Ferrari Have The Incentive, Mercedes Have The Car. Who Will Win The 2017 Season’s Final Race?

Ferrari Have The Incentive, Mercedes Have The Car. Who Will Win The 2017 Season’s Final Race?
13:33, 23 Nov 2017

Lewis Hamilton has the World Championship in the bag, sealing the deal in Mexico when finishing ninth after suffering from a puncture on the opening lap of the race.  Last time, in Brazil, he finished fourth.  These two results represent the driver’s worst back-to-back finishes since the concluding two races of 2013.

At the end of 2015 the Brit’s form also tapered off badly, he was beaten by teammate Nico Rosberg in three consecutive races.  It took him six races to regain the winning thread the following year.  Nevertheless the Mercedes driver has won in Abu Dhabi three times and his team has claimed all three victories since the 1.6L V6 hybrid cars came into use.

The Yas Marina Circuit is 5.55 kilometres long (meaning a 55 lap race) and it has 21 corners (nine right and 12 left turns).  Despite two long straights this is a ‘slow circuit’ courtesy of six corners being taken at speeds of less than 100kmh and overtaking spots are all but non-existent.

So the $1 billion the venue cost to build back in 2008 could have been better spent.  And one suspects the country is also paying a pretty penny to have their race as the final curtain call of the season (as it has done for the past three years).  

There is an irony that F1 has become ‘environmentally friendly’ using part electric-powered race cars, but airplanes transporting those 20 cars, equipment, spares and hundreds of team staff the 12,100 kilometres from the penultimate race in Brazil to Abu Dhabi must surely do more damage to the environment than a full season of racing using the ‘old spec’ 2.4L race cars.

Anyway, there’s very little left to play for in the championships standings at this final race of 2017.  The drivers’ title is over and the top four places in the constructors’ championship have been decided.

Of course there are bragging rights and Sebastian Vettel would like to finish off the season in the same way it started, victorious in Australia way back in March.  Vettel has won here three times but his current team, Ferrari, never have.

Given the circuit is home to the ‘Ferrari World’ amusement park (the largest space frame structure ever built which also houses the world's fastest roller coaster) his team certainly does have that ‘something to play for’ factor.

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