has been decidedly pants. However, and here is the essential bit: he has a contract.

Finally that contract – which Perez has, by the best way – would require some type of buy-out charge to spring him from. And, as his outcomes have continued to worsen with 9 factors from the final eight races, Crimson Bull’s resolution appears very a lot made up.

It’s anticipated that Liam Lawson will be part of Max Verstappen, as Horner continues to disclaim that the mere idea of Yuki Tsunoda exists, and that F2 runner-up Isack Hadjar will transfer as much as RB to spend a 12 months blowing up the group radio together with his irascible nature. If you happen to thought Yuki was a bit shouty, Hadjar goes to make him appear like a penitent saint of endurance.

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That leaves Perez who, regardless of having a contract for subsequent 12 months, will likely be out of luck. And, regardless of his earlier defiance that he, certainly, has a contract for subsequent 12 months: that defiance maybe confirmed its first signal of slipping within the post-Abu Dhabi media classes – which he was apparently in an awesome rush to get to after retiring on lap one from harm together with his conflict with Valtteri Bottas.

“I simply know I’ve bought a contract to race subsequent 12 months,” Perez started, a sentence that shocked and shocked all in attendance. “Except one thing modifications within the coming days, that is going to be the scenario for subsequent 12 months”.

That is the primary acknowledgement he is provided that issues may certainly change. He has a contract to race subsequent 12 months, however that does not completely imply it will be honoured if Crimson Bull enacts a presumed break clause.

5. Hamilton goes forth after final dance with Mercedes

Hamilton made positive he ended his Mercedes profession on a relative excessive

Photograph by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Pictures

In order that’s it: after 12 seasons, 246 races, 84 wins, and 6 titles with Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton is leaving after a fraught ultimate season on the group. Preliminary promise with this 12 months’s W15, a major departure from its earlier lineage of floor impact vehicles, subsided as its capricious nature meant the group blew cold and warm all through the season. Hamilton, who values predictability and stability in his racing equipment, by no means totally gelled with the silver-and-black machine.

Ending fourth is slightly little bit of a moist squib to finish on: it isn’t a win, and neither is it a podium, nevertheless it was a nonetheless good drive from sixteenth on the grid – no because of the intervention of a displaced bollard on his ultimate qualifying lap. The last-lap go on George Russell would have been a satisfying approach to finish a monumentally profitable tenure with Mercedes, even when the group was surprisingly low-key with its send-off for the seven-time champion after his decades-long affiliation with the model. One wonders if Hamilton requested them to not go too wild with the farewells, or if it was vice versa.

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It is onerous to not be sentimental, as a result of it is within the pantheon of better driver-team combos: suppose Senna and McLaren, Schumacher and Ferrari, Vettel/Verstappen and Crimson Bull, Piquet and Brabham, Clark and Lotus, Stewart and Tyrrell. Regardless, Ferrari now beckons for Hamilton’s presumed ultimate years in F1 – and it is a change of scene and a change of favor that he’ll nonetheless relish.

Mercedes has its subsequent younger hopeful to work with in Andrea Kimi Antonelli, whereas Russell takes on the group chief mantle for 2025 and past. It’ll be a really completely different dynamic with Hamilton out of the image.

6. It is goodbye from him: Zhou, Bottas, Magnussen bow out…for now

Not one of the best finish for any of the 4 particular F1 departures, with Bottas retiring after contact with Magnussen

Photograph by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Pictures

The scythe’s remorseless swing claimed the F1 careers of Zhou Guanyu, Valtteri Bottas, and Kevin Magnussen; the trio have been left seatless in F1’s wildest driver merry-go-round in some years, and now have their futures to think about for 2025. The Grim Reaper has, kindly, left all three with the chance to resurrect their F1 careers sooner or later; Cadillac’s entry in 2026 could go away a place open, as could any additional surprising actions across the subject.

In reality, 2024 hasn’t been a stellar 12 months for any of them. For Magnussen, his 12 months solely picked up after it was confirmed that he would not be remaining in F1; the dearth of consolation on the brakes that he’d handled within the opening interval of the 12 months appeared to subside within the ultimate third, permitting him to place Nico Hulkenberg underneath the cosh on a extra common foundation. However, of the three, Magnussen might be the least affected.

The Dane has skilled life exterior of F1 earlier than, and has already been signed by BMW to drive its M Hybrid LMDh equipment – though it is but to be determined if this will likely be within the World Endurance Championship or the IMSA SportsCar Championship. Or each, perchance?

Zhou and Bottas, each let go by Sauber, need to stick round in F1-adjacent roles. Bottas is in line for a return to Mercedes as a reserve, having spent his finest years on the Brackley squad, whereas Zhou can be casting his web round for the same function with one other group. Each can be useful additions to any group to have round; it has been an awesome disgrace to see them pootling round on the again with Sauber, and can be worthy contenders for a Caddy seat in ’26.

Franco Colapinto’s F1 journey additionally goes on hiatus after an explosive begin to life within the championship. Though his inventory took a dramatic rise and fall in his 9 races on the group, he already appears like a part of the furnishings and appears way more relaxed with the rigours of racing on the highest stage than Logan Sargeant ever did. The loquacious Argentine will certainly be again in a race seat sooner or later; maybe a 12 months in a reserve function will give him a bit extra of a run-up than his shock introduction this season.

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7. Drivers in new colors and future stars in Abu Dhabi’s end-of-year check

Sainz was the primary to hit the monitor for his new group on Monday after his podium on Sunday

Photograph by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Pictures

We have already had a collection of shock driver actions this 12 months; the previous made means for the brand new, and the likes of Lawson, Colapinto, Jack Doohan, Oliver Bearman all bought possibilities to impress part-way by 2024 for quite a lot of causes: sickness, sackings, driver bans, and, after all, “sod it, we’d as effectively bin Esteban off a race early”.

However they don’t seem to be the one drivers to be put by their paces, as additional younger (and young-ish) hopefuls will get their likelihood to point out their mettle within the end-of-year Yas Marina operating – half Pirelli check, half young-driver extravaganza.

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It is also an opportunity for the groups’ 2025 signings to get their first operating in at their new houses. Williams has acquired Carlos Sainz early for the check, as Esteban Ocon’s early Alpine launch means he can drive for Haas. Sauber will get each halves of its new line-up behind the wheel as Nico Hulkenberg and newly topped F2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto will drive, whereas Doohan and Andrea Kimi Antonelli additionally put together for 2025 with their new groups.

Will Yuki Tsunoda star sufficient for Crimson Bull that he lastly will get that coveted call-up to associate Max Verstappen? Will Pato O’Ward recommend to McLaren that he is worthy of F1 sooner or later? Will Luke Browning sufficiently wind up Isack Hadjar once more? We’ll discover out on Tuesday.