In the round-up: Ferrari didn’t tell Charles Leclerc he was under investigation for a potential fuel violation before the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix started.
What they say
The news that the number 16 car had been found potentially in breach of the regulations broke three-quarters of an hour before the race started, but Ferrari decided against warning their driver, Leclerc revealed immediately after the race:
No, I was not aware. I had to focus on driving, which I did. And I understand [why], to be honest. I’ve got no idea what the issues are. I will go to speak with the team. I don’t know.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
What I love about social media are the public heartwarming goodbye messages of F1 teams to the driver they dropped.
— Giedo van der Garde (@GvanderGarde) December 1, 2019
Not to be a downer but, last @f1 race of the season was a pretty bad show IMO. The moment DRS got activated not one real overtake happened, confirming once more my dislike for such thing. And Yas Marina circuit seems everything but exciting to drive?.
— Oriol Servia (@OriolServia) December 1, 2019
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
More motor racing links of interest:
Charles ends the season on the podium (Ferrari)
Mattia Binotto: "As for Sebastian, he struggled a bit in the early stages as he could not use DRS, when his soft tyres should have given him an advantage. After that he did all he could to finish in the points."
Robert Kubica: "On lap one with George we touched at turn five and then later on with Giovinazzi, we touched quite heavily. I damaged the right-hand side of the floor quite a lot, so the last 35 laps were very difficult."
Checo finishes as best of the rest in Abu Dhabi (Racing Point)
Lance Stroll: "I had contact on the first lap with Gasly and had to pit because of the damage to my front wing. After that, we were out of position, running down the order, and it was really hard to get back into contention. We explored the strategy options and I stopped twice, but when you lose so much time early on by changing the front wing, it’s difficult to recover."
Kevin Magnussen: "I made a really good start again, my first lap was good. Unfortunately, from there we didn’t really have the pace that everyone else had, and I lost those places eventually. We fought as hard as we could. I’m happy with how the team’s been performing, in races like this it’s very tough, mentally, to stay on it, and keep extracting things from it when things have been bad."
Frederic Vasseur: "We bring this season to an end with a challenging race, but we won’t let this overshadow the good work we did this year. After yesterday’s qualifying we split the cars’ strategies to maximise the chances of a good result, but in the end the circumstances didn’t play in our favour."
Alan Permane: "One time in Silverstone in 2017 when he had been telling us about a particular handling characteristic of the R.S.17 – he wanted to carry more speed into the corners and felt the downforce was dropping off just where he needed it most. We developed a new floor to help with this and finally got one in time for the British Grand Prix. He didn’t say anything for a while on the radio and then finally keyed up. He said: ‘I haven’t said anything but if you could see my face, you’d see there was a massive smile on it!’ It kind of sums him up: when he’s got something to say, it’s always worth listening."
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Comment of the day
It’s not just Carlos Sainz Jnr who’s unhappy with the coverage of yesterday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix:
Once again the quality of today’s entertainment was significantly reduced by a rubbish programme direction. If I can sit at home and realise that they are focusing on the wrong action at the wrong time then they should be able to too, seeing as they are the professional. Race after race, this happens multiple times.
Will he get out of the pits before or after the competitor? Ooh, it’s gonna be tight! Nah, instead, show me an identical replay of a pit stop that I just watched.
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DB-C90 (@dbradock)
2nd December 2019, 5:02
It wasn’t really Charles that was under investigation though was it. It was his car and Ferrari as a team that was being investigated and frankly there was absolutely no reason to wait until after the race.
Charles didn’t fuel the car and I’m pretty sure doesn’t do the paperwork either.
The whole thing should have been done and dusted while the race was on.
allstargp
2nd December 2019, 16:07
There’s only downside in giving this information to him. At best, he’s going to say “oh well, whatever.” At worst he’s going to get frustrated and lose his concentration.
It wasn’t essential information for him to drive with and he couldn’t do anything about it anyway so why bother telling him something with no upside?
UNeedAFinn2Win (@uneedafinn2win)
2nd December 2019, 5:58
That’s it, Ladies and Gentlemen. A long season with a few highlights, and a lot of mediocrity and predictability.
I will now take a break until the Rolex24 from the world of motorsport in general and wish a happy holidays to all, regardless. Remember to support your local series, clubs and tracks.
erikje
2nd December 2019, 16:18
Strange reaction.. 2019 turned out to be one of the best seasons after the french GP.
Before that is was predictable but entertaining.
Great season with a somewhat dull ending partly due to the bad director.
Maisch (@maisch)
2nd December 2019, 7:14
Agree with the COTD, its has been the same every year. They rather show the leading car driving around all by itself than and missing great fights in the midfield.
Jere (@jerejj)
2nd December 2019, 8:09
Regarding Gio de van der Garde’s and Oriol Servia’s tweets, respectively:
While that type of respect is appreciative, it shouldn’t have an impact on the DOTD-choice(s), which should be a ‘solely’ race-based choice, rather than a popularity-based one.
I don’t really agree with the following tweet: Yes, while there wasn’t a direct on-track battle for the race win, there were several battles for a position further down the field, and ‘real’ overtakes still happened after DRS finally became available. You can’t really define a ‘real’ passing move anyway. I also find the Yas Marina Circuit relatively enjoyable to drive. Yes, it could be a bit more flowing and definitely isn’t on a level with the likes of Spa, Suzuka, Monza, or Silverstone on that front, but quite enjoyable nevertheless.
As for the COTD: Yes, the live-world feed footage should focus more on the parts of the field with at least two drivers close together than on a lonely race-leader. Not showing Checo’s move on Norris nor Sainz’s move on Hulk, and Ricciardo’s on his teammate shortly after was justifiable, though, as it’s a standard procedure to show the race-leader and eventual winner crossing the timing line/passing the chequered flag when that happens.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
2nd December 2019, 8:28
I sympathize with your viewpoint, and agree that the DOTD should go to the best driver on a Sunday.
That said, I don’t mind redditors and other social media folks making the official F1 DOTD into a bit of a joke, simply because – in my eyes – it is a bit of a joke in its current state.
Voting closes the moment the race ends. At which point, those of us who don’t have access to F1TV (by choice or by design) only have knowledge of what the TV director elected to show us, and a leaderboard, to determine how we cast our vote.
You can see how this can result in a deserving driver being missed out. On the other hand, if you look at the information one has post-race (highlights reel, charts, graphs and data from RaceFans to show drivers performances, etc.) one might realize that there was an invisible star who probably did a great job given the car he had, but was overlooked at the rush of the chequered flag.
It is for that reason I prefer looking at RaceFans’ DOTW, especially the comments where people explain why they chose an unusual choice. It might be interesting to see if RF conducts a DOTD themselves, to see how much it diverges from the F1 DOTD.
KaIIe (@kaiie)
2nd December 2019, 12:15
COTD: Yup. One of the most frustrating things yesterday was (again) watching how McLaren and Renault swapped positions multiple times on the leaderboard on the left, but the pictures focused on something completely different, usually a car running alone. Many times we also saw a pit stop, and followed the car until it was halfway out of the pits, and then cut to something different. I would really like to hear the director’s reasoning for these kind of choices that seemingly detract the audience’s enjoyment overall, as well as, if you take the “what is the story of this race, or this moment” approach, do not follow the thing happening on screen until it has reached some kind of conclusion. Argh!
erikje
2nd December 2019, 16:20
but but.. we have seen the child of Kimi (again)
Thats important it seems…
for Americans?
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
3rd December 2019, 12:27
Directing was useless. Servia don’t say that sky sports f1 will censor you soon.