Posted on 12/04/2025 12:38:23 PM PST by Carriage Hill
2025 FORMULA 1 ETIHAD AIRWAYS ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX Live Thread
Circuit: Yas Marina Circuit, Yas Island First Grand Prix: 2009, Number of Laps: 58, Circuit Length: 5.281 km, Race Distance: 306.183 km, Lap Record: 1:25.637 Kevin Magnussen (2024)
Verstappen, Piastri, Tsunoda, Stroll, Hulkenberg, Bortoleto, Albon, Sainz, Antonelli, Piastri, Norris and Antonelli all have been investigated by the stewards for “delta breach” (driving too slow) in the qualies. All were cleared.
Tyre deg is what drivers want to force them to drive the car an entire run with decreasing grip. NASCAR is notorious for a few tyre-deg tracks (Darlington but watch for Joliet next year on Independence Day weekend) where 15-year old surfaces cause problems (and Goodyear encourages it because it forces them to develop better tyres for heavy trucks). We saw Bristol what happens when tyre deg is rampant once the track temperature reached a certain level. Probably we won’t get “Bristol Tyre Deg” but F1 tyre deg could be an issue for Abu Dhabi. Drivers have to learn to drive their cars differently to get maximum life.
But in a 195-mile race (including formation laps to the grid and formation lap during the race) with a 38 gallon tank of racing gasoline, a cars must make 5.2 mpg with the 1600cc hybrid-turbo engines. It’s much easier than INDYCAR with a 2200cc hybrid-turbo engine running on ethanol fuel (no petrol), which is recommended at 4 MPG (road courses) for an 18.5 gallon fuel tank and the races are at times 50km longer than F1 for equivalent races and having half the fuel tank of F1 cars with less efficient fuel that can be doused with water in case of fire).
Teams must engineer cars to be able to go a full distance on tyres. The CCP doesn’t like it that way.
Tomorrow I’ll be watching my last F1 race for who knows how long. I don’t plan to “subscribe” to Apple TV just to be able to see F1. I’ll appreciate the updates here even more than I do now!
Me too. Reading the Australian sites. Mike Joy (Fox NASCAR) said to Kevin Harvick his series’ problem is sponsors are B2B. With Apple TV+, watch F1 sponsors in North America to tilt towards B2B instead of consumers. Apple will not help rivals, so B2B will replace consumer oriented ads.
See INDYCAR on Fox with their consumer oriented ads.
Lewis Hamilton in more trouble?
https://www.outkick.com/sports/fans-concerned-ending-raiders-broncos-game-rigged-cover-spread
Hamilton is part of the Denver Broncos ownership.
In the end, Verstappen couldn’t push Norris back into 4th-spot by his lonesome. Barring a mechanical, he was always going to have to have some help from Sainz or Russell or Leclerc.
I was puzzled by the strategery at the start when Max took off like a herd of birds because that stretched out the field, which let both McLarens exploit their superior race pace, and hindered anyone who might have been able to overtake Norris ... if they’d only got within DRS range.
Maybe they were banking on tire deg costing the McLarens if they tried to match Max’s pace, I dunno.
I also don’t understand why they didn’t pit Verstappen late in the race when he still had more than the pit delta over Piastri, and would have come out in front of him on fresher rubber, making him better able to take the defensive driving lines without risking being overtaken himself. And with the two of them dicing for the lead, they both would have been going slower and closing the gap to Norris.
In the end, max didn’t take WDC because he didn’t help himself. He didn’t employ any strategery that might have caused both Piastri and Norris to get bunched up behind him, so that Russell and/or Leclrec might overtake them.
Antonelli told Max “I’m really sorry” after Abu Dhabi because without the 2 points his bobble at Qatar handed Norris, the championship would have ended in a points tie between Norris and Verstappen, but Verstappen would have taken WDC on count-back by virtue of eight 1st-place finishes to Norris’s seven.
Max’s reply: “Mate, don’t be. It’s all good. No hard feelings.”
https://racingnews365.com/max-verstappen-responds-to-kimi-antonelli-apology-after-f1-title-loss
Meanwhile, the person responsible for organising the United States rounds and presenting a trophy has changed.
NASCAR’s George Silbermann is leaving. Effective January 1, Kevin Miller, the President and CEO of the United States Auto Club, will now be the president of the national sanctioning body of motorsport, the Automobile Competition Committee of the United States (ACCUS-FIA).
Miller will represent ACCUS member clubs such as NASCAR, INDYCAR, IMSA, NHRA, SCCA and USAC with the FIA and in Washington, in addition to U. S. Race Management, which is the delegated sporting authority for FIA World Championship events in the United States, including Formula 1, Formula E, WEC and WRC. He will also be among the leaders working alongside lobbyists in Washington, D.C. regarding the political and regulatory issues that impact clubs, tracks, and the future of motorsports in the United States.
https://speedsport.com/sprints-midgets/usac/kasey-coler-appointed-usac-president/
Mekies answers my question about why no late pit stop for Verstappen ... sort of.
In a nutshell, he says it wouldn’t have been cricket.
https://www.planetf1.com/news/red-bull-max-verstappen-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-2025-strategy-explained
But I can guarandamntee you that’s not what Cristian Horner would have said. He’d have said, ‘Screw cricket, second place is first loser. Let’s stir the pot and see what comes from it.’
No balls, no Blue Chips, and Mekies is looking pretty eunuch-ish to me.
Even though the races were on ESPN, I mostly watched the highlights on YouTube. Will have to see how strict Apple will be with posting highlights to YouTube.
Jolyon Palmer agrees that Horner wouldn’t have been so inclined to let Norris walk off with the WDC without a fight:
“...[D]o you not take a risk of maybe not winning the Grand Prix to have a better chance of winning a title? I was surprised that Red Bull didn’t try anything in the race.
“I was thinking last night, Checo [Perez] in 2021 did a lap five seconds off the pace and kept Lewis behind. He cost Lewis eight seconds in less than two laps. He was on shod tyres against Lewis, who was way quicker.
“Max is a driver that I respect at the highest ability that I think would be able to back off at a second per lap quite comfortably in the final sector and not be overtaken. Maybe be at risk of being overtaken, but I think he’s got the skill set to do that and probably keep track position, or someone has to make a big risky move to make it work.
“I think McLaren should almost go and thank Red Bull that they played it so fair today, because I don’t think anyone really expected Max not to try it...”
“...I think it might have been different, and I’ve had that thought since the race because Red Bull also seemed to me to be the happiest losers of the championship that I can remember in a title fight.
“He [Horner] was Mr push everything to the absolute limit and over the limit if you possibly can, but we will fight for every single thing we can scrap for today.
“I thought Red Bull executed a nice race if you want to win the race, but I didn’t think they executed the best race if they want to win the championship....”
Hear, hear, well spoken Brother Palmer!
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