Official 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Thread ***Spoilers***

21, 22, 23 November 20142014 FORMULA 1 ETIHAD AIRWAYS ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX
First Grand Prix: 2009Number of Laps: 55Circuit Length: 5.554 kmRace Distance: 305.355 kmLap Record: 1:40.279 - S Vettel (2009)2013 Winner: Sebastian Vettel

The Real Story of the Race was that the Renault's fell apart and the Ferrari's didn't.
Rosberg headed for the sliproad and retired, probably because of Nicotin starvation they have still not given him a helmet with a little hole in it.

Is it true that Rubens has paid to drive for caterham this weekend? I really hope its not true.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/2014 06:49PM by marcl.

There's nothing coming up on Google News and Rubens hasn't mentioned it on his Twitter recently, so it probably won't be happening.

---

Apparently Rubens had a deal to do the last three races, not sure if that holds any weight but they're not announcing anything yet apart from Kobayashi.

Merhi, Stevens and Chillton seem to be the frame although there are super licsence issues for Merhi and Stevens.

Manor had been trying to get to Abu Dhabi and even got to the point of sending out freight but all attempts have now been abandoned because they just haven't got the money.

We could see Sebastian first winless this season, does Sebastian's 2014 winless count or not count?

Not sure what you're meaning by that, but this can only be seen as a very disappointing season by Seb, even if the Red Sea parts and he pulls off a win this weekend. He can't even fall back on the excuse that he didn't have a winning car, since Ricciardo has emphatically demonstrated it is a winner in the right hands. He's just been flat-out pwned.
It's a curious one, and it seems to be down more to his motivation level than anything else, as has been said in other threads. I've got to say I've found it weird watching him falter so badly after dominating the sport for years, regardless of why. It'll be his first winless whole season(And he was even in contention for a win in his first half-season, at Fuji in 2007) and his career has suddenly taken a step back - I guess it had to happen at some point after the meteoric first few seasons, but I never expected the downturn to be this dramatic. This year it's been like watching someone pretending to be him.
Hopefully the move to Ferrari will reinvigorate him and we'll be back to full-on SuperMultiSeb again. This year it's not really been fun to watch this shadow of his former self.

---

All I want this weekend is both Mercs to be reliable so the title is not decided by a break down.

A nice straight forward race between Nico and Lewis would be good to see just like in Brazil and the USA.

Shocking session for Williams. Did a handful of laps, body panels fell Bottas's car, bits came loose on Massa's, and it looks like they're trying to do a botch job to get some running in in FP2.

Its not the first time that has happened to Williams this year.

The gap 1.7 seconds to the next car! Yes it will probably get closer but bloody hell.

Latest news on the Button vs. Magnussen McLaren choice is that it is not about sporting or development ability for the team. They know what they need to know. What McLaren don't have, is certainty on how big of a pay cut Button is willing to take, and how much sponsorship Magnussen can generate for the team in the future. This is not official in any way, but it is pretty reliable.

---

It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.

I think that for McLaren their decision should be based on whether they think Magnussen or Vandoorne is the better prospect. If it's Magnussen they have to stick with him, but if not, I could see them giving Button the one more year before bringing in Vandoorne for 2016. Having said that, the way he's going in GP2 at the moment, he may be almost ready for next year.

Personally, I hope they keep Magnussen. With fewer teams now, there's even less chance for talented young drivers, so it would be a shame for Button to take the drive. It'd be great to see him full time in the WEC instead.

---

X (@ed24f1)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2014 05:15PM by SchueyFan.

I don't think Magnussen has done a bad job tbh but he has not really been that close to button, I just think he moved to f1 one year too early and should have had a year in GP2.

If I was McLaren I would probably keep Button for one more year and put Magnussen as a tester and place him in a smaller team if possible.

As for Vandoorne not sure about him, I think he needs another year in GP2. I don't think its a great field this year and he has not really stood out for me.

Also Nico coming out saying he is counting on this driver and that driver to finish second ahead of Lewis. Well so far Lewis has been faster than Nico and his race pace is a bit faster plus he is better on the tyres. Nico needs to worry about himself and beating Lewis rather than what everyone else is doing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2014 06:27PM by marcl.

marcl Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't think Magnussen has done a bad job tbh but
> he has not really been that close to button, I
> just think he moved to f1 one year too early and
> should have had a year in GP2.

It's true that he has not been close to Button when it comes to points, but it is not true when it comes to pace, as qualifying has shown. Magnusson just doesn't have the same feel for the tyres as Button does, and to be frank, that is something Button is very, very good at, and he is probably better than most on the grid, including other current champions.

If you look at the man Magnusson replaced, Perez, then the gap in points between the two is relationally almost the same as it is from Force India to McLaren. It's roughly something like 17% versus 26%... so in hauling his weight, he has been just a tad bit worse than Perez has been, and Perez has 4 seasons in F1 now. And the things that Perez has pulled off this year is not even in the same league as Magnusson's incidents (Crash with Massa @ Canada / Texas incident / destroying the car in a solo spin @ Hungary / Sutil incident @ Singapore / Crash with Button at Monaco). He has also already done better than Perez did last year, in a car that is pretty much on the same level performance wise.

If we look up the grid instead of down, to Ferrari, the comparison is even better when it comes to hauling his own weight. Even Kimi didn't do much better in his 2001 debut. Sauber got 4th in the Constructors championship that year (versus McLaren's current 5th, which will remain for the season bar something really unexpected), but Kimi still only got 10th in the WDC which is where Magnusson is today. Kimi didn't even get a podium position, which Magnusson has done.

I don't know why people think that a rookie with almost no testing experience should be able to be equal to or beat a world champion with 15 seasons of experience in the very first season. That's what I consider to be abusive expectations. I mean how often do we actually see that happening? The closest recent example I can think of was Hamilton's debut, and he already had something like 50-60 GPs worth of testing in mileage in the bag, not counting simulator work. Button's debut is generally considered to be in the top 10 best in the last 2 decades, and even he has admitted, that Magnusson is better than he was, when he started.

So what do you people realistically expect? It used to be so, that rookies had to prove themselves in the second half of the second season. Now they have to be the next Senna, or it's not really enough.

---

It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2014 08:14PM by Morbid.

Hamilton's reaction to the monkey was brilliant, and Vettel at the end. :D

tbh I think the question was very interesting. In short "do you think you have too many buttons, and do you think it affects your driving?", just said badly.

Anyway, I can't imagine rosberg did not even smile. Moreover, he was biting his fingers throughout the press conference. Seems like a lot of pressure there .

Indeed he did. He needs to realise that Hamilton has more experience at these fights and that he'll have another chance next year. His demeanour even managed to wipe the smile off of Alonso's face.

Let's be honest though lewis could well have won this championship 2 races ago, Nico has had a good year but I think next year everything being equal lewis will beat him again. Yes I'm assuming lewis will get the championship, he should tbh baring car problems or a crash.

I was at the press conference and that question was brilliant, had the entire room in stitches.

Nico's retort to Lewis was also exceptional. Had JB laughing.

---

Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

Quote
marcl
Let's be honest though lewis could well have won this championship 2 races ago, Nico has had a good year but I think next year everything being equal lewis will beat him again. Yes I'm assuming lewis will get the championship, he should tbh baring car problems or a crash.

Agreed, Hamilton should beat him again next year, but Rosberg has been faster on a few of occasions and Hamilton has just driven him off the road, so Hamilton feels threatened to some extent. Rosberg has had more luck this year overall, but Hamilton's reliability issues have largely masked some of his moves on Rosberg, which have been questionable (even the Spa incident to a degree).

Hamilton deserves this one undoubtedly and he's unquestionably been better, but remember that this is Rosberg's first title fight (and he's made a few rookie errors of late) but Hamilton fumbled it in his previous two (realistic) championship battles, so I'm not loading my money on Hamilton for 2015 quite yet. He's the clear favourite, but I expect Nico to push him a bit harder and a bit more consistently.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2014 10:40PM by gav.

gav Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hamilton's reaction to the monkey was brilliant,
> and Vettel at the end. :D

Agreed. Genius!

---