Abu Dhabi GP: Less desert storm, more desert norm

In the end, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was an appropriate conclusion to the 2016 season.

At times, it felt like it would never end. Yet it contrived to keep us on the edge of our seats in those supremely tense closing laps.

There was, yet again, a fantastic charging drive from Max Verstappen. Yet again, the on-track action was eclipsed by a bit of team politics.

And, of course, Mercedes took the silverware.

It was, then, normal service for Formula 1.

Talking of Mercedes…

I suggest you guys let us race

The season ended as it had begun, with Mercedes and its drivers at loggerheads.

The first in-team issues raised their heads early in the year.

Mercedes opted to swap Lewis and Nico’s mechanic teams, something which irked Hamilton no end at all, and he was clearly uneasy with his new team for months.

Presumably, those mechanics are a bit miffed to have swapped sides from the losing side of the Merc garage to… the losing side of the Merc garage, even if they have helped their man to the top step at the season’s last four races.

Then there were the mid-season shenanigans, most notably when Rosberg and Hamilton crashed out of the Spanish GP after Rosberg lost power because he’d put his car in the wrong engine mode for the start.

At the time, Hamilton said: ‘Everything is cool.’

Everything was not cool.

Right to the end of the final lap at Abu Dhabi, everything was definitely not cool.

If the end-of-season race is remembered for anything, it will be the sight of Hamilton driving more and more slowly, holding up Rosberg and hoping against hope that Ferrari or Red Bull could leapfrog the German and, as a result, help Hamilton snatch his fourth World Championship.

The Mercedes pair did embrace before going into the cooldown room but, once in that room, they put as many metres between each other as was physically possible.

Hamilton knew he’d disobeyed team orders – repeatedly – by trying to back Rosberg into the following pack, having been told specifically to avoid this tactic by Toto Wolff and the Mercedes bosses.

During the race, when he was told to speed up, his replies were wonderfully curt: ‘I suggest you guys let us race’… ‘I am comfortable where I am’… ‘Right now I’m losing the world championship so I don’t care if I lose this race’.

There’s the closed season for Mercedes to cool everything down but Hamilton has experienced some of his lowest moments in the sport this season.

It’s been rumoured that, after the events of the Spanish GP, Hamilton told Mercedes he was quitting, and that Pascal Wehrlein was brought in as test driver just in case.

When Martin Brundle alluded to the story, Hamilton would say only that it was ‘all private stuff’.

As for Rosberg, he kept his cool during the Abu Dhabi race, something he has become much better at this year.

He had to finish third or better to be champion but, running second and being backed into the following cars was, he said, ‘horrendous’.

Rosberg could have had a dig at Hamilton for disobeying team instructions but, instead, he praised his team mate, saying: ‘Lewis was trying to back me into Vettel. He did it really, really well and I was stuck.’

It’s all a far cry from Austin 2015, the race where Hamilton took last year’s championship and where frosty relations between the Merc drivers culminated in a testy cap-throwing incident in the cooldown room.

Rosberg now says that was a turning point for him, that he decided he never wanted to go through that sort of weekend again – and that’s a big part of why he has performed so consistently this season, both in the car and in front of the media and public.

He’s been able to capitalise on Hamilton’s misfortunes, he’s put in nine winning drives, and that’s why he’s World Champion.

Mercedes drive really slowly, Ferrari still finish third

For much of the Abu Dhabi race, it looked like Ferrari had, yet again, hampered whatever chances they had with poor strategy calls.

But then, with Vettel staring at a miserable sixth place, they decided – in desperation, it sounded – to pit him for supersoft tyres, which other teams had decided were weak this weekend.

Suddenly Vettel was flying, passing Verstappen, Raikkonen, Ricciardo, setting fastest laps along the way; before long, Mercedes realised that, as Hamilton was driving so slowly at the front, Vettel posed a genuine threat to both Mercs.

It’s not a position Vettel has found himself in very often this season, and he did try an overtake on Rosberg.

But it wasn’t to be. It was enough that a Ferrari finished ahead of both Red Bulls.

This season has been so miserable for the Maranello team that they have been told there will be no Christmas celebration for them.

Perhaps a podium for Seb may change that but, what is certain is that patience has long worn thin at Ferrari.

They talked up their chances this season but, time and time again, failed either through poor strategic calls or simply because their car wasn’t good enough.

Ferrari have always been an ‘engine’ team rather than a chassis or aero team. Big engines are their speciality, and they have struggled with the small, 1.6litre turbo units in modern F1.

The bad news for fans of the Prancing Horse is that next season’s raft of rule changes will make F1 success rest far more on aerodynamic wizardry than engine power. So Ferrari could be left with a weak engine, while struggling to compete with teams who traditionally place more emphasis on aero.

Still, at least this year they finished above Williams, unlike 2014. Progress of a sort.

There’s no Verst-opping him

This has been Max Verstappen’s season, in many ways.

Parachuted into Red Bull at the Spanish Grand Prix, he won after the Mercs crashed out.

Throughout the year, he has been a controversial and eye-catching presence, and Abu Dhabi was no different.

After a lacklustre qualifying session, he started only sixth and then, thanks in part to a sloppy gear change, was slow off the mark and got involved in a bump that sent him to the back of the field.

He fought back quickly and, as leaders began to pit, got as high as second.

Red Bull used him to slow Rosberg and he stayed out for 22 laps, on a set of tyres that Pirelli reckoned were good for 12 laps at most. This guy isn’t just fast and aggressive – doubling the life of your tyres and defending a second place is a remarkable skill in itself.

That allowed him to run a one-stop strategy which, in turn, led to one of the most exciting periods of the race, as Mercedes told Rosberg he had to overtake Verstappen.

Rosberg had, up to this point, driven cautiously but he executed a brave move from a long way behind the young Red Bull star and passed him.

Nevertheless, as at so many races, we had seen Verstappen fighting through the pack, extracting remarkable life from his tyres and out-performing his talented team mate Daniel Ricciardo, finishing one slot ahead of him in fourth place.

But we didn’t see him getting into any trouble for defending over-enthusiastically… some things do seem to have changed over the season.

His on-track reputation is sufficient to unnerve champions – later, Rosberg said: ‘The race was so horribly intense. When I was told it was critical to get by … wow … and to take on Max of all people.’

India take-away

One of the best battles of the season has been the midfield tussle between Williams (third for the last two seasons) and Force India (a fifth and a fourth).

In the end, a seventh and eighth for Hulkenberg (pictured) and Perez gave Force India a comfortable margin over Williams in the constructors’ race, as Bottas retired on lap nine with a damper problem, and Massa came home behind them in ninth, scoring a couple of consolation points as his F1 career drew to a close.

As well as kudos for their highest-ever finish, this fourth-place in the constructors’ table will be worth more than a few quid to Force India.

A team who desperately need money are Manor but, finishing bottom of the constructors’ table after a season in which they scored just a single point, there won’t be much of that flowing their way.

Don’t be surprised if they have new owners before the 2017 season starts.

And a special mention for…

Jenson Button’s final F1 race was, sadly, a bit rubbish. He was in the points but, on lap 12, the suspension on his car broke.

The standing ovation JB received more than made up for the car failure, judging from his demeanour a little later.

He took over Ted Kravitz’s mic on Sky and (fuelled, one assumes, with a little fizzy) showed why there are plenty of people who think he’ll be a pundit at some point in his career.

JBTV… bring it on.

Coming up…

And, the joys of winter testing aside, that’s it for four months. Watch out for more revelations about Hamilton’s frustration after the Spanish GP, and for news from Alonso’s world, as he decides whether the 2017 McLaren is going to be worth hanging around for, while the team adjust to life under new boss Zak Brown.

As I said above, Manor may have new owners and a new name.

Bernie Ecclestone’s recent interview with Martin Brundle looked a little like a farewell chat – surely he’s not finally going to bow out of the sport he revolutionised?

For those that follow such things, F1 could be about to become involved in a bit of a spat over how much tax it pays in the UK. According to ITV, the sport has made some $5billion of profits in the UK, from $14.8billion of revenue – and paid a rather modest $122.9million in tax, courtesy of an agreement with HMRC.

Given that, let’s see what the sport’s new owners Liberty Media have in store for F1. They’re big on new technology as a way of growing audiences, but they also know how important it is to keep the audience entertained.

See you in Melbourne at the end of March.