What you need to know about the 2021 F1 season finale this weekend

It was a very long Formula 1 season. Indeed, the longest ever. We’re in race 22 this year, heading for December, and things just won’t stop. The championship could just as well have closed on our starting point in Bahrain. Just a short drive over Abu Dhabi, the difference in points between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen is exactly the same as it was 21 races ago.

Here’s what you need to know about what’s happening around Yas Marina:

The closest title fight in 47 years

All right look We can’t avoid it. The last time the F1 title fight ended this way, two boys were tied, neither Lewis Hamilton nor Max Verstappen were born. And in 1974 there were only 15 races on the calendar and only the six first placed scored points.

In 2021, Hamilton and Verstappen each have 369.5 points and will remain so until the checkered flag falls on Sunday. If neither of them get a point at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Verstappen will take the drivers’ title as he has won more races this year. If Hamilton can score a point more than Verstappen, it’s his – or vice versa.

For today’s action, Verstappen was fastest in FP1 on soft tires while Hamilton was fastest in FP2 on medium tires. Given the proximity of Red Bull and Mercedes to other teams, it’s incredibly likely that they are both sand dredgers. They could very well turn their aggregates down to avoid the other team getting a lot of insight into the training runs, especially since there is a lot of data to be collected that cannot be found on the old, boring track we were on.

Important track updates

Historically, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was a kind of snooze festival. That didn’t matter for a while, because it was also a total minor matter that came so late in the season that basically everything was decided beforehand.

Last year McLaren got a stir by finishing third in the Constructors ‘Championship at the checkered flag, but the drivers’ title was already taken for the races by then, and frankly, it hasn’t been that significant since 2016 just because it was Hamilton was trying to back Nico Rosberg and there were no overtaking moves to change the order in which they would end the title fight.

The problem was mostly the track itself. All in all, it was the opposite of a flowing course and both annoying to drive and really bad for any kind of racing action. To be fair to the track designers, modern F1 cars have to look like they can overtake, this is something the FIA ​​has been revising for years to revise the regulations. It doesn’t stop there, but there are definitely things you can do to help.

Because of this, after the end of last F1 season, track designers Driven International were asked to find a way to make things better. They worked with MRK1 Consulting, under the guidance of a former head of the Yas Marina Circuit, on a number of ideas to try and turn the venue into something that could provide some spectacle on the track, not just great fireworks afterwards.

The result is a radically different end sector that flows much faster. Even Formula 2, the feeder series to F1, was able to shorten its lap times by more than 12 seconds with the differences. After only a few training sessions it is still early, but Max Verstappen exceeded his own pole time by more than 10 seconds after just a few minutes on the track.

Fast tracks don’t necessarily mean good races, but the changes should help a little and give drivers more leeway.

The full story of Drive To Survive’s next season