Grand Prix 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

So here it is, the season finale and the two Mercedes drivers go in to it with the chance of taking the title. Hamilton leads Rosberg by 17 points so a repeat of the result in Brazil makes Lewis the Champion but double points means that the permutations are almost endless (boringly endless that is).

Two titles have already been sown up. Mercedes are constructors Champions and Nico Rosberg is the Pole Position Champion. Hands up all those who thought he would beat Lewis in qualifying? No one? Thought not. There will be a few other cars and drivers at the race but, frankly, all most of us will be interested in is which of the Merc drivers comes out on top. With 10 wins to 6 Lewis would have won on Bernie's Gold Medal system but then the Ring Master decided that simply winning races isn't enough and to keep things "interesting" decided making one race result worth twice that of any other was a good idea. I wonder what craziness will be visited on us fans next year. Perhaps something for a separate discussion.

Back to the race, this is the one which starts in the sunshine and then gets dark and it has the weird pit lane which makes the cars look like they are leaving a multi-storey car park. For anyone going, Ferrari World is just outside the circuit, somehow I don't think it will be Ferrari World inside.

Anyone got any other thoughts? Can Williams steal a win? Will McLaren carry on improving? Will this be Jenson Button's final race in F1? Sebastian Vettel will be saying goodbye to Red Bull, Sutil and Gutierrez will, most likely, be saying goodbye to F1 and we've already said goodbye to Caterham and Marussia.

Hope you are sitting comfortably, let the final race begin.
 
Last edited:
Titch it seems to be legal but it is ridiculous. Basically, drivers steer and relate back stuff to reinforce the teams perception of what is happening to the car.

Racing of a sort but not in the spirit of F1 surely?
 
Brogan, I think it's covered under FIA sporting regulations annex F - Permisable post race celebrations involving Germans or teams of Germanic origin. Rule 4.1.5 Donuts and flag collections are allowed providing the crowd respond with a suitable roar of approval, there is no delay in returning to the pits afterward and at least one broadcaster must feature a comment from Christian Horner.

As for the radio message about not turning his engine up, I think the best explination for this is one that was posted in the rate the race thread. I am certain that in the FIA regs, pit to car communication by anything other than voice is prohibited. To that end, Hamilton was responding to a radio instruction (though we may have quietly forgotten the aiding your driver rule - all of the teams). I know I heard Hamilton say don't turn my engine up so I would expect what preceded that was something along the lines of "Lewis, turn nob 6 up four clicks" or a something along those lines. Hamilton not needing the extra power and not wishing to stress his engine more than reqhired turned the instruction down.

Sorry Jen, as much as I hate the almighty short one, I don't think his hand of godness stretchs to telling a major manufacturer which of their drivers should win.
 
Last edited:
Lewis really made them sweat on the pit wall for this one. You know they badly wanted to close 2014 out with a victory and with the head honcho there a botched 1-2 wouldn't have been good. I think Lewis along with millions of others could have lived with a Williams / Massa win however. Ultimately though he knew he had to win this one and it was a great performance. There would have been something amazingly poetic if Felipe could have taken his first victory since the day Lewis clinched it in 2008.
 
Not at all Titch, there are numerous parameters the team can adjust from the pit wall but the driver still has to drive the car, steering, making gear changes, braking and making other adjustments available on the steering wheel.
 
Not at all Titch, there are numerous parameters the team can adjust from the pit wall but the driver still has to drive the car, steering, making gear changes, braking and making other adjustments available on the steering wheel.

Unsurprisingly enough, you're wrong. Titch is absolutely correct, technical regulation 8.5.2 states clearly "Pit to car telemetry is prohibited".

If Mercedes, for example, were changing settings from the pit wall, then I would expect them to be thrown out of the race and the championship!
 
They wouldn't be that daft, especially not to announce it on the radio. As I said above, I don't think we heard the full conversation. I believe it was an instruction from Hamiltons engineer to change the settings to enable more power (Sorry for the Jez Clarkson impression) which Hamilton questioned as it was not needed.
 
Kudos to Hamilton on the win and the championship. It was a shame to see Nico have technical difficulties but it is what it is. Hopefully next year the other teams will step up their game so that it isnt the Merc show every week.
 
Back
Top Bottom