What to expect from the 2018 Abu Dhabi F1 GP?
This Sunday the last race of the 2018 season will be driven in Abu Dhabi. The titles are won. Hamilton won his 5th drivers title and Mercedes their 5th constructor title in a row. What to expect from this last race in 2018?
We were treated to a very exciting season already. The last race on the flat Yas Marina circuit will be maybe about Lewis Hamilton giving the win back to his team mate Valtteri Bottas, who had to move over in Sochi (Russia) to secure the 2018 drivers title for Hamilton.
Battle for 3rd
Sebastian Vettel has secured his 2nd place in the drivers championship. Raikkonen and Bottas can lose their current P3 and P4 position to Max Verstappen. If the Finnish driver doesn't finish ahead of Max Verstappen he will probably lose his 4th place in the drivers championship to the Dutchman who almost won both the last 2 races and scored 4 podiums in row last 4 races. Verstappen is doing a very good job in terms of podiums this season he already won 10 podiums.
Mathematically Verstappen could even end up on 3rd place if he wins or finishes 2nd. Kimi Raikkonen has to finish 4th then to keep his P3. The Red Bull driver even can get P3 when he finishes 2nd and Raikkonen doesn't end up higher than P10. Both drivers will have equal championship points total of 252 points, but Verstappen scored more victories and will end up on 3 place.
Next race will be the last and 21st race of the 2018 F1 season. Get ready for the 10th Abu Dhabi Formula 1 Grand Prix.
2018 Abu Dhabi GP facts & Figures
The first Brazilian Grand Prix was held in 2009 and won by Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull RB5. In fact Red Bull scored a 1-2 finish with Mark Webber on P2.
The Yas Marina ciricuit is located next to Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi. The grand prix is driven in the twilight zone of the day. The race starts at sunset and finishes in darkness, when the track is lit up by floodlights.
Driver Victories
Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton both won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix the most with 3 times. Raikkonen, Rosberg and Bottas won the prestigious race once.
Team Victories
From a teams point of view Mercedes won the most races in Abu Dhabi. They won the race 4 times in a row since 2014. Red Bull Racing won the race three times and Lotus F1 (Renault) once.
Yas Marina Circuit
Yas Marina is designed by Hermann Tilke and situated on Yas Island half an hour away from the captial of Abu Dhabi. The circuit is quite flat and has a lot of 90 degree corners. The Yas Marina circuit is a closed circuit and next to Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi. The track is driven anti-clockwise and has 21 corners, 12 left-hand corners and 9 right-hand turns. The fastest corner is turn 10 with 275 km/h. The slowest is left-hander turn 7 with 70 km/h.
The track has 2 DRS sections, on the first straight cars can reach over 340 km/h. Overtaking is done at the end of those 2 straights, but is quite difficult, because the chicanes behind them are very sharp. The anti-clockwise circuit is all about traction and braking rather than lateral force. There’s a quite a variety of speeds and corners in Abu Dhabi so the cars tend to run a compromise set-up, with medium downforce levels.
The official lap record is set in the first race back in 2009 by Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull RB5. He drove a 1:40.279. This year the lap time will probably be broken the more powerful power units.
2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Infographic
What happened in last years 2017 Abu Dhabi F1 GP?
Podium Abu Dhabi GP 2017: 1 Bottas, 2. Hamilton, 3. Vettel
Valtteri Bottas won the 2017 Abu Dhabi grand prix. It was his 3rd F1 race win and the 76th Formula 1 race win for his team Mercedes.
The race started without any incidents at the start. The top 6 started with exactly the same speed and made no mistakes.
The top 12 didn't even change places until the first pit stops. The first one to retire was Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo. He got an hydraulic problem after his pit stop in lap 21.
In lap 32 Carlos Sainz had a dramatic pit stop with his Renault. During his pit stop the wheel nut of the front left tyre wasn't fixed correctly. When he drove away to rejoin the track he almost hit the wall entering the pit tunnel. Moments later the wheel nut flew away and Carlos had to retire the RS16.
Abu Dhabi F1 GP 2018 Tyres
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix marks the end of the 2018 season, but also the beginning of the 2019 season.
For the final encounter of the year, the three softest tyres in the range have been selected: P Zero Red Supersoft, P Zero Purple Ultrasoft, and P Zero Pink Hypersoft.
It’s also going to be the last time that the purple and pink colours will be seen on a Formula 1 tyre in a race, as next year’s tyres will feature only three permanent colours: white, yellow and red. Straight after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the drivers get to try out the 2019 tyres, effectively marking the start of next season, and some might even get to sample the cars from their new teams.
Last year’s tyre nomination also featured the three softest tyres in the 2017 range – soft, Supersoft, and Uttrasoft – but all the tyres are now a step softer than last year, with the Hypersoft being two steps softer than the 2017 Ultrasoft.
The surface at Yas Marina is smooth and not especially demanding on tyres, allowing the softest compounds to be used. Abu Dhabi was actually where the Hypersoft made its debut, at last year’s test after the grand prix.
A one-stopper has usually been the winning strategy, with Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas triumphing last year after starting on Ultrasoft and moving to Supersoft. Only one driver went for a three-stopper – will this change with a softer tyre nomination?
Selected sets for the 2018 Abu Dhabi F1 GP
Abu Dhabi GP Weather Forecast
The weather forecast for the Yas Marina circuit is normally very stable. This year it looks to have some variation over the 3 days the F1 caravan will be driving in Abu Dhabi.
No rain is expected as always, but the ambient temperature looks to climb by day. On Friday the highest termp. will be around 30 degrees Celsius and the sky will be clear with a lot of sun to fill it.
On Saturday some clouds will appear and the highest ambient temperature will be around 32°C. While on Sunday the same weather is predicted as for Saturday, with an even higher temperature of 34°C. So the drivers can look forward to a very hot late afternoon in their last race of the season.
Who will be on the 2018 Abu Dhabi F1 GP podium?
Last race our racing betting tips almost nailed the classification. The only one we didn't predict was Kimi Raikkonen on 3rd place.
The Yas Marina track looks in favour of the Mercedes team. They won here 4 times in a row since 2015. But don't underestimate Ferrari and Red Bull for this one. The Ferrari engine has become much more powerful then last year and coming out of turn 7 up to the 1st long straight it's the only thing you need next to traction of course.
How the tyres will hold is the key factor for the win here in very warm conditions. The Mercedes is still not very comfortable on the Ultrasoft tyres, while Ferrari and Red Bull are very strong on tyre management in the last couple of races.
All cars will also use the last race of the season as testing ground for new part to be used in next years 2019 season. We recon that it will be a very tight battle again between the top 3 teams and predict the podium will have again 3 different drivers on it.
Our podium prediction for the 2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is:
1. Sebastian Vettel, 2. Lewis Hamilton & 3. Max Verstappen
The race starts on Sunday 25th of November 2018 at 13:10 GMT.
✅ Check out more posts with related topics:
