Hey Zoomies, we have made it to the final race of 2024, and we actually have something to watch for- the race between the McLaren and Ferrari drivers for the Constructor's Cup Championship! We can only hope after the messiness of last week's Qatar GP, the FIA has learned their lessons, and have this as a non-controversial race. Before we get to the final race, I've got to mention how dirty the Alpine team did to their driver, Esteban Ocon. Alpine announced on Monday that Ocon will NOT be racing in Abu-Dhabi, and have elected to put their reserve driver, Jack Doohan (who officially takes Ocon's seat in 2025) in Ocon's seat. Now Ocon has not been one of my favorite drivers, but to pull this on him (Ocon even had a special helmet made for what he thought was his last race with Alpine!), just seems petty and a tad mean-spirited. I guess I should mention here, that like all my posts, this is just my opinion!
Our last team/driver grid of 2024! This will look a lot different in 2025!
and the replacements (a new one added)
Colapinto for Sargent on Williams
Liam Lawson for Riccardo - RB Racing
Aussie Jack Doohan for Ocon- Alpine Racing.
Before wheels hit the asphalt, here is a pic of the drivers post team dinner! Which drivers are NOT pictured? Hmm...
What I have since discovered....at this actual table where they all sat at to drink, eat and be merry (code for gossip), MOST of the drivers sat with their teammates, but not Carlos and Lando (he was next to Oscar on one side). The scenario that my new friends on F1Threads have had me break my no rumors rule- I'm dropping unsubstantiated gossip! First, the background: Max and Georgie are STILL sniping at each other after last week's Qatar quali (Max actually telling the press that Georgie can go Eff Off!). I'm going with the rumor that before they all took their seats, Carlando decided to have Lando sit next to Max, and Carlos to sit next to Georgie to get the TEA on Max and Georgie! That is a post-dinner debriefing between Carlos and Lando I want to hear all the tea that was spilt! How many times did a sentence start with "GUURLL" and then ended with"GURRLL" has my imagination in running amok! I told ya F1 has as much drama as RuPaul Drag Race or Real Housewives franchises!
Let it be known my younger sister is really not into competitive sports, but has glanced over some of the columns I've written. So as a reward for her supporting her big bro, we won't be having Driver Eye Candy, but FURBALLS OF THE F1 PADDOCK! (I thank my older sister for being a fan of my writing of this sportsball/motorsports stuff...we got that gene!)
Breaking: Max has announced that he and his gal are are expecting a baby! Congrats! He already is a step-dad, and a cat daddy, so he has some practice here! The joke being that the gender reveal will be when Max nudges off a pink Alpine or a blue Williams! (turns out it was an orange car!) in the GP!
Furball Alert: The star Diva of the Paddock, Leo Leclerc! Living the good life!
This P1 practice has a lot of rookie/reserve drivers, including Charles Leclerc's brother Arthur racing, the first brother team of in the same season! They are: The other rookies featuring in the session include Ryo Hirakawa replacing Oscar Piastri for McLaren, Isack Hadjar replacing Verstappen at Red Bull, Felipe Drugovich replacing Lance Stroll with Aston Martin, Ayumu Iwasa replacing Yuki Tsunoda at RB and Luke Browning replacing Alex Albon for Williams. P1: 60 minutes. Clear skies, 80 degrees air temperature, winds not a factor. No real incidents other than rookie Browning getting a dreaded Black n White flag for impeding Red Bull's Hadjar on the track....TWICE!. But the HUGE news is that Ferrari's Charles Leclerc changed a battery during P1, thereby exceeding his limits and will get a 10 second grid PENALTY for the Grand Prix on Sunday! A big OUCH in terms of Ferrari catching McLaren for the Constructer's Cup! Very impressed that there were no collisions or crashes amongst the whippersnappers! P2: 60 minutes. Clear skies as the sun sets, 78 degrees at 5pm Abu Dhabi time. No rookies or reserve drivers (except for Lawson, Colapinto and Doohan). Williams Colapinto and Albon both got slapped with a 5 second penalty for the Grand Prix for upgrading their power unit. No incidents, but whoever is in possession of Colapinto's voodoo doll, at this point, you are working overtime, as Franco had to retire the car in this session due to damage to the car's floor.
P3: 60 minutes. 78 degrees, winds at 12 MPH. No incidents for this final practice session of 2024. I did hear a lot of talk about oversteer and rear tyres though!
Furball Alert: Our first cat entry belongs to Max (why am I not surprised?) Apparently James and Sassy got themselves in a tight squeeze- Cat Daddy Max to the rescue!
A note on how Qualifying works: There are three quick races to determine grid position for the GP race. First quali the last five drivers are cut, second quali again, last five drivers dropped, and 3rd and final quali determines the top ten on the grid and the ever important pole (1st) position. This also applies to the Sprint Qualis, you will just see me use SQ1 to show the difference.
Onto our last Qualifying of 2024! With that 10 grid place penalty for the GP, expect Ferrari's Leclerc to push hard to finish as high up as he can on the grid! (Teaser: He did!)
Q1: 18 minutes. Sun setting in Lusail as its 78 degrees and 65% humidity. The only incident was an odd one, as in the last seconds of Q1, Magnussen took out a bollard, which was bad news for the driver behind him, which was Lewis Hamilton, in his last race for Mercedes, had that bollard stuck underneath the front of his car and that cost him, as Lewis finished in the bottom five, along with Doohan, Coloapinto, Albon and Zhou.
Q2: 15 minutes. No incidents, BUT, Leclerc's last lap was DELETED for crossing over the white line on turn 1, and is in the bottom five of this second quali, along with Stroll, Magnussen, Lawson, and Tsunoda, which effectively, with that 10 place grid penalty from earlier, puts Leclerc in the back of the grid for Sunday's GP! Safe to say Charles is NOT having a great last race weekend so far! (and he got food poisoning as well earlier in the week!)
Q3: 12 minutes. This for pole position and top ten grid placement. It was an exciting quali, as several drivers flirted with the pole position, but in the end, it was a McLaren lockout in front, with Lando taking pole, and Oscar in 2nd! Sainz gets Ferrari in 3rd, while Haas Nico Hulkenberg, who has has a great weekend so far, comes in 4th, Max comes in 5th (breaking a string of four poles in a row at Abu Dhabi), Gasly in 6th for Alpine, Russell 7th for Mercedes, Alonso 8th for for Aston-Martin, Bottas 9th for Sauber (!!!), and Perez in10th for Red Bull. Once the math is all done regarding the penalties, I'll have the proper track positions for the Grand Prix tomorrow! Now it's time for brunch!
Furball Alert: Next up we have Williams Racing's Alex Albon's cat giving Alex advice on how to NOT crash a car on an overtake!
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix! This is it. The final race of of the 2024 season, as almost 4 miles a lap for 58 laps will determine not only the winner of this race, but the winner of the Constructer's (team) Cup! First update we have is that Hulkenberg was slapped with a three grid drop from 4th to 7th for safety violation in Abu Dhabi's unique pit lane tunnel...there are to be NO OVERTAKES in that tunnel unless a car failure in front, and Nico broke that rule! For clarity, after penalties applied, Colapinto in 20th, Leclerc in 19th, Albon in 18th. Lewis is in 16th, after his rough quali. We gonna have a race from the back, that's for sure! Besides what's at stake today, we have some emotional changes besides the winner of the Constructors Cup between Ferrari and McClaren: Lewis' last race for Mercedes before he moves to Ferrari, Carlos last race for Ferrari before he moves to Williams, Hulkenberg's last race with Haas before he moves to Sauber's new name, Audi, and Zhou and Bottas leaving Sauber with no seats available for 2025, and Kevin Magnussen's last race for F1. Also, not confirmed, but good possibility that Red Bull will release Perez from his contract, and that seat could go to one of the RB drivers, Yuki or Liam! There are couple of other achievement notes I will HOPEFULLY add at the end of the race. Other than Lewis on Hard tyres, all teams starting on Medium tyres. For the final time in 2024, it's LIGHTS OUT, and Lando jumps out into the lead, but Max and Oscar bang up against one another, with Oscar off the track, and Max doing a 360 spin, but continues on; Perez finds himself bumped off the track by Bottas, and we have out first Virtual Safety Car at the start of Lap 2! Leclerc has moved from 19th to 8th, so this early start has not gone well for McLaren, and very well for Ferrari. Mags moved up seven spots to 7th. Green flag up, racing on, and Oscar boxes to change tyres, seemingly no damage to the car, and comes out last. Red Bull notes: Max gets a 10 second PENALTY for his collision with Oscar, while Perez race and season is done, as his car is retired (DNF). Lando still in the lead.
Oscar bumps into Colapinto, forcing Franco to pit and change tyres, and the stewards have slapped Oscar with a 10 second PENALTY; Oscar is having a very rough start to this race! Lap 15 still has Norris in the lead by 3.5 seconds over Carlos, with Pierre in 3rd, Georgie in 4th, and Charles has now moved from his original start of 19th to now 5th on the grid! Pierre and Georgie in an entertaining scrap for 3rd place these last few laps! Charles has three track limits violations, a 4th triggers a penalty. Gasly pits, comes out 9th place, Charles now in 4th.
Zhou gets a 5 second PENALTY for a false start. Oscar up to 13th. Stroll gets the black and white flag for exceeding track limits and is slapped with a 5 second PENALTY.
Furball alert: We interrupt our Grand Prix coverage to give a live shot of Leo LeClerc dreaming of Daddy Charles overtaking at least 12 drivers on the grid to get into the top four!
Lap 21 finds Charles pitting to change to the Hard tyres, and comes back out on track in 8th. Lap 25 and RB makes a mistake in the pit on Liam Lawson's car, as the tyres aren't fitted properly! Liam comes back into the pit, for that adjustment, but that will be a 5 second PENALTY RB gets hit with from the stewards. Sainz also pits to change over to fresh hard tyres, and comes out 3rd; Norris also pits and has an excellent 2.0 pit stop change to the Hard tyres, and is able to come back out in first! Georgie pits, comes out in 7th on fresh Hard tyres, and overtakes Gasly for 6th. Williams has told Colapinto to box and retire the car so his brief season is over (where will he end up next season? He is basically a free agent!).
Lap 32, Mags and Bottas crashed into one another, Mags is able to continue racing, but Bottas is done for the race/season. Oscar pits to change tyres and serve his 10 second penalty, and comes out on track 15th. Lando still leads Carlos by 2.3 seconds, with Lewis and Charles in 3rd and 4th, Georgie, 5th. Max served his 10 second penalty as he changed to Hard tyres, and got rather snarky about it on the team radio for all the world to hear!
Lap 50, eight laps to go, and Lando is ahead by 6 seconds over Sainz, with the other Ferrari, Charles Leclerc, in 3rd, with Mercedes teammates duking it out for 4th. Max is in 6th, Gasly ahead of Hulkenberg (the other big race for points) in 7th. Oscar has moved up to 11th. Last lap finds Liam's car off the track and done (at least he made it to the final lap!).
Furball alert! Before we reveal the winner of the race and the Cup, the best pic that captures cat with his Cat Daddy, Fernando Alonso! Kitty's expression is probably the same expression drivers have on track who find themselves behind Alonso (Just ask Oscar P!)
And your race winner by 8 seconds is Lando Norris, who with the win and the points, secures the Constructor's Cup for the McLaren team, the first one for that team since 1998 (Lando and Oscar were not even born yet!)! The two Ferrari's, Sainz and Leclerc, come in 2nd and 3rd, gave it a good go for that Cup, but Lando ran a smart, well-paced race and managed his tyres well! Leclerc did an amazing job coming from the back of the grid to snag 3rd place, as did Hamilton, who snagged 4th place.
Your 2024 Abu-Dhabi GP podium! (McLaren Principal Zac Brown included!)
Notes: Two things happened today that I could not mention till the race (and season) was over.
1) Pierre Gasly had zero dollars damage to his Alpine car that was caused by him...a bonus check should be awaiting him. And I just learned that Pierre is the ONLY driver in the HISTORY of F1 to not cause damage to his car! BIG BONUS! 2) Oscar Piastri becomes only the 4th driver in F1 history to complete every single lap in a Formula One full season!
After the race, Max DID apologize to Oscar for the crash. Magnussen gets the fastest lap (and point) of the race in his final (?) race in Formula One.
Fan Favorite went to Charles Leclerc! Alpine beats Haas by seven points to take the 6th position in that battle for points and money!
That's a wrap for the 2024 season! It's been an exciting one, and I hope that for you Zoomies, it was a Fun, Informative and Educational ride! See you in about 90 days in Australia for the start of the 2025 Formula One season!
Of course, Leo had to have the last shot, this one with his proud papa Charles, who probably needs comforting, that if not for that 10 second grind penalty, he would have won the race! Charles, not Leo; Leo was getting a full body massage at the spa!
Nice shades, Leo!
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