Rate the race: 2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

46 comments on “Rate the race: 2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix”

1. 

   hahostolze (@hahostolze)
   25th November 2018, 14:55

   Perhaps the worst thing about F1 having two classes right now, is how much of a role traffic plays. Vettel, Verstappen and Ric at some point each had less than two seconds between them, setting up a beautiful finish. Traffic completely ruined it. This is an awful track, and F1 is so typical right now. Those 2019 changes better come good.
   1. 

      glynh (@glynh)
      25th November 2018, 15:03

      Actually quite enjoyed the track today, it seemed to encourage overtaking. On the subject of F1.5 it was an impressive win by Sainz, had he been in first by that margin we’d all be talking about him.
      1. 

         hahostolze (@hahostolze)
         25th November 2018, 15:08

         Only because of Leclerc’s bad strategy though. And Hulk’s accident. But yeah, good margin.

         The track is too off-camber. It has some good corners for setting up overtaking, but it’s all DRS assisted. Only seen a few today that weren’t, and most of those had wheels touching. If the corners were to be more on camber, there would be two fast lines instead of one. That alone would negate some of the issues we have in terms of following. But sadly, Tilke means off camber.
         1. 

            Dom (@3dom)
            25th November 2018, 16:03

            The track is too off-camber. It has some good corners for setting up overtaking, but it’s all DRS assisted

            Completely agree here @hahostolze I know the theory behind having an off camber corner is to induce the potential for drivers to make mistakes in terms of the lines they take, but in the end we rarely see this happening, it makes the cars look slow and actually serves to increase the penalty for the following car
   2. 

      BasCB (@bascb)
      25th November 2018, 15:20

      That battle got ruined not by “traffic” in general @hohostolze, but really it was an STR with a broken engine not immediately moving out of the way that strung the distances out. And Verstappen than having oil all over his helmet only made that worse off course.
   3. 

      krxx
      26th November 2018, 5:57

      Nonsense. VER was 1.6s behind VET prior to VET overtaking BOT. Then when VER cleared BOT, the gap was 5.2s. 11 laps later, when all backmarkers were cleared, the gap was 3.8s. Then, with 6 laps to go, VET blasted away from VER crossing the line 10.1s sooner. RIC, after getting ‘the treatment’ by his team, was faster than VER and may have been a threat to VET, couldn’t pass at this track, kept the gap to VER at about 1.5 – 2.0s, easing off a bit at the end.

      And LOL, VER-FBoys immediately jumping at his comment regarding “oil on his helmet”. The lapping of GAS costed him, and therefore RIC, at most, 0.3s.

      The “distance” was created by VET being much quicker then VER, don’t have to blame it on backmarkers or LOL, oil on one’s helmet.

      Ziggoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
      1. 

         Esploratore (@esploratore)
         26th November 2018, 7:09

         He says there was oil on the helmet after, and that it was like driving in the fog, so it’s not about the 0,3 immediate seconds, but the aftermath.
         1. 

            krxx
            27th November 2018, 13:06

            @esploratore
            Hahostolze (general) and bascb (GAS and his oil) claimed traffic was responsible for the gap between VET and VER-RIC getting bigger, but that’s not true. VER still did reasonably fast laps, the oil didn’t affect his pace. Nor did the traffic in general. The fact that VER lost more time behind BOT than VET did and even more so, the pace that VET still had were the reason why the gap got so big.
2. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   25th November 2018, 14:56

   Not the greatest race ever, but not too bad for this venue’s standards.
   1. 

      Phylyp (@phylyp)
      25th November 2018, 14:58

      +1, echoes my feelings exactly @jerejj
   2. 

      Aldoid
      25th November 2018, 15:21

      Yeah, I gotta agree with that. This track isn’t exactly renowned for producing great, action packed races. Today was pretty good, all things considered.
3. 

   glynh (@glynh)
   25th November 2018, 14:58

   9. A great race to finish on with great overtaking, defending and racing and of course crashes and unpredictability with failures. If there was a bit more action at the end it would have been perfect.

   Nice to see the next generation doing well to and a nice send off for Alons.
   1. 

      Tristan (@skipgamer)
      25th November 2018, 14:58

      If that’s a 9 then you have pretty low standards…
      1. 

         glynh (@glynh)
         25th November 2018, 15:06

         No. I just enjoy close racing which that had plenty of and until the half way point I had no idea who would win. What more could I want?
   2. 

      David BR (@david-br)
      25th November 2018, 15:16

      @glynh 8 including overall entertainment value, aside from good racing in the first half, it was a great race to watch with Alonso ‘leaving’ (until 2020 anyhow), Ricciardo leaving Red Bull, Will Smith trying to use a track-side camera (come on, that’s entertainingly daft!) and plenty of other stuff. Let down a bit by Red Bull’s big challenge fizzling out, but really not bad for Abu Dhabi on a dead rubber.
      1. 

         glynh (@glynh)
         25th November 2018, 15:22

         @david-br Agreed, Abu Dhabi does put on a good show away from the racing. Growing up watching Will Smith I enjoyed him being shown but I imagine there would be some people not so impressed, like I usually am seeing random celebrities.
   3. 

      ColdFly (@)
      26th November 2018, 0:08

      Agree. This was actually a really good race.
      1. 

         ColdFly (@)
         26th November 2018, 0:10

         And for those moaning about nothing happening, and missing a Ferrari and the Red Bulls racing past a Mercedes, please just look at F1.5. This was a very exciting race with lots of action.
         1. 

            Tristan (@skipgamer)
            26th November 2018, 0:38

            I didn’t bother with timing screens… How can we look at 1.5 when the cameras never show it?
4. 

   Tristan (@skipgamer)
   25th November 2018, 14:58

   4/10 Much like the rest of the season. Faster tyres at the end of the race mean nothing, hoping for rain or a safety car to mix things up that didn’t come, and ultimately a boring race…

   Really looking forward to next year, hoping Brawns aero changes have the intended effect.
   1. 

      Phylyp (@phylyp)
      25th November 2018, 14:59

      Really looking forward to next year, hoping Brawns aero changes have the intended effect.

      @skipgamer – absolutely, fingers crossed for this.
   2. 

      Dom (@3dom)
      25th November 2018, 16:08

      I’m assuming that Red Bull ran out of Hyper soft tyres for Ricciardo, because he would have been blindly quick at the end of the race with a lighter car on hypers I thought they’d run an extra 6 laps or so and then unleash him on hypers
      1. 

         krxx
         25th November 2018, 17:11

         But why would you assume that @3dom, if it is actually known that that isn’t the case? He had fresher Hypers than VER waiting for him.
         1. 

            Esploratore (@esploratore)
            26th November 2018, 7:11

            Bad strategy then, I remember thinking it was a wrong call to get supersofts, he could’ve got his final podium with hypers!
            1. 

               krxx
               27th November 2018, 14:22

               Indeed bad strategy (though it would’ve been even better pitting him before L24 on supers, than getting him out on hypers for the last 14-21 laps), seen from the perspective of RIC. Not so from the perspective of VER. And guess who figures those strategies out?
               @esploratore
5. 

   joe jopling (@jop452)
   25th November 2018, 15:05

   Considering how boring this track can be…it was worth an 8 from me.
   Max seems unable to pass without pushing cars off…and the stewards never notice.
   Bottas should have his contract terminated now and bring Ocon in…nice guys are not race winners…..and we almost saw a driver badly burned…as he could not exit with the halo….I suppose no one will notice how dangerous the halo can be.
   Good battles throughout the field…its been a good season
   1. 

      JK
      25th November 2018, 15:14

      Almost burned….yeah right.
   2. 

      StefMeister (@stefmeister)
      25th November 2018, 15:17

      @jop452

      we almost saw a driver badly burned

      No we didn’t. It was a small bit of oil that created a very brief flash fire in the exhaust that put itself out almost immediately as the oil burnt off.

      I don’t don’t think him been unable to get out was due to the Halo. I think it was just the angle the car was sitting at (Like with Wehrlein at Monaco last year) due to the back end been raised by the barrier & that even without the Halo he wouldn’t have been able to get out. If anything the halo kept the car up slightly higher than it would have without it & he’d have had less room to get out had the halo not been there.
      1. 

         joe jopling (@jop452)
         25th November 2018, 15:32

         The remark we almost saw a driver badly burned…was in relation to the fact that yes there was just a flash of fire…but should there had been more…he would have got badly burned..as he was unable to get out owing to the angle of the crashed car against the wall…(possibly a smaller driver may have been able to crawl through the gap, but Hulk is one of the tallest)…and the fact the Marshalls were not the quickest..although they would probably have not been able to get close in a fire….I still think the halo will cause a problem at some point in the future….interesting to see what if anything is said
      2. 

         MacLeod (@macleod)
         25th November 2018, 16:24

         Still Nico was trapped and the panic was hearable in his voice. I think there must a chance in design because that way the driver is trapped.
   3. 

      Dom (@3dom)
      25th November 2018, 16:17

      Considering how boring this track can be…it was worth an 8 from me

      Risking sounding like a killjoy here, but I don’t think that tracks should be given special dispensation and a better score because they’re usually boring. If everyone did that then we’d hardly be able to see overall how people feel about the on track action on different weekends
6. 

   budchekov (@budchekov)
   25th November 2018, 15:08

   6 for the ‘race’, 9 for the Donuts….
   Nice to see the guys having fun !
   @Are Will Smith’s rear view mirrors legal ?
   1. 

      Dom (@3dom)
      25th November 2018, 16:10

      HAM, VET and ALO doing donuts together was so fun to watch @budchekov 😃
7. 

   Jay Menon (@jaymenon10)
   25th November 2018, 15:16

   The tyres are really killing potential action on track.. Verstappen and Ric didn’t push at the end, it was obvious they were just nursing tyres. Ric probably took too much out of his when reeled Max in after his stop.
   1. 

      StefMeister (@stefmeister)
      25th November 2018, 15:19

      @jaymenon10 Agree. I was watching some on the OnBoards on Sky throughout the race & it was like they were all doing slow parade laps until the last 2-3 laps.
8. 

   KaIIe (@kaiie)
   25th November 2018, 15:26

   Surprisingly good by Abu Dhabi standards, but eventually none of the excitement materialised, making this another thoroughly forgettable cruise around this rather sorry excuse for a track.

   While the race again highlighted all the problems F1 has, like the division between F1 and F1.5 (again it did not matter one bit that Verstappen dropped to P11 at the start), the constant saving of tyres (Vettel suddenly lapping 2 seconds quicker than before), cars being unable to follow each other closely, there might be some hope for next year, as the top three teams are actually rather close to each other in performance.
   1. 

      Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
      25th November 2018, 18:19

      This pretty much sums up exactly what I thought.

      There was quite a lot of build up to what could have been a grandstand finish but in the end it did not materialise. Towards the end all the leading cars just held station with each other.

      7/10 but this is quite a good mark for Abu Dhabi.
9. 

   Michal (@michal2009b)
   25th November 2018, 15:44

   6/10. The opening laps were promising and there was some good racing in the midfield. However, it turned into a procession at the front apart from typical Bottas slump. Still, arguably third best race in Abu Dhabi after 2012 and 2016.
10. 

    schooner (@schooner)
    25th November 2018, 15:48

    Pity they kept interrupting the Will Smith show with an F1 race. ;)
11. 

    budchekov (@budchekov)
    25th November 2018, 15:57

    He brings Vulcan technology to the team ;)
12. 

    Neil (@neilosjames)
    25th November 2018, 15:57

    I accidentally voted 5 but it probably deserved a 7/8 or so. The period where everyone was having a go at Bottas was decent despite the overall front-end battle falling a little flat, and there was quite a bit of action in the midfield – Vandoorne/Grosjean/Perez scrap was a good one, and it was nice to see Vandoorne doing some quality defence in what was probably his last race. Also good to see Hartley do the best overtake I can remember seeing from him in his own last race (probably).

    The post-race stuff was great to see too.
    1. 

       krxx
       25th November 2018, 17:35

       Probably meant Ocon instead of Perez.
13. 

    bosyber (@bosyber)
    25th November 2018, 16:05

    I gave it a 7/10, I guess for Abu Dhabi (without a WDC on the line), it was quite a good race, but once again, it seemed the distances, at least at the head of the race, were a bit too big near the end for anything to really happen; some odd strategies, but that lead to some more movement so not so bad.

    To those saying it’s the fault of the tyres: no, I really don’t think so, if one could overtake a bit, then somebody could have tried going for a 2-stopper with faster tyres (ocon might have profited – before his dnf – from going on to faster tyres, maybe Leclerc too, when he saw the initial early stop didn’t really pan out great). So, I hope that those changes for next year are a (slight?) positive effect for racing.

    Not a bad end of the year, liked the triple champion doughnuts on the straights.
14. 

    Dave
    25th November 2018, 19:39

    At least it had more overtakes than last year’s race.
15. 

    Maximilian (@maximilian)
    25th November 2018, 20:24

    Vandoorne’s double pass on lap 31 is enough to rate this one a seven.
16. 

    Esploratore (@esploratore)
    26th November 2018, 7:08

    Was undecided between 7 and 8, there was a lot of action at some point but also some long boring periods, eventually went with 7, which is what majority picked as well.

    A relatively good race for abu dhabi, just look at 2017 if you want an idea of what I was expecting before this race started!

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