The Finishing Straight - Abu Dhabi (by HappyDude88)

THIS will be the final edition of ‘The Finishing Straight,’ as I will be doing a comprehensive review of the 2011 Formula One season after next week’s Brazilian Grand Prix.

        The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was a race that provided the fans with some much-needed overtaking, but questions have been raised about the DRS (Drag Reduction System) and its worth following Sunday’s race.  All of the passing on Sunday was done artificially and for the sport, it isn’t a good thing.  On that sense, I would agree with Jacques Villeneuve and Eddie Irvine when they have already admitted how bored they’ve been with artificial passing this season.  However, what choice do you have on a circuit which is one of the dreariest on the current calendar?  I’d rather watch a procession around Imola than another event in Abu Dhabi.  The facilities are top class and probably the best in the business but the track is very second-rate.  Once again, Hermann Tilke’s race circuits let the audience down and configuration changes will be required to ever make a classic Grand Prix here.  We have to put up with Valencia every season being a snooze fest and no-one wants to see another example again.  It is shame to give the circuit the thumbs down, especially when you think of the spectacular twilight setting in Abu Dhabi.

SPECIAL: Setting is brilliant, but the racetrack is not great

        I’ve been a fan of DRS this season and it has at least made overtaking more possible on a number of circuits.  It has been a case of trial and error this season, which was always expected in its debut campaign.  We saw the device being used far too easily in Istanbul and Spa, yet it was still difficult to overtake in Melbourne, Barcelona and Monza.  DRS is part of F1’s bright future and I wouldn’t scrap it, but we need to make it the right spectacle for the fans and give the drivers a chance to defend their position without feeling the need to give it up without a fight.  Abu Dhabi was okay last weekend, because at least the artificial element meant it wasn’t a follow-the-leader event, but for the sport, we can’t have many races like this otherwise the predictability effect creeps in again.

        It has been well documented that Lewis Hamilton has had a tough 2011 season, both on and off the track.  However, Abu Dhabi showed signs that he was coming back to his best.  In India, he looked distracted all weekend as the speculation over his doomed romance with Nicole Scherzinger took centre stage.  The performance he gave on Sunday reminded us of why Lewis is world class and still on his day, one of the best drivers in the business.  Despite his rough times, he still has at least matched Jenson Button’s win tally of three for the season and Mark Webber’s fourth place in the drivers’ championship now looks vulnerable, with Hamilton just six points behind.  It is often said that bouncing back quickly from disappointment is one of the strongest points in an individual.  Hamilton has done that and in commanding fashion and I truly hope that he can use his success on Sunday as a real stepping stone to a better 2012 campaign.

LIMPING: Vettel tours home after his sudden tyre failure

       For once, Sebastian Vettel got a dose of bad luck at the weekend.  A sudden puncture on the second corner of the race ended his hopes of matching Michael Schumacher’s record for wins in a season.  By his incredibly high standards, Sebastian had a very scrappy weekend.  He crashed on Friday and looked unhappy with the car throughout practice.  As expected, he produced the perfect lap to earn another pole position in qualifying, but I never believed he would win on Sunday, especially when you consider how invincible he has been at Silverstone and Suzuka in the past and been beaten fair and square this season.  The cause of the puncture doesn’t look like it will be revealed, although my theory is low tyre pressure.  I’m only saying this, as Red Bull had significant problems with tyres in the early stages of the Belgian Grand Prix, with tyres close to structural failure too.  At least he saved his bad luck for when both championships had been sewn up.

        Race stewards have returned to their bad 2008 ways this season.  Why did Bruno Senna get a drive-through penalty for ignoring blue flags?  I never saw any evidence of this on the worldwide feed.  Perhaps he did, but if the evidence doesn’t come through our TV screens, no wonders why the normal fan would have a quizzical look on their faces.  Senna’s penalty seems harsh but the stewards didn’t come down hard enough on Pastor Maldonado.  Maldonado picked up a similar penalty and it was deserved, only for the clueless Venezuelan to then battle Jaime Alguesuari when the leaders were lapping the pair.  Not only that, he blocked Mark Webber and when Webber rightfully showed his displeasure, Maldonado was stupid enough to run side-by-side with the Red Bull in an episode almost as distasteful as his attempt to drive Hamilton into the wall during Belgian GP qualifying.  Generally, he has done well in a rubbish motorcar and has put Rubens Barrichello in the shade more often than not, but Maldonado has more lapses than anyone on the grid.  He needs to sort himself out; otherwise it could lead to a more dangerous occurrence in the future.  I’m sorry but his behaviour at the weekend deserved a black flag, get out of the car you naughty boy and head for the airport with your head held in shame.  A 25-second penalty added to his race time is a peanuts penalty.  Jean Todt has done so well in his FIA role, but giving the stewards more option to penalise those regular offenders with black flags and race bans has to be a priority for future.  It is the only way to teach lessons into some of these drivers.

         Vitaly Petrov was the hero of the Red Bull pits last year, when his valiant defence of Fernando Alonso denied the Spaniard the world championship.  This season started so well for the Russian, with a wonderful podium finish in Australia but his campaign has gone downhill rapidly since.  In Abu Dhabi, he toured home in a distant 13^th and then launched a sensational outburst at his Renault team on Russian television, criticising them for a severe lack of development and dismal race strategies which have left him and his team-mate Bruno Senna, fighting too many losing battles.  Petrov has since apologised to the staff and Eric Bouillier has drawn a line under the matter, but he needs to control his drivers.  I understand Vitaly’s frustrations, but having a quiet word with Bouillier would have been better.  Speaking to the media like that doesn’t do any favours and it could throw his future with the team into doubt.  GP2 champion Romain Grosjean looked very competitive in Friday practice, Senna has kept him honest and of course, there’s the Robert Kubica factor.  Renault has more drivers than a job agency and errors in judgement like this from Petrov will not help his future prospects.  Wonder what Bouillier would have done if Nick Heidfeld had said this?  Sacked him would be the answer, oh wait, he did that earlier in the season. 

MOVING: Daniel Ricciardo continues to outperform Liuzzi

       The form of Daniel Ricciardo at the underfunded Hispania racing team has not gone unnoticed.  He is now outperforming Vitantonio Liuzzi on a regular basis and now it looks like he will be rewarded with a Toro Rosso drive next season.  This was a smart move by Dietrich Materschitz to place one of his promising youngsters in a new team to help develop his maturity and experience.  This news though means that Sebastian Buemi and Jaime Alguesuari might now be fighting for one seat in that team, which would be a tough break for both.  Buemi retired at the weekend with hydraulic problems.  It is his third retirement in the last four events, but all have been mechanical reasons and have cost the Swiss driver points in all of them.  Both Buemi and Alguesuari deserve another go at Toro Rosso next season, but it looks like one will be the unlucky loser and I fear for Buemi’s career, as he has been at the team longer and is older than his Spanish team-mate.  Formula One is a tough business and that is about to be proven again.  If Rubens Barrichello remarkably ends up staying on at Williams, both Adrian Sutil and Buemi, two very talented and solid Grand Prix drivers could be left in the wilderness.  It will be a tougher break for Sutil, considering he is staring at a top ten finish in the drivers’ championship, has outqualified Paul di Resta five times in seven races and picked up 60 per cent of Force India’s points.  Throw in Nico Hulkenberg into the mix, plus Grosjean, Senna and the possibility of Kimi Raikkonen returning to the F1 paddock and there will be some very disappointed and frustrated racers who won’t be on the grid come Melbourne next March.

         Driver of the day in Abu Dhabi was Fernando Alonso.  Hamilton may have won and is Driver of the Weekend, but Alonso’s performance on Sunday was sensational.  On Friday, the Ferrari was struggling to stay in a straight-line, let alone get around corners!  So, once again, Alonso surprised no-one, expect maybe himself with a gritty, fighting challenge to Hamilton and McLaren’s package superiority.  In that sense, it is a shame Vettel did retire, because it did deprive us of a classic three way scrap for the victory.  Perhaps Brazil will give us that chance next weekend.