Tempers explode at the end of a very long year. PETER COSTER reports on the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
You CAN make this stuff up. Hollywood was on the podium at the season-ending F1 race at Abu Dhabi with Brad Pitt spraying the champagne as if he had won the race.
Helping him do it was Ferrari star Charles Leclerc.
The tifosi would rather have seen the Scuderia take out the constructors’ championship won by McLaren and Lando Norris.
Carlos Sainz was second for Ferrari with Leclerc third, but the Italian team missed out on the $150 million that would have come their way had they won the last race of the season.
Brad Pitt and the F1 movie he has been making will hope for a similar pay day when the movie comes out in June next year.
In the real world (although that hardly describes F1) the script on Sunday was looking like a McLaren one-two until Red Bull and Max Verstappen crashed the scene.
The Dutch driver lunged down the inside of Melbourne star Oscar Piastri who was alongside polesitter Norris on the front row.
Norris led from start to finish but Piastri’s race was ruined by Verstappen who tried to pass when there was clearly no room.
Verstappen later apologised, saying he didn’t want there to be any “weird feelings” before the next season starts in Melbourne in March.
Piastri was the victim, but turned aggressor when he ran into the back of Argentine driver Franco Colapinto in the Williams.
Like Verstappen, he found himself with a 10-second penalty.
Driver emotions have been running high this season, the longest in F1 history with 24-races, including random sprint races.
Verstappen has been the worst offender with an extraordinary outburst against Mercedes star George Russell, who accused him on blocking him in qualifying.
That led to the four-time world champion saying next time he would put the Mercedes driver “on his head into the wall.”
Verstappen was slow to answer and might have been waiting to see if anyone had taped his comments before issuing a denial.
In spite of all this argy-bargy, the world of F1 has just as quickly turned to who will be driving where or not at all next year.
At the moment, the grid in Melbourne next year will have the strongest antipodean line up since the races around the old Albert Park circuit in the 1950s.
Piastri and McLaren will be joined by Queenslander Jack Doohan in an Alpine and New Zealander Liam Lawson in either a Red Bull alongside Verstappen or for Visa RB where he has been racing since replacing Australia’s under-performing Daniel Ricciardo.
One of the continuing mysteries of F1 is where the eight-times GP winner’s mojo has gone since he left Red Bull a few seasons ago.
Lawson replaced him at the Red Bull junior team when he crashed at Zandvoort last year, breaking his hand while avoiding Piastri in the McLaren..
New Zealand superstar Bruce McLaren won four GPs and was runner-up in the drivers’ world championship before being killed in a testing accident in a Can-Am car of his own design in 1970.
Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton won the first of his titles driving for McLaren before going to Mercedes.
The Abu Dhabi race on Sunday was his last for the German team before replacing Carlos Sainz at Ferrari next year.
The seven-times world champion finished fourth at Abu Dhabi after starting at the back of the field after a drive described as one of his best by Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.
Wolff took the blame for Hamilton being sent out late before running over a bollard left lying on the track.
“We totally let him down,” lamented Toto Wolff, “An idiotic mistake not to go earlier. Inexcusable, inexcusable.”
Hamilton drove a perfect race in a car that has let him down this season and might have won had it not been for the blunder.
Hamilton emerged before the race wearing a Ferrari-red truck suit, which again prompted the question, why is he forsaking Mercedes at the end of the greatest partnership between a driver and a team in the history of motorsport, perhaps of any sport?
Hamilton lost faith in the Mercedes he was driving this year, leading sometimes to despair with a car he often declared “undrivable.”
But is it because of the mystique of driving for the storied team ruled over by Enzo Ferrari?
Whatever his reasons, it it may be that he has thrown in with the Scuderia at exactly the right time.
Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari are separated by sometimes only hundredths, sometimes only thousandths of a second.
The drivers are the elite, paid fabulous amounts of money in what is promoted as a gladiatorial contest.
At the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were interviewed by Gladiator II star Paul Mescal.
Could he become a Grand Prix driver, he asked the Ferrari stars?
The answer was “No, but you could try.” They had started racing go-karts when they were kids.
How long does it last at the top?
Double world champion Fernando Alonso still has what it takes at the age of 43 and Hamilton starts for Ferrari next year at the age of 40.
At the other extreme is his replacement at Mercedes, Kimi Antonelli, who has just turned 18.
Sergio Perez is about to turn 35, but will he still be driving for Red Bull next year?
He has ended the season 285 points behind teammate Max Verstappen and without a top-five finish since the Miami Grand Prix in May.
He rated nary a mention on Sunday after failing to finish after a collision with Valtteri Bottas in the Sauber.
The 35-year-old was twice a runner-up in the world drivers’ championship when alongside Lewis Hamilon at Mercedes.
Bottas was six when he started racing in karts. What of next year?
“I’m not done yet,” said the 10-times Grand Prix winner.
But like so many drivers on this year’s grid, next year may see someone ten years younger in their seat.
Results of the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
| Pos | Driver | Car | Laps | Time/retired |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lando Norris | McLaren Mercedes | 58 | 26:33.3 |
| 2 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 58 | +5.832s |
| 3 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 58 | +31.928s |
| 4 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 58 | +36.483s |
| 5 | George Russell | Mercedes | 58 | +37.538s |
| 6 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | 58 | +49.847s |
| 7 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine Renault | 58 | +72.560s |
| 8 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas Ferrari | 58 | +75.554s |
| 9 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | 58 | +82.373s |
| 10 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren Mercedes | 58 | +83.821s |
| 11 | Alexander Albon | Williams Mercedes | 57 | +1 lap |
| 12 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB Honda RBPT | 57 | +1 lap |
| 13 | Zhou Guanyu | Kick Sauber Ferrari | 57 | +1 lap |
| 14 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | 57 | +1 lap |
| 15 | Jack Doohan | Alpine Renault | 57 | +1 lap |
| 16 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas Ferrari | 57 | +1 lap |
| 17 | Liam Lawson | RB Honda RBPT | 55 | DNF |
| NC | Valtteri Bottas | Kick Sauber Ferrari | 30 | DNF |
| NC | Franco Colapinto | Williams Mercedes | 26 | DNF |
| NC | Sergio Perez | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | 0 | DNF |
PETER COSTER is a former editor and foreign correspondent who has covered a range of international sports, including world championship fights and the Olympic Games.
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