Grand Prix 2017 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

So it’s Formula One’s tribute act to New Years’ Eve: an interminable and unexciting pre-amble to ten minutes of fireworks then the vain hope that next year will be better.

Ok, so that’s the least optimistic take ever, but Abu Dhabi has only really produced one race that is memorable for being a great race - 2012 - and we all recall the radio calls of the winner more than the action.

Brazil suggests that Hamilton’s Mercedes (with the 2018 engine) is the best around, but they’ve not shown much pace at night this year even if circumstances conspired to deliver victory in Singapore. There’s usually a multi-chassis race in the top six, somewhere.

It’s the end of an error, erm... era, at Woking as McLaren bail from the Honda project. Toro Rosso are currently showing them how easy Renault can be to work with.

Most will expect the pink Force Indias to be followed home by yellow, orange and white machinery with the Heartgas partnership at Toro Rosso around too.

Sauber will probably bring up the rear. Nice to mention them?

A season that promised a title race for the ages has delivered a remarkably damp squib. All we can say, Formula One, is see you in 2018.

 

[RasputinLives]

F1Brits_90 F2/GP2 is both a good example and bad example when it comes to what F1 should do.

It's bad because it makes people think that a spec car series leads to lots of overtaking. This has historically not been the case. You only have to look at 20 years of Formula 3 (and recently GP3) to see that actually having identical cars makes it very hard to overtake.

It's good because the cars have specifically been designed in order to allow for overtaking. There is not too much aero that cars can't follow each other and not so little that it becomes easy to do so (making it a skill I.e. the anti DRS). The tyre rules and tyre wear specifically lead to a split and unpredictable strategy which is again down to skill and judgement and not just plain luck. Oh and of course the cars are set up to favour the brave on late braking.

All of the latter rules could be applied to F1 without it being a spec series but either the teams Don't want to implement it or it's been implemented in the wrong way.

As I said somewhere else I'm sure F1 could be sorted out by one strong minded individual but the last few years really has been a case of too many cooks.

 

[ramilas1]

My level of interest levelled out a bit in 2017 - but it really couldn't sink much further, to be honest.

I think I watched something on less than half the race weekends this year ...
... slightly more bits of quali early in the season, slightly more race starts toward the end.

F1 now takes priority somewhere below walking the dog, mowing the lawn, playing with the kids/nephews/nieces/etc, washing veg for Sunday dinner or buying veg on Saturday for Sunday dinner.

It does get an outing as background noise while playing with the kids (indoors on rainy afternoons) unless I suggest playing Status Quo's Greatest Hits (on a loop) instead, which we all much prefer.

 

[ramilas1]

What new logo?
Was I not paying attention?

Is it supposed to be an image of a tap?

Looks like it could have been designed by Tilka ...
... or is it a photo of one those ridiculous run-off areas at Circuit of The Americas, designed by Tlka?