Image via @F1
Formula 1: What’s left for the Abu Dhabi GP to decide?
The championship titles have been decided but the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is anything but a dead rubber.
Image via @F1
After the longest season on record, the Formula 1 circus makes it final stop this weekend at the Yas Marina circuit.
The big prizes have been decided with Mercedes winning the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships for a sixth successive season.
Behind the Brackley team, though, there’s still a lot to play for.
Max Verstappen versus Charles Leclerc
Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel went into the penultimate race of this season squabbling over third place.
Verstappen won the Brazilian GP while the Ferraris retired.
The Red Bull driver and Leclerc are now the only two left standing.
While Verstappen has 260 points thanks largely to his three race wins, Leclerc is on 249 with two wins on the board.
Should the two tie on points after Abu Dhabi, third will be down to a count back of wins, runner up results, third places and so on.
At the moment Verstappen would take it based on his extra win.
But, if Leclerc wins the Yas Marina race and they are still tied, he will take third as he had two runner-up results to Verstappen’s one.
Pierre Gasly versus Carlos Sainz
Late arrivals onto the 2019 podium list, Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz are tied on 95 points apiece heading into the final grand prix.
Ironically Gasly, despite starting his season with Red Bull, had to wait until his penultimate race back with Toro Rosso before tasting the podium champagne.
He was runner-up at the Brazilian Grand Prix with Sainz third for McLaren.
The duo, both from Red Bull’s junior ranks, are chasing ‘best of the rest’.
But while in previous campaigns Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull’s drivers locked out the top six in the standings, Red Bull’s decision to change drivers mid-season means this year’s sixth is on the line.
Both Gasly and Sainz have been in good form in the latter half of the season with the Frenchman scoring points in three of the last five races and Sainz in four.
Sainz, though, has beaten Gasly in four of those five grands prix and will head into Sunday’s decider quietly confident that P6 will be his.
Top half finish on the line
Five drivers have a chance of finishing P10 in this year’s championship with 11 points separating Sergio Perez in tenth from Daniil Kvyat in 14th.
2019 has not been Racing Point’s best season as the team has adjusted to life under new ownership.
Perez’s best result has been two P6s, disappointing given he achieved podium finishes in four of the last five campaigns.
He is hanging onto tenth by a single point ahead of Lando Norris with Kimi Raikkonen a further two off the pace.
Nico Hulkenberg, competing in his final season in F1, is on 37, two ahead of Kvyat.
A good showing this Sunday could turn the tables.
George Russell still seeking first point
George Russell is the only driver without a single point on the board, even his Williams team-mate Robert Kubica succeeded in bagging a P10.
Russell has been the better of the two, out-qualifying his Polish team-mate and only losing to him in one race: Germany.
That, though, was the race in which seven of the 20 runners didn’t see the finish line, handing Williams their best result of the season.
Coming into Formula 1 on the back of his F2 championship success, Russell will be determined to make his mark in Abu Dhabi.
Unfortunately for the Brit, it seems only a disaster for half the field will help him with that.
And in the Constructors’…
The Constructors’ Championship is where the financial reward is with $913 million handed out in prize money last year.
Mercedes’ 2018 victory saw the Brackley squad net $177 million while Sauber and Toro Rosso were at the other end of the scale with under 60.
This is where every point matters.
The top four have been decided with Renault’s P5 the highest position still up for grabs.
Renault has 91 points while Toro Rosso’s Brazilian runner-up result boosted the Honda-powered team onto 83 points.
Toro Rosso may have the momentum after Interlagos, the only team outside the top three to stand on the podium, however, they have only managed to outscore Renault by eight or more points in three of this year’s 20 grands prix.
Behind them there’s a battle for seventh between Racing Point and Alfa Romeo.
The two teams are separated by 10 points but Racing Point shouldn’t be too concerned given that the Mercedes-powered team is on a run of five top-ten results whereas Alfa have managed just one in five.
Tags:
