Ryan Malesevich

amateur runner, technology enthusiast, and friend to all dogs

2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Recap

08 December 2024

Twenty-four races is a lot. It’s been an exhausting season as a fan, I can only imagine what it must feel like for the drivers, the engineers, and the entire teams to fight the travel and stress to put together a hell of a show. It seems to have come to a head this week as everything leading up to the last race of 2024 was the George Russell and Max Verstappen fighting. From an outside perspective, I don’t think there are any saints amongst the two but I have to chalk a lot of that up to the long season. On one hand I’m relieved it’s done, but I know in January I’m going to start getting that itch again.

I had written some Formula 1 predictions for 2024 that was posted on a different attempt of a blog. I’ll probably revisit that later in December and recount all the driver moves because it was great to hear about the driver’s appreciation of the teams but I was sad for some of them.

For now, let’s recap the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Qualifying

I missed watching Qualifying live as I was at Flyball practice with Ripley. By the time I got to watch the recap I was multi-tasking with a new project that I’ll be writing about shortly. Despite my lack of total attention, I still have grown to appreciate Qualifying. The strategy of who goes out first and the attempts to get a good first lap are important in case of track limits or red flags. Anything could happen, which is one of the fun things about Formula 1.

  • Q1
    • Track limits are going to be brought up a bunch. Checo was flagged and had his lap deleted. He was adament he was fine. The team gave him new tires to go again when the race directors reinstated the original lap. How did he know? He wasn’t happy to waste the tire set.
    • Lewis Hamilton gets really unlucky and gets knocked out. It looks like Magnussen got out of the way and hit a pylon that flew back into the track right in the path of Lewis.
    • Gasly is looking strong in the Alpine. Jack Doohan is making his debut and since he inherited Ocon’s car, I’m not surprised he was knocked out.
    • Valtteri Bottas gets into Q2!
    • OUT: Alex Albon, Zhou Guanyu, Lewis Hamilton, Franco Colapinto, Jack Doohan
  • Q2
    • The session was delayed a little bit while George Russell was investigated for impeding Liam Lawson. It looks like there wasn’t any further action. I’m fine with the call but it was strange that he said he didn’t want to be dinged for track limits, but I don’t think he was on a push lap at the time so it shouldn’t have mattered.
    • Charles Leclerc does a monster lap but it was deleted for track limits. With his impending penalty for component changes it’s not looking good for Ferrari.
    • Valtteri Bottas gets out of Q2 into Q3! The commentators were freaking out. I love to see that. He deserved more in what could possibly be his final season as a full-time Formula 1 driver.
    • OUT: Yuki Tsunoda, Liam Lawson, Lance Stroll, Charles Leclerc, Kevin Magnussen
  • Q3
    • I don’t know how Max didn’t spin or crash his car after his first push lap. He kept it on track and managed to set P1, though other drivers would top him.
    • At one point Nico Hulkenberg was on provisional pole. He did fall to P4, but at the time that had to feel good for Haas in the battle for P6 in the Constructors Championship.
    • McLaren goes 1-2 with Norris and Piastri. Sainz in P3, so Ferrari does have a chance but it’s pretty slim.
    • Bottas does outqualify Checo for P9.

After the session, several penalties were applied that modifies the starting grid. Nico Hulkenberg received a 3-place grid penalty for overtaking at the pit exit. Alex Albon gets a 5-place grid penalty for a late gearbox change. Charles Leclerc gets a 10-place grid penalty for energy store components. And Franco Colapinto gets a 5-place grid penalty for a late gearbox change. The bad news continues for Williams. With Nico falling back, it puts Pierre ahead of him. That’s good news for Alpine.

Here’s the official starting grid:

  1. Lando Norris (McLaren)
  2. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
  3. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
  4. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
  5. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
  6. George Russell (Mercedes)
  7. Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)
  8. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
  9. Valtteri Bottas (Kick Sauber)
  10. Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
  11. Yuki Tsunoda (RB)
  12. Liam Lawson (RB)
  13. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
  14. Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
  15. Zhou Guanyu (Kick Sauber)
  16. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
  17. Jack Doohan (Alpine)
  18. Alex Albon (Williams)
  19. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
  20. Franco Colapinto (Williams)

The Race

I’m always happy for a morning race in the United States but I was fighting some lingering issues from the aforementioned project. I again, did my best!

  • All cars are on Mediums to start except for Lewis Hamilton who is going on the Hards. It’s worth it to gamble if you’re starting P16.
  • The radio messages from the various drivers were great.
  • The start was a mess. Max Verstappen collides with Oscar Piastri. Max drops a number of grid spots but Piastri spun out. He was able to continue going. Max would receive a 10-second penalty for his involvement.
  • On lap 2, Bottas and Perez made contact. Perez spun out and eventually had to stop and DNF. A Virtual Safety Car was called.
  • At this point we got to see some of the impacts. I noticed that Leclerc was up to P8 from P19. With Piastri in the back, Sainz in P2, and Leclerc jumping in the order Ferrari would need something to happen for Lando. Unfortunately, for them, Lando raced a beautiful race from start to finish and efficiently takes the win which gives McLaren the Constructors Championship.
  • Williams had to retire Colapinto’s car.
  • Bottas gets a puncture and also has to retire the car.
  • Hamilton is on a mission. He eventually will pass his teammate to get into P4 on the last lap. Hell of a recovery from him.
  • Charles Leclerc goes up 16 places from P19 to P3.
  • Pierre Gasly finishes in P7 ahead of Hulkenberg in P6 and gives Alpine P6 in the Constructors Championship.
  • Liam Lawson was a late DNF. It looked like on his pitstop, they didn’t secure the left front tire all the way and he had to come back in. There was likely some lingering issues from that.
  • Oscar Piastri recovered nicely and sadly he did pass Alex Albon near the end to take away a point for the Williams team. I was hoping he could hold on with his older tires but there was no chance.
  • Kevin Magnussen had the fastest lap but since he did not finish in the top 10, no bonus point was awarded.

Here’s how everything finished:

  1. Lando Norris (+25)
  2. Carlos Sainz (+18)
  3. Charles Leclerc (+15)
  4. Lewis Hamilton (+12)
  5. George Russell (+10)
  6. Max Verstappen (+8)
  7. Pierre Gasly (+6)
  8. Nico Hulkenberg (+4)
  9. Fernando Alonso (+2)
  10. Oscar Piastri (+1)
  11. Alex Albon
  12. Lance Stroll
  13. Yuki Tsunoda
  14. Zhou Guanyu
  15. Jack Doohan
  16. Kevin Magnussen
  17. Liam Lawson (DNF)
  18. Valtteri Bottas (DNF)
  19. Franco Colapinto (DNF)
  20. Sergio Perez (DNF)

The Constructor’s Championship has now been settled. The order with the change from today is as follows:

  1. McLaren: 640 + 26 = 666
  2. Ferrari: 619 + 33 = 652
  3. Red Bull: 581 + 8 = 589
  4. Mercedes: 446 + 22 = 468
  5. Aston Martin: 92 + 2 = 94
  6. Alpine: 59 + 6 = 65
  7. Haas: 54 + 4 = 58
  8. RB: 46 + 0 = 46
  9. Williams: 17 + 0 = 17
  10. Kick Sauber: 4 + 0 = 4

formula 1