Grand Prix Rejects

Nothing to fight for in either championship. I'll watch it because I'm an F1 junkie but is anyone else not bothered?

Yeah, it already feels guaranteed that this will be a borefest, indeed the only Abu Dhabi races which have been memorable are the ones where a title is on the line! But if you look at it another way, all the dull AD races were held in odd-numbered years (2009, 11, 13, 15, 17) and every decent AD race has taken place in an even-numbered year (2010, 12, 14, 16), so maybe that's a good trend to get superstitious about? .

good_Ralf wrote:Yeah, it already feels guaranteed that this will be a borefest, indeed the only Abu Dhabi races which have been memorable are the ones where a title is on the line! But if you look at it another way, all the dull AD races were held in odd-numbered years (2009, 11, 13, 15, 17) and every decent AD race has taken place in an even-numbered year (2010, 12, 14, 16), so maybe that's a good trend to get superstitious about? .

Now that you say that we’ll probably have a Hamilton lights-to-flag victory, good going Ralf

I haven't visited there in a while, but on F1Fanatic's Rate the Race feature, I'm sure Abu Dhabi 2013 was on their shortlist for worst-rated race in this whole last decade.

...

That's bad

I'll be watching, as another F1 junkie. I actually don't mind the track - the long straights and chicanes give some outbraking/out-dragging possibilities . And the swervy bit is quite good. And then they all go off on the last couple of corners, because they over-commit. The last few 90 degree bends are a bit average though. .
Of course the F2 and GP3 crew will demonstrate the most racing, although traditionally the F2 come with such soft tyres that on lap 3 or 4 they lose huge chunks of performance and the race is a lottery depending upon whether you spent one or two laps on dead tyres going 4 seconds a lap slower . Sometimes the skill is not running into the car ahead as they struggle to get round the track.

Feels like the DTM's cameo system could come in handy for cases like these. Imagine dropping Marquez in a Red Bull, Pedrosa in a Toro Rosso, Rossi or Dovizioso in a Ferrari, just for the craic? They'd probably be nowhere but at least it'd be a semi-interesting B-plot to the race. Or stick Louis Deletraz in the third Haas for some reject gold.

FortiWinks wrote:

good_Ralf wrote:Yeah, it already feels guaranteed that this will be a borefest, indeed the only Abu Dhabi races which have been memorable are the ones where a title is on the line! But if you look at it another way, all the dull AD races were held in odd-numbered years (2009, 11, 13, 15, 17) and every decent AD race has taken place in an even-numbered year (2010, 12, 14, 16), so maybe that's a good trend to get superstitious about? .

Now that you say that we’ll probably have a Hamilton lights-to-flag victory, good going Ralf

Verstappen will cause controversy by pulling out a hipflask and tipping some Vodka in the rose water after finishing in the top 3.

Should I count that as an official prediction, Fetzie?

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/140235/mclaren-creates-special-alonso-farewell-livery

Sorry to double-post, but McLaren have got a one-off livery for Alonso's farewell in Abu Dhabi. I mean, there's a few stripes and stuff, but it's not exactly a grand change from what it currently looks like. If nobody had said anything, I would have just assumed they'd got a new sponsor or something. It looks good, but it's just had a few stripes and stuff added.

Rob Dylan wrote:Should I count that as an official prediction, Fetzie?

How many points would be on offer for it?

Fetzie wrote:

Rob Dylan wrote:Should I count that as an official prediction, Fetzie?

How many points would be on offer for it?

That would be an Infinite Improbability Drive of the Race award bet, I presume, and for that you'd get six points on double if you predict correctly! Now that's what I call a Christmas present!

Rob Dylan wrote:

Fetzie wrote:

Rob Dylan wrote:Should I count that as an official prediction, Fetzie?

How many points would be on offer for it?

That would be an Infinite Improbability Drive of the Race award bet, I presume, and for that you'd get six points on double if you predict correctly! Now that's what I call a Christmas present!

Come on Rob just award him the whole competition if that’s correct!

Logically , if everyone has been stretching out their engines, struggling to meet the restricted number of engines rules and this is the last race , then if they've really been stretched, some of them will have got it wrong and their motors wont quite make it to the flag.
So - with the Mercs and Ferraris, Red Bulls ( who seem to eat Renaults as a point of principle) all expiring in a smokey haze , and with Honda having possibly some low mileage motors available from all their multiple new ones ; can it be like the 80s turbo days - a surprise survivor wins the race? Take a bow Pierre Gasly ! ( And would Brendon keep his seat if he won?)

yannicksamlad wrote:Logically , if everyone has been stretching out their engines, struggling to meet the restricted number of engines rules and this is the last race , then if they've really been stretched, some of them will have got it wrong and their motors wont quite make it to the flag.
So - with the Mercs and Ferraris, Red Bulls ( who seem to eat Renaults as a point of principle) all expiring in a smokey haze , and with Honda having possibly some low mileage motors available from all their multiple new ones ; can it be like the 80s turbo days - a surprise survivor wins the race? Take a bow Pierre Gasly ! ( And would Brendon keep his seat if he won?)

They're no match for Sirotkin, who held back the whole season to spare his material just to end the season with a legendary performance!

Rob Dylan wrote:https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/140235/mclaren-creates-special-alonso-farewell-livery

Sorry to double-post, but McLaren have got a one-off livery for Alonso's farewell in Abu Dhabi. I mean, there's a few stripes and stuff, but it's not exactly a grand change from what it currently looks like. If nobody had said anything, I would have just assumed they'd got a new sponsor or something. It looks good, but it's just had a few stripes and stuff added.

Is anybody expecting this to end in much the same way that Couthard's last race did when he ran that one off livery?

It is a little bit of an omen, isn't it. The last time this happened was this time ten years ago, and we all remember what happened to poor old David

Driver parade interviews:

reporter: Kimi, how do you feel about this being your last race in red?
Kimi: uuhhhhh does this mean that I don't need to do these interviews next year? (hopeful inflection in the question)

If there is a God, Ericsson has to get a damn podium today.

novitopoli wrote:If there is a God, Ericsson has to get a damn podium today.

40 years (plus change) too late. God vanished in a puff of logic on 8th March 1978.

Farewell then to a season that never quite became what it seemed it might - and how fitting that it ends with a race which seems to encapsulate it all so well. The front three teams teasing us by appearing well-matched and offering the prospect of a close, exciting fight, but in the end Hamilton emerging as victor with no trouble at all. Alonso railing and defiant to the last, but it not really doing him any good. And, after it had pretty much been forgotten about and everyone had pretty much accepted it, the halo becoming a major talking point at the end just as it was at the start.

I'm glad Hulkenberg was okay, and I hope 2019 delivers the close title fight it had seemed 2018 might offer but never really gave us.

Yeah, I too felt the same way about the race result. I just really wish there'd been a thunderstorm - it would have made everything so perfect