Five talking points from the Abu Dhabi GP

Verstappen ends on a high

This has been a largely frustrating season for Verstappen, who once again has found himself unarmed with the ammunition he needs to take on the Mercs. But an apparent MGU-K “gremlin” forced the usually dominant German manufacturer to turn the power down on its engines, which perhaps gave Verstappen a chink of light this time. He made the most of any advantage brilliantly, putting his first-lap retirement from the Sakhir GP well behind him with a faultless performance. Just his second victory of the season, Verstappen now has 10 for his F1 career so far. Put into context, he’s now equal in the record books with world champions James Hunt and Jody Scheckter, plus Ronnie Peterson and Gerhard Berger.

Better for Bottas

Second place secured Bottas the runner-up spot in the championship after a difficult few races and he looked pleased (if not a little relieved) to finish the season with a more characteristically solid performance. But only finishing nine points up on Verstappen and a massive 124 behind his world champion team-mate says much about how disappointing his 2020 season has been, given the superiority of the car he’s had at his disposal.

As for Hamilton, he at least felt better on race day than he had during practice and qualifying, but admitted it had been “a hard race physically” and that he was “glad it was over”. Even for a man as super-fit as Hamilton, coronavirus hurts. His hunger to return, after George Russell’s scene-stealing star substitution at Sakhir, says much about Hamilton’s commitment – and it’s hard to believe he won’t be striking a new deal to compete for an eighth title in 2021. It’s surely significant too that in the his post-race interview, the 35-year-old voiced his hopes that the new regulations due for introduction in 2022 will make overtaking easier than it had been in the race he’d just finished. Those words didn’t sound like they’d come from a man who is considering stopping any time soon.

As for the 22-year-old who had replaced him in Bahrain, Abu Dhabi represented a return to tough normality. Russell put on an admirably brave face to be back in a Williams and drove as hard as ever to finish 15^th. What a difference a week can make.

McLaren in the money

It was a pretty good day for McLaren. In the morning, the team confirmed significant new investment from a consortium led by investment group MSP Sport Capital, which has taken an immediate 15 per cent stake rising to a potential 33 per cent in a couple of years from now. Then in the afternoon, Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz Jr turned their decent qualifying form into a five-six finish, behind Alexander Albon’s Red Bull. The result was enough to overturn Racing Point’s advantage in the battle for third in the constructors’ standings, the orange cars beating the pink by just seven points. The difference could be worth as much as $10 million.

No wonder Zak Brown was roaring with joy as he stepped from the pitwall after the flag.

Time to say goodbye

As usual, the last race of the year meant this was goodbye for a number of driver and team combinations. Sainz signed off from McLaren by doing his part for the team, having been presented with a large piece of orange bodywork as a parting gift. It won’t be accepted as hand luggage on the flight home, Carlos.

Renault itself also said goodbye (even if it was only in name ahead of the team’s re-branding as Alpine for 2021). Fernando Alonso’s hot laps in his 2005 screaming V10-powered R25 was a fitting send-off – and an uncomfortable reminder of what F1 has lost in this hybrid era.

In the race itself, Daniel Ricciardo delivered one final star performance in yellow, managing a 40-lap opening stint on hard-compound Pirellis, which pushed him from 11^th on the grid to seventh. He’ll take Sainz’s seat at McLaren now, as the Spaniard heads to Ferrari.

For Sebastian Vettel, this was an emotional day as he finished six seasons in red. Even if he never added to the four titles he won at Red Bull and ultimately slipped into a sad decline, no one can ever say the German didn’t care or understand what it meant to drive for F1’s most famous team. In fact, the opposite was true. The mechanics clapped him out of the pits as he headed to the grid and he broke into Italian song on the radio on his slow-down lap, his last as a Ferrari F1 driver, on a day when he’d finished one place behind his team-mate Charles Leclerc in 14^th. There was a sense of melancholy mixed with relief that it was finally all over, ahead of his move to Aston Martin.

Pain for Perez

Just seven days after his wonderful victory at Sakhir, Sergio Perez had every intention of a strong send-off from Racing Point – and perhaps, unfairly, from F1 itself. But the need for a fresh engine sent him to the back of the grid, then any hope of another fairy-tale comeback was dashed on lap 10 when his car lost power. ‘Checo’s’ visible frustration as he walked away was heartfelt, but was perhaps motivated by different emotions to those bring felt on the Racing Point pitwall. Team boss Otmar Szafnauer knew there and then that third place in the standings was probably lost to McLaren, and Lance Stroll – who finished 10^th – never looked anywhere near having enough pace to carry the burden alone, on the team’s last appearance before its transformation into Aston.

Perez at least has some hope that Red Bull might still choose to ditch Albon for his services in 2021. But Daniil Kvyat, who finished 11^th in Abu Dhabi, knows his chances of being retained by AlphaTauri are probably slimmer. Meanwhile, Kevin Magnussen knows only too well that this was likely his last grand prix, having been dropped by Haas. When your life has been dedicated to F1, it’s tough when you know it’s finally time to say goodbye.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.