Testmagazin für Maria

RA
RACE ANALYSIS
Finals
1
Before the Abu Dhabi GP, the fear of many observers was
that we would end up with a dull conclusion to the 2016
World Championship, possibly with the outcome being
decided with a first corner drama or early retirement for
Lewis Hamilton.
In the event the destiny of the title was not settled until
the chequered flag flew, and Nico Rosberg crossed the line
with just enough points to secure the title.
Along the way, we had one of the most intriguing battles
we have seen for a while, with Hamilton slowing down his
teammate in controversial style. The Mercedes drivers were
in turn being chased down by Sebastian Vettel and Max
Verstappen, with both men running different strategies
that converged with the top four crossing the line just 1.685
seconds apart.
HAMILTON SLOW FROM THE START
We didn’t really know it at the time, but from the very early
laps Mercedes sensed that Hamilton was not driving to the
full potential of the W07 package. And that’s why we had
the unusual sight of the race leader kicking off the pitstops
when he came in after just seven laps, when third placed
Kimi Raikkonen was just 3s behind him, and only 1.7s
off Rosberg.
“If we had pulled more of a gap, we would have stayed
out longer,” said Lowe.
“But the risk there is that there is a very strong undercut
on the soft, and with the gaps we had we couldn’t risk
others pre-empting that stop, so as soon as we had clear
traffic behind, we went for it.
Lewis
goes rogue,
Nico
holds on
Lewis Hamilton used
road position to try
and engineer himself
a title in Abu Dhabi,
despite pleas from
the pitwall not to do
so. In the end it didn’t
work, Nico Rosberg
triumphing in a thrilling
World Championship
showdown.
MERCEDES LAYS DOWN THE LAW
Everything went to plan for Mercedes, in qualifying at
least, when Hamilton and Rosberg duly secured the front
row spots.
Even before the weekend Red Bull boss Christian Horner
stirred the pot when he suggested that Lewis should back
Nico up and make him vulnerable to being passed by those
behind. Mercedes was well aware that such a scenario could
unfold, and it was discussed within the camp beforehand.
To the media Wolff said that he expected
“sportsmanlike” behaviour from both men.
There was plenty of other stuff for Mercedes to worry
about it, not least the nightmare scenario of a mechanical
problem hitting one or the other driver, and determining
the direction of the World Championship.
“It was a tense time,” Paddy Lowe told GP Gazette.
“The team have done a fantastic job in the previous 20
races. On one level we were comforted by the thought that
we have all the procedures in place, we have all the that
we’ve achieved to make our engineering and operations
more and more reliable, and that will sustain as through
the day.
“What we wanted was good starts, a clean Turn 1, two
cars home, and ideally a one and two finish. And we got all
of those things...”
But as we saw, it was a far from stress-free Sunday
evening for Mercedes. As Lowe says, the start and first
corner were clean, and one potential threat seemed to
be neutralised when Max Verstappen spun to the rear
of the field.
Both the Dutchman and teammate Daniel Ricciardo
had qualified in Q2 on supersofts rather than ultrasofts as
once again RBR attempted to put pressure on Mercedes by
following a different path. However, despite dropping to
the back, Verstappen was far from out of the picture...
It’s quite rare for us not to
have any lead at that point
in the race. There didn’t
seem to be as much pace as
we’d hoped for, let’s say, at
that stage…”
Lewis lost a little time in the stop as he had to wait for
Raikkonen to pass by in the pitlane, and then exactly the
same happened with Rosberg and Vettel when they came
in a lap later. To most people’s surprise Ricciardo gave up
any advantage he might have had with a long stint on the
supersofts by pitting after just nine laps, in part because
he’d locked up on the first lap which made a long stint
somewhat less desirable.
The wildcard at this stage was Verstappen. Despite his
tyre-smoking spin on Lap 1, he was able to slice though
the field and stay out for what turned into a one-stop
strategy. And the intriguing aspect was that not having
pitted, he found himself in second place, splitting the two
Mercedes drivers.
2
ADAM COOPER
1. Lewis Hamilton made
sure Nico Rosberg
didn’t get lonely in the
closing stages of the
race.
LAT Photographic
2. Max Verstappen’s race
was complicated by
a first-lap spin.
LAT Photographic
10 | GPGAZETTE
GPGAZETTE | 11