FORMULA 1 ETIHAD AIRWAYS ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX 2022....RACE.... ▄▀▄▀▄▀ SPOILERS ▄▀▄▀▄▀

Maybe it was Grosjean or Ricciardo a few years ago in Abu Dhabi that asked about doing donuts but was also told not to do it.

Anyway, great comments on a quiet race to end the season, I'll say a 2nd place driver and 2nd place constructor is an improvement over the last few years and leave it at that.

As far as any suggestion that Max should have backed Charles into Sergio...the only place I've seen that is on my video game, or uh when Hamilton did it to his own teammate in 2016!

Oh, and speaking of HAM, can the guy just not defend in that corner of Abu Dhabi? Full credit to the Mercedes team for telling him to give the place back, but boo to the stewards and HAM for not seeing it that way. I think the basic two-part rule is if you 1: Leave the Track and 2: Gain an advantage, then you give it back or get a penalty. I'm not a HAM fan, but he clearly did both of those today, and I applaud Mercedes for telling him to give it back.

OK, one more on HAM, the ONLY Mercedes mechanical retirement all year, just 3 laps from the end of the 22nd race? Incredible reliability.

I'm picturing a big fat 3 team battle next season, with Ferrari REALLY needing to up their game.

I saw the season long driver points, and with Nico Hulkenberg last with zero (only a couple races) someone that didn't know better would be asking why Haas is replacing a guy with 12 points with a guy with zero!

 

with that Brasil point and same finish today, would Checo have finished 2nd?

 

He finished ahead of latifi if that counts.

 

His spinning partner !

 

Of the three top teams this year, Ferrari is the only one that went backwards and gave up half way through the season. The only teams worse than them are Williams, Alphatauri, and Haas...which means Ferrari will be fighting in 2023 with Aston Martin and Alfa Romeo for 5th, 6th, and 7th. I still think there is a chance that Haas could be sold to Andretti in the off season...and Binotto will go to Alfa Romeo. With the budget caps in place, the next step is to make it a spec series.

 

Just to confirm that Mercedes told HAM to give up the position to Sainz, I looked at the FIA website and saw no mention of the incident or that they determined no further investigation was needed. Is that right? Or is there some other page or source to see all stewards decisions? This is what I looked at: https://www.fia.com/documents/championships/fia-formula-one-world-championship-14/season/season-2022-2005

 

Discretion of the stewards, I guess.

 

The radio from the team to LH was "the stewards have asked us to give the position back"...so it was almost certainly an instruction from the stewards to do either that or get a heavier penalty.

 

OK, but is there no documentation in writing that the stewards made the decision?

 

No. It wouldn't have mattered.

/

 

I thought the 'no further investigation' was in regards to whether Sainz forced Ham off the track. There was another investigation ongoing about Ham gaining an unfair advantage, but must have been dropped when Ham gave the position back.

Ham was smart about when he gave the position back, i.e. right before the DRS detection, as he regained the position immediately.

 

Yap, he's learning a few tricks from Roscoe...