Lewis Hamilton says he is “looking forward” to the last time he drives this year’s Mercedes – or “this thing”, as he put it after qualifying at the final race of the season.
Before that time, Hamilton still has Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to get through, and then a final day of testing on Tuesday at the Yas Marina circuit.
Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell left Brazil last Sunday with his first career victory, and Mercedes’ first of the season, to cap a steady return to form for the team that set new standards in F1 as eight-time world champions.
But as Saturday drew to a close in the desert, it did not look as if either Russell or Hamilton were going to be able to make it a second consecutive win for the team.
The Mercedes drivers occupy the third row, in a two-by-two grid with Red Bull at the front followed by Ferrari. Abu Dhabi has exposed a weakness Mercedes have had all year.
Hamilton was just 0.03 seconds ahead of Russell – but 0.684secs off the pace. And pretty much the entirety of that gap to pole-man Max Verstappen was on the bits of the track where the car does not turn.
“Definitely wasn’t expecting to see such a big gap,” Hamilton said, “but we are losing 0.6secs on the straight. Kind of reminiscent of some of the previous races before – kinda Austin. And bouncing is back, so that’s not been easy.
“Bouncing” – or “porpoising”, as Russell described it – has been one of Mercedes’ Achilles’ heels this year. It has forced them to run the car higher than they want to prevent this aerodynamic characteristic being triggered, and in so doing reduce performance. And they had to do so again this weekend.
“We still had some porpoising through the high-speed corners,” Russell said, “and that probably contributed to why we are further behind Red Bull than the last two races. There were no high-speed corners in Mexico and Brazil, so it was not an issue there.”
Hamilton added: “I am looking forward to the end of Tuesday, which is the last time I have to drive this thing. I don’t ever plan to drive this one again.” He chuckled. “It won’t be one of the ones I request to have in my contract.
“We have some downforce. We just need a much more efficient car and everybody in the team knows exactly what are the problems and where we have gone wrong so I’m pretty confident they are not going to build the next car with any of those characteristics.”
A remarkable record on the line
If Hamilton fails to win on Sunday, it will be the first time he has ever gone through an entire F1 season without standing on the top step of the podium. And it would end a unique record – until now, he is the only driver ever to win in every season in his career.
Hamilton has been asked about this several times this season, and each time he has said it is not a statistic that matters to him. And on Sunday, team principal Toto Wolff repeated that sentiment.
“He says that the one victory a year isn’t really a record that bothers him,” Wolff said. “If I’m trying to put myself in his shoes, where I was before Brazil, it didn’t particularly bother me whether we would win a race this season, because all our eyes are already on next year.
“But having won one, it felt pretty good. At least nobody could say you didn’t win a race.
“I don’t think this particular record is an important one for him, but we need to provide him with a car next year in which he can fight for victories and championships. That’s most important and he knows that.”
Wolff, in a remarkably good-humoured news conference, said Mercedes had come into Abu Dhabi fearing a result something like this.
“We always knew we needed to be prudent and not set our expectations based on Brazil,” he said. “The circuit perfectly suited our car and everything ran smoothly.”
Wolff then referenced a chart the team have that lays out how they expect this car to perform at each race.
“Abu Dhabi was one of the worst tracks on our ‘table of doom’,” he said. “Not catastrophic, but not ideal, and we have seen that today.
“We are just way too draggy, and it is not easily solved by reducing the rear wing because it is aerodynamic efficiency the car is lacking. If we reduce the wing, we are not fast in the corners.
“In a way it is good there is correlation between our simulation and the result. That is the one positive I see. I hope we have a strong race car that is gentle on the tyres even if we can’t overtake. Or defend.”
Honour and prizes at stake
Wolff might have joked about the Mercedes’ lack of ‘race-ability’ but in fact there is a decent chance they could still give Ferrari a fright in their contest for second in the constructors’ championship.
It is this and the battle between Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez for second in the drivers’ chase that are the main points of competition in the race at the end of a season in which the big prizes were long ago settled in favour of Verstappen and Red Bull.
Mercedes are 19 points behind Ferrari – a big margin to make up. But while Hamilton was 0.416secs slower than Leclerc over one lap, the drivers of the two teams are both well aware that the Ferrari tends to go backwards in terms of relative pace in races and the Mercedes forwards.
Leclerc says Ferrari have put a lot of work this weekend into their biggest weakness, tyre degradation, but it remains to be seen whether it pays off at a track where the Italian team have never won, and where the off-camber corners of the final sector around the fancy hotel tend to cook the tyres.
“It’s top speed versus tyre-saving,” he said. “So we shall see tomorrow if we can really gain an advantage and be happier with the tyres.”
On that basis, Leclerc’s hopes of hanging on to second in the drivers’ championship over Perez do not look that great.
The two drivers are tied on points, with Leclerc ahead by virtue of number of wins. So whoever finishes ahead will take the spot.
Leclerc said he was hopeful, but team-mate Carlos Sainz, alongside him in fourth on the grid, did not sound it.
“The Red Bulls are very difficult to to beat this weekend,” Sainz said. “They have 0.2-0.3secs [advantage] in qualifying and normally this gap extends in the race.
“The fight is to try and defend P2 in the championship. I think Mercedes are going to be quicker than us in the race but we are going to try everything to keep them behind and I think we are in a good position to do so.”
A Formula 1 great says goodbye
The race will also see F1 wave goodbye to one of its greatest, as Sebastian Vettel takes part in his final grand prix before retirement.
On Saturday, the four-time champion arranged an event in which he invited the entire paddock to run or walk the track with him. T-shirts had been printed. And there was quite the turnout.
Fittingly, he had a strong qualifying session, taking ninth on the grid, well ahead of Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll.
Vettel admitted that he had been “a bit emotional getting into the car. But once in the car I was all thoughts into qualifying. It was coming alive, I was coming alive, so it felt good.
“It has been a long time and it is a funny feeling, I have to admit. But as soon as you are in the car and you drive out, you are quite busy so that is a good sign.
“I enjoy it most when I’m present. I had a great time and it will be another emotional day [on Sunday].”
