Silver Arrows sign off in style.
Mercedes
ended the 2017 campaign in fine style with a dominant performance at
the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and with Valtteri Bottas winning from
team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
On Friday, it seemed as though Ferrari and Red Bull had closed the gap slightly to the champions, but on Saturday and Sunday
the Silver Arrows delivered an unequivocal response, with pole winner
Bottas marginally ahead of Hamilton in qualifying but half a second
clear off the third-placed Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel, and victorious
in the race almost 20 seconds of the German who was again third behind
Hamilton.
Bottas
ended his first year in a top team in the best possible way. The Finn
had a strong start to the season, but after the summer break, his
team-mate got the upper hand. Had Valtteri gone off the boil? Yes, but
Lewis had stepped up a gear and, with the exception of qualifying at
Interlagos a fortnight ago, from Spa onwards it was 'Hammer Time', the
Englishman also seeming to develop a more mature driving style. For
Mercedes, Sunday's
result contributed to a season-total of 12 wins, 15 pole positions, 9
fastest race laps, 4 one-two finishes and 668 points – a simply amazing
season. Once again, congratulations to them for a job well done.
Ferrari step up
That's
four years on the trot that Mercedes have been the grid's most potent
force. This time, however, it had a worthy opponent in the shape of
Ferrari. Vettel led the Drivers' classification for a long time, but
then came a bad spell of three races – Singapore, Malaysia and Japan –
that compromised the German's chances of taking the title fight to the
wire.
That was a shame, as it would have been great to see a tight duel all the way to the end, just as it had been up until Monza.
The results didn't come even though the Maranello car was always competitive: proof of the good job done by Ferrari's Chief Technical Officer, Mattia Binotto and his team in preparing and developing the car over the course of the season. Now they need to dig deep to take the fight to Mercedes all the way to the end of 2018. Ferrari know what is required and I'm sure they will prepared right down to the smallest detail over the winter.
The results didn't come even though the Maranello car was always competitive: proof of the good job done by Ferrari's Chief Technical Officer, Mattia Binotto and his team in preparing and developing the car over the course of the season. Now they need to dig deep to take the fight to Mercedes all the way to the end of 2018. Ferrari know what is required and I'm sure they will prepared right down to the smallest detail over the winter.
Levelling the playing field
The
Abu Dhabi race confirmed in no uncertain terms the huge gap between the
top three teams (Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull) and the rest of the
grid. After 10 laps, seventh placed Nico Hulkenberg was already 19.170
seconds off the leader, which grew to 85s by the end of the race. And
here we're talking about an exceptional driver and a factory team
representing one of four major automotive manufacturers in Formula 1.
I
think we have a duty to look at ways of making the championship more
balanced, without resorting to artificial or improvised means. That's
why, for several months, working first and foremost with the FIA and the
teams, we have been looking at ideas to make the sport we all love,
more interesting. That's what the fans want, as has been seen from the
research we have carried out over the past few months and let's not
forget that they are the sport's most important asset.
Formula 1 makes a new mark
The
Abu Dhabi paddock was the scene of two events, which one way or
another, are symbolic for the sport. The first was the unveiling of the
new Formula 1 logo, which came immediately after the podium ceremony.
Over the past few days the question was asked as to whether the logo is
really a major priority and the answer is yes. Apart from the commercial
aspects, the new logo is much more flexible in terms of its use,
especially when it comes to its application on merchandising and in the
digital world. It has impact. The old logo was neither iconic or
memorable. It was important to let Formula 1 fans see that we are
entering a new era. Our sport is changing and must look to the future
and also outside its own environment if it is to attract new fans,
especially among the young. We believe this logo exemplifies this
desire: in a world where visual communication is ever more important, we
must also move in this direction.
It's all in the game
And
on the subject of getting more youngsters to follow Formula 1, the Yas
Marina paddock hosted an amazing event, the final of the first ever F1
Esports Series, which featured 20 drivers going head-to-head to take the
World Championship title. The winner was Brendon Leigh, an 18-year-old
from England, who beat two other very young competitors, Chile's
Fabrizio Donoso Delgado and Germany's Sven Zurner. I had the pleasure of
meeting them on Sunday
and I was struck by their enthusiasm, their youth and the passion they
demonstrated for something we must now consider a real sport, which has
in fact been recently recognised as such by the International Olympic
Committee.
I
must admit that, purely down to my age, I'm not a user of games
consoles and that sort of thing, but I realise that younger generations
live their sport through these new (to me!) methods.
At
Formula 1 we strongly believe in esports and that's why we wanted to
host the final title-deciding round of the 2017 season in the real
paddock. And judging by the interest generated by the event it was the
right decision.
On Saturday
night, there were a lot of people in the paddock, including drivers and
engineers, all watching the final on the giant screens and they clearly
found it exciting, especially Leigh's last lap overtaking move, which
saw him win the race and the title. How good would it have been to see
something like that on the real track. Moves like that do sometimes
happen for real – I'm thinking of the 2008 finale in Brazil – but
wouldn't it be nice to see it happen more often?
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It's worth noting that the decision was not met with unanimous approval from other teams and some fans, who argued that in-season testing was an important opportunity to gather data and improve performance.
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