In Pictures: Abu Dhabi 2022
ROUND 22 | ABU DHABI | YAS MARINA CIRCUIT
Final race of the 2022 season, and what a rollercoaster it has been. Both Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships are done and dusted, but this race decided many battles up and down the grid:
Constructors’ Championship:
Ferrari was 19 points ahead of Mercedes for second place.
Alfa Romeo was 5 points ahead of Aston Martin for sixth.
Haas was 2 points ahead of AlphaTauri for eighth.
All these places have a huge impact not only on the amount of prize monies but also on the development and wind tunnel time allowances for 2023.
Drivers’ Championship:
Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez were tied for second place.
Lewis Hamilton was sixth points ahead of Carlos Sainz for fifth place.
Sebastian Vettel was 1 point ahead of Daniel Ricciardo for eleventh place.
Kevin Magnussen was 2 points ahead of Pierre Gasly for thirteenth place.
Mick Schumacher and Yuki Tsunoda were tied for sixteenth place.
Abu Dhabi 2022 was also the last race for four times World Champion Sebastian Vettel, retiring from Formula 1 as a driver. It also marked the last race, at least for the time being, for Daniel Ricciardo, Mick Schumacher, and Nicholas Latifi.
This is how these battles sorted out:
FRIDAY
FP1
Lots of young drivers substituting some current ones for this session:
Robert Schwartzman in Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari
Liam Lawson in Max Verstappen’s Red Bull
Patricio O’ward in Lando Norris’ McLaren
Logan Sargeant in Nicholas Latifi’s Williams
Pietro Fittipaldi in Mick Schumacher’s Haas
Kevin Doohan in Fernando Alonso’s Alpine
Robert Kubica in Zhou Guanyu’s Alfa Romeo
Felipe Drugovich in Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin
Cars came out, especially those with the young drivers in, and immediately something was detected in O’ward’s McLaren, with the team asking him to get back to the pits as slowly as possible. On the other end, Leclerc and Perez started trading fastest laps. They do want to get second place in the Drivers’ Championship so much, and at half session, Perez was on top, albeit just 0.064 of a second ahead of Leclerc, and Sargeant went off, barely clipping the wall at Turn 1, no damage to the Williams.
The other half part of the session saw every driver doing more than 18 laps each, which is more than 100 Km, meaning all the young drivers got a Super License point. And contrary to what happened before, it was all Mercedes up front with Lewis Hamilton setting the Fastest Lap, ahead of teammate George Russell, Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez, and Liam Lawson in the Top-Five.
FP2
Final Friday Practice 2 of the year. Lights turned on as the Sun went down in Abu Dhabi. Regular drivers got back to their race cars and since the session takes place at the same time as the Grand Prix on Sunday, this is the session teams used the most to prepare for the race, and qualifying, which begins about the same time this session ended.
Cars came out as soon as the lights went green, but the big talk around the paddock was some unconfirmed reports that Daniel Ricciardo was signed by Red Bull as their third driver for the 2023 season.
When the hour was gone, it was Max Verstappen the fastest, ahead of George Russell, Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, and Sergio Perez the Top-Five.
SATURDAY
FP3
Few cars were on track for the first twenty or so minutes of the session, and quickly both Mercedes set the times for the rest of the drivers to follow with Hamilton the fastest. The problem with FP3 at this particular track is that because it is so early in the evening, respective to Qualifying and Race times, it isn’t as representative as teams would like, anyhow, data collecting is always good for the engineers to better understand the cars.
At around half session, Pierre Gasly’s wheel brow failed, the front right tire coming apart as he slowly got to the pits. First Red Flag of the weekend as a large piece of carbon fiber was on track. A few minutes later, the track was cleared, and practice resumed. While under Red Flag conditions, Lewis Hamilton overtook both a McLaren and a Haas at speed; it was noted by the stewards.
FP3 was now done and dusted, and it was Sergio Perez setting the fastest lap of the session, ahead of Verstappen, Hamilton, Russell, and Norris. Ferrari appeared not to have the pace they need, with Leclerc in sixth and Sainz in seventh.
QUALIFYING
The Sun was setting in the desert, the lights were on, and the final Qualifying of the season was about to begin.
Q1
Ferrari has never been in the front row at Abu Dhabi, and the F1-75 did not enjoy this particular track. In any case, the 18-minute session started with a few cars coming out early on to try and get through to the next stage.
Latifi asked the team to check his headrest as it felt loose, oddly enough, Verstappen complained his headrest appeared to be broken.
In any case, the drivers not getting through to Q2 were Kevin Magnussen, Pierre Gasly, Valtteri Bottas, Alex Albon, and Nicholas Latifi.
Q2
The fifteen minutes session started with both Mercedes coming out as soon as possible, and interestingly, no one else went out. Two and a half minutes later, everyone came out, creating a bit of an issue with traffic in certain areas of the track. Timing proved to be key to setting the fastest times.
Perez continued his excellent form, setting the fastest time, absolutely nailing his fast lap.
What fantastic laps from everyone, and exciting final minutes, nevertheless, we lost Fernando Alonso, Yuki Tsunoda, Mick Schumacher, Lance Stroll, and Zhou Guanyu.
Q3
And then there were ten. The final stage of Qualifying started, and the first round was won by Verstappen, almost 3 tenths faster than Sainz, with Perez and Leclerc not far behind.
Vettel and Aston Martin timed his first fast lap perfectly, with the German having the whole track to himself, moving up to seventh in the standings.
After the twelve minutes session was over, it was Red Bull with a 1 - 2 in Qualifying. Max Verstappen gets the final Pole Position of the year, his third in a row in Abu Dhabi and his twentieth in F1. Sergio Perez was second fastest, ahead of both Ferrari with Charles Leclerc in third and Carlos Sainz in fourth. Then came Lewis Hamilton ahead of George Russell, Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon, Sebastian Vettel, and Daniel Ricciardo.
That fight for second in the Drivers’ Championship was heating up. with either Perez or Leclerc just needing to finish ahead of the other to claim the place, and for the first time in his fifteen-year Formula 1 career, Lewis Hamilton has failed to achieve a pole position in a season.
Everything was set up for a thrilling Grand Prix.
Amidst the many tributes to Sebastian Vettel, his invite for a night race around the Las Marina Circuit stands up, as much of the F1 Paddock family attended the race. It is fantastic to see the love and respect everyone has for the four times World Champion.
SUNDAY
Starting Grid - 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
It was a beautiful day in Abu Dhabi, and even though most of the talks centered around Sebastian Vettel and his retirement from the sport, at least as a racing driver for the time being, it was highly emotional for others around the paddock. Britta Roeske, Sebastian Vettel’s PR Manager, was also retiring from F1, and so were Mick Schumacher and Nicholas Latifi. So was Daniel Ricciardo, although not entirely as he was hired by Red Bull as their third driver and ambassador.
The Pit lane opened and cars came out on track to do their reconnaissance laps before heading to the grid for their respective spot.
The Sun was setting down, the wind picked up a bit, and the temperature plummeted as the day became night.
Vettel was wearing a black t-shirt today with a picture of the globe on it for his final farewell, and the rest of the field surprised him as they formed a guard of honor for him, as he started to walk back toward his car.
The track temperature was 33 Degrees Celsius, somewhat lower than practice when it was in the forties. The air temperature was 28 Degrees, about the same through the evenings since F1 arrived at Abu Dhabi.
The Grand Prix started with Verstappen in the lead and Perez close behind. Hamilton made a great start and got Sainz for fourth. Sainz came back at Hamilton and tried a move at turns 6 and 7, Hamilton ran off track, keeping the place, but not without first flying over one of the sausage curves. Sainz complained to the team as Hamilton did gain an advantage, but the stewards reported no further action was necessary. By Lap 5, the stewards were checking the Hamilton-Sainz incident again, and Mercedes asked the Briton to give the place back.
That same lap, Hamilton, using the power of his DRS, passed Sainz and started his pursuit of Leclerc in third. Three laps later, Sainz used his DRS to sweep past Hamilton into Turn 9, the same place he lost that place. And now Russell was attacking Hamilton, and finally overtook him at the same Turn 9 on lap 9.
A bit further behind, Vettel was in the middle of an Alpine sandwich with Ocon up ahead and Alonso behind. A fight that would keep going for several laps.
On Lap 16, the first rounds of pitstops started with Perez, Russell, and Norris getting new Hards (white). Perez came back out in fifth, Russell P9 right behind Ricciardo and Norris in 12th.
On Lap 18, Sainz came for his first pitstop, coming out behind Alonso. Hamilton was called in on Lap 19, and Sainz overtook Alonso for fifth, setting his target on Vettel who was fourth.
On Lap 21 Verstappen came into the pits for a new set of hards, coming out just ahead of Perez in second. Leclerc was now leading the race, albeit just for one lap as he pitted on Lap 22, coming out third, just ahead of Sainz in fourth.
On Lap 23, Verstappen was leading from Perez, Leclerc, and Sainz. Russell was fifth, and Hamilton has just picked off Vettel, who was yet to stop for new tires, for sixth.
"It's the worst, we are just getting eaten up by everybody, we are a sitting duck. Who is next?" protested Vettel on the radio, his team pitting him on Lap 26, but came out way in the back, in 19th place. It appeared the gamble didn’t pay off.
On Lap 28, Alonso pulled into the pits... To retire! Not how he wanted to end his Alpine career, but that was pretty much the story of his season.
On Lap 34, Leclerc is told to do the opposite of Red Bull regarding their pitstop strategy. Red Bull brought Perez in, for more hard compound tires. The Mexican comes out in sixth ahead of Norris. On Lap 36, Perez set the fastest lap of the race at the time and is getting closer to those up front.
On Lap 39, Latifi and Schumacher had a moment as the German barely touched the Williams rear tire, sending both in a synchronized spin. Both were able to continue, but Latifi had to limp back to the pits with a rear puncture.
By Lap 45, Perez had finally made ground and caught Hamilton, but he proved to be really hard to overtake, taking the Mexican a couple of laps to accomplish the pass. By now, Verstappen was comfortably in the lead, about 7.5 seconds ahead of Leclerc, who in turn was about 10 seconds ahead of Perez.
On Lap 56, Hamilton retired his W13 from the race. A bitter ending for a bitter season for the seven-time World Champion.
Last Lap: Perez continued his pursuit on Leclerc but fell short, 1.3 seconds short, and ended up finishing third in the World Championship. Vettel finished his last race in 10th place, Ricciardo in 9th.
This was the 35th win in F1 for the Double World Champion. And Sebastian Vettel was voted Driver of the Day by the F1 fans. Danke Seb!
After the race, the answer to the questions were:
Constructors’ Championship:
Ferrari was 19 points ahead of Mercedes for second place.
Ferrari won
Alfa Romeo was 5 points ahead of Aston Martin for sixth.
Alfa Romeo kept their 6th place.
Haas was 2 points ahead of AlphaTauri for eighth.
Haas finished in 8th place.
Drivers’ Championship:
Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez were tied for second place.
Leclerc won. Finished 2nd.
Lewis Hamilton was sixth points ahead of Carlos Sainz for fifth place.
Sainz won. Finished 5th.
Sebastian Vettel was 1 point ahead of Daniel Ricciardo for eleventh place.
Ricciardo won. Finished 11th.
Kevin Magnussen was 2 points ahead of Pierre Gasly for thirteenth place.
Magnussen won. Finished 13th.
Mick Schumacher and Yuki Tsunoda were tied for sixteenth place.
Schumacher won. Finished 16th.
QUOTES FROM THE PODIUM
““It was a good race, all about tire management. Incredible to win again here and 15th win of the season - unbelievable. It’s been really enjoyable to achieve something like this this year, I know it will be hard to replicate but it is good motivation to try and do the same next year.””
““It was a good race, I was [at] 110% from the first lap to the last lap. We executed it perfectly and, as we didn’t have the pure pace to beat our competitors, put pressure on them in the key moments, which paid off. It was a season full of ups and downs, but considering where we came from, we made a good step and can be satisfied with our progress. I want to thank the whole team, both back home at the factory at and at the track, for all their hard work and dedication. P2 in the Constructors’ means a lot and we don’t want to stop here. We have to keep our heads down and push as hard as we can this winter, with the target of winning the title next year.””
““You know, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Today, I think Ferrari and Charles did a fantastic race. They have great tire management. And they were stronger than us, especially on that first stint. I died towards the end. And that made it a little bit tricky, our strategy. And it was that second stint, while I was behind Max, Max was on a one-stop, I was on a two-stop, and then I ended-up not being able to, to maximize this stint, and I couldn’t push as much as we should have pushed on that second stint. But at the end of the day, we gave it all. And that’s what really matters.””
““Well, I don’t have that much more to say. I feel a bit empty, to be honest, it’s been a big weekend. But I can only repeat, you know: I think the last two years have been very, maybe disappointing from a sporting point of view, but very, very useful and important to me in my life, a lot of things happened. A lot of things that I realized. I think it’s a huge privilege being in the position that we are in and with that comes some responsibility. So I hope to pass on a little bit to the other drivers to carry on some of the good work. It’s great to see that, you know, we have the power to inspire you with what we do and what we say. So I think there are far bigger and far more important things than racing in circles, but obviously it’s what we love and through that if we can transfer some of the really important values that’s big. And I think for that the last two years have been have been great for me. So thank you for the support. Thank you for the messages, the letters and all the love in general. So yeah, I will miss that. But it’s been an absolute joy throughout my career, so thank you. Thank you.””
