For those of you in Rio Linda, it is pronounced /rəˈvyo͞o/. It’s a play on words and the best I can do at this time. After a long season, I think we’re all a bit exhausted.
This year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix had it’s moments and had some decent action. Charles Leclerc made two strong moves on Max Verstappen during Lap 1 but wasn’t able to make either stick. After that, it was a bit quiet up front but there was decent action behind them. After all, there was a lot to play for in the Constructor’s Championship so it came down to the wire for Mercedes and Ferrari. So it was worth watching, which not all Yas Marina races have been historically.
The key takeaways for me were that Ferrari have to be ruing their misfortune with Carlos Sainz. At both Vegas and Yas Marina, he had crashes which compromised his weekend. They needed both cars at the front to challenge for second in the Constructor’s Championship. Both drivers had pace at both events but Carlos’ crashes hampered their chances to beat Mercedes. Still, the boys from Maranello have to be pleased with Leclerc finishing second in the race.
Speaking of Mercedes, their consistency paid-off in the end. They never had what I would consider the second-fastest car on the grid, although both Lewis and George had some notable performances. It is a testimony to their reliability and consistency that they were able to be ahead of every other team except Red Bull. However, it was a close fight.
The team with momentum in my opinion is McLaren though. They have had a monster (pun intended) second half of the season and even though they weren’t at the front in Abu Dhabi, they were arguably the second best team over the second half of the season. Just think about where they were in Bahrain at the beginning of the year…and look at them now. Yeah, they have momentum. P5 and P6 may be a disappointment for the Woking squad but they are looking strong heading into 2024.
Speaking of second-half improvement, consider Alpha Tauri. First Daniel Ricciardo comes back and demonstrates that the slowest car on the grid has some pace. Then Yuki Tsunoda ups his game and starts doing better. Finally, Tsunoda gets P6(!) in qualifying and P8 at Yas Marina! I doubt many people expected that, A-T really turned things around. They finished ahead of both Sauber and Haas, meaning they collected a few million more dollars to add to their bottom line. Not bad at all.
Williams held on to P7 in the Constructor’s Championship and are looking to continue their rise. Alex Albon has certainly shown that he is a top-notch driver, in the same category as Russell and Norris perhaps. James Vowles is beginning to have an impact with all the knowledge he brought over from Mercedes. It will be interesting to see how the team evolves before the 2026 season, but they are certainly heading in the right direction.
There’s a lot more but those are the thoughts the came to mind at the end of the season. Even though Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing have dominated, we’re seeing the rest becoming more competitive. I mean, we’ve seen Haas, Sauber, and Williams get both of their drivers into Q3 this year; which says a lot. So if you look behind P1 you will see that F1 is highly competitive and getting more so. This is healthy for the sport in the long-term despite the affects overwhelming domination may have in the short-term.
However, I think a lot of team members, fans, and those associated with Formula One are tired after a long season. It was almost a relief that the season ended and everybody could get some rest before next season starts. Twenty-two grand prix is a lot, especially with the flyaways at the end of the season. Hopefully the mechanics and other team personnel who make the racing possible get some well-deserved downtime.
For a few weeks at least, things are likely to be quiet as everybody starts getting ready for next season. There will be a lot going on between now and February when the pre-season test is held in Bahrain. It will go by fast though and we’ll be back to racing before we know it.
