Every single team has made it to the Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as drivers line up for the final stop of 2024’s historic schedule.
The teams arrived at Yas Marina Circuit only a few days after the Qatar Grand Prix which Max Verstappen won for his ninth victory of the season.
Verstappen and his Red Bull outfit won the drivers’ title in Las Vegas following a prolonged campaign, but there is still a bid for the 2024 F1 World Constructors Championship, and no doubt more people will be at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with 170,000 fans anticipated to fill the venue – its biggest ever crowd.
It’s all up for grabs in Abu Dhabi GP for McLaren and Ferrari – only 21 points separate first and second in the constructors’ standings. Red Bull should be fine, putting themselves in third place ahead of Mercedes and with a close midfield, there’s still plenty of room for a late burst down the pecking order.
Lewis Hamilton is meanwhile putting the final curtain on his Mercedes career in Abu Dhabi this Sunday when his former and future F1 teams McLaren and Ferrari are locked in a constructors’ title battle.
Even if Red Bull’s Verstappen took his fourth consecutive title last month in Las Vegas, eras end with the season’s last chequered flag by Yas Marina floodlights.
McLaren, who drove Hamilton to his debut in 2008 but were runner-up only in 1998, are 21 points ahead of Ferrari, the oldest and best team looking for a first title since 2008.
Whatever the winner is, it’ll be the last 15 years only Red Bull and Mercedes have taken the crown.
Hamilton, the seven-time and 105-winner who is the best driver in Formula One history, has been with the Mercedes ‘family’ for 26 years, but will join Ferrari at the end of the month.
“This weekend is a party,” the Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said. “Summer of everything that we’ve done together.
“We will celebrate this unrivalled story in Abu Dhabi and across the next week when we head to Kuala Lumpur, Stuttgart, and finally Brixworth and Brackley,” he continued, meaning sponsor Petronas and Mercedes’ headquarters and two factories in England.
And respect it because even though this part of our marriage is abysmal, Lewis will always be part of our family. “At the moment, though, it’s just the race weekend. Nothing says goodbye to our relationship like a great run on the track. Everything on the team is chasing another highlight reel addition”.
Hamilton, twice a winner this season, has to say yes after crashing to 12th in Qatar last Sunday with two penalties and a puncture. I’m still there, you can’t crash it’s how you rebound,’ the 39-year-old Briton told me then.
The team McLaren with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri having been doing a lot of the team spirit are the favourites for the constructors’ crown but it is no guarantee.
“21 points requires perfect weekend Ferrari, bad weekend McLaren”, said Carlos Sainz ahead of what will be the Williams-bound Spaniard’s last race with the Italian team alongside Charles Leclerc.
We’re just going to try. We could still do it I feel like we can just nail a good weekend. Nothing to lose. We’re going to put everything in so we can get the best shot.”
Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur has said the team would “fight until the last corner of the last lap”.
Verstappen will look for his 10th career win after victory in Qatar and a spat with Hamilton teammate George Russell. The governing FIA will be called out, too, as teams and the media lambast race management and stewarding.
Red Bull will also leave out Jonathan Wheatley, Sauber/Audi’s future principal, as they left out top designer Adrian Newey. Not everyone is surprised if Verstappen’s under-fire teammate Sergio Perez goes, too, although the Mexican has an 2025 deal.
Renault-supported Alpine, who are fighting with Haas for sixth place overall, have already bid goodbye to Esteban Ocon, while the Australian replacement Jack Doohan is on track to make his debut.
Other final farewells are at Haas (Kevin Magnussen) and Sauber (Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu) as Formula One gears up for another generation of young talent next season.