2023 Abu Dhabi Heroes and Zeroes

[Jericoke]

Heroes

Max/Newey.  We watched a special combination of man and machine this year.  It was great as an enthusiast, but dull as a fan.  I hope we don't see a repeat any time soon. At the same time, hard to count as anything but 'hero'.

Charles LeClerc. He had a good race, heads up moment to try and gain a spot in the constructor's championship by backing up George Russell to finish 5 seconds behind a penalized Perez.  It didn't work, but shows that he's thinking.  Given how much the drivers seemed to push strategy, from Ferrari, but also a few other times, maybe it's time to ban pit wall strategy, let the drivers call the shots.

Sergio Perez.  Never seen the runner up in the WDC so maligned, but he had a great race after another poor qualifying.

George Russell.  Solid race, kept his head and did what he had to do to get Mercedes 2nd place in the WCC.

Beyond that... It's hard to give anyone a designation of 'hero' or 'zero'.  I don't think anyone drove poorly.  Certainly Perez's penalty for hitting Norris was earned, but it could have been called a racing incident and I wouldn't have been angry about it.  It's a fine line to penalize anyone who makes a mistake taking a risk, there won't be anyone taking a risk if you're too harsh, but then it's bumper cars if you're too lenient.  Most cars/drivers ended up in their natural position we've seen evolve over the season. 

It's been interesting seeing Williams/Haas become very good at qualifying, but still drop down during the race.  Alpine and Aston Martin continue to be Jekyll and Hyde.  Mercedes puts in solid if not spectacular efforts.  Tsunoda flirted with being a hero, but wasn't really there in the end.  Ricciardo certainly wasn't the 'second coming' a lot of people talked him up to be either.

The race itself was a vanilla affair.  There were some fights, some passing, some strategy, even some stakes.  In the greater scheme of things, it was an 'interesting' race (I feel the 2023 rule set really works on that count), but nothing memorable.

[Dare]

Jeri cover the race so well there's little to add.

My only problem is penalties for cars coming in
contact with each other. It is racing at high speeds

[lkjohnson1950]

Generally don't mind a little wheel banging, but Perez took a very odd line into the corner. Not sure what he was thinking.

[John S]

For me biggest plus to this last race of season was to see all 20 cars complete the race - NO DNFs!!!!   

Just shows how good the engineering has become on F1 chassis, engines, drivetrains, etc; to have no parts penalties at last race of very long season.
Pretty sure most teams managed to complete the season inside their slim allocation of ICE, MguK, MguH, gear box, etc.

A far cry from few years back when muliple penaties upon penalties racked up, for oh so many teams, at an awful lot of races after half term - and even before for some. 

 

[rmassart]

For me biggest plus to this last race of season was to see all 20 cars complete the race - NO DNFs!!!!   

Just shows how good the engineering has become on F1 chassis, engines, drivetrains, etc; to have no parts penalties at last race of very long season.
Pretty sure most teams managed to complete the season inside their slim allocation of ICE, MguK, MguH, gear box, etc.

A far cry from few years back when muliple penaties upon penalties racked up, for oh so many teams, at an awful lot of races after half term - and even before for some. 

I wonder whether the financial regulations are achieving more for reliability than any racing penalties ever could. Pushing parts to the limit is no longer a case of starting a race, you were anyway unlikely to win, at the back. Rather it eats into your R&D budget...

Personally I am glad this season is over. Whilst I appreciate the sheer brilliance of the Max/RedBull/Newey (and I really think this is more about Newey than RB), it sure did make things beyond dull. I really hope someone is able to at least compete at some races, if not over the whole season.

I also wonder whether Hamilton is losing interest. Two winless years amongst the also rans, I can very well understand if he does not continue for much longer if things don't improve for him.

Finally, I would love to see Alonson partner Max next season.

[Willy]

An uninteresting race with much similar results from other races this season.
RB  (read Newey) ran away with it all and there were no teams really able to give them a run for it all season.

I was happy to see the backside of the 2023 season as maybe now some team can do something so we don't have to watch Max win everything and be a complete dick about it. Case in point, his less then stellar show of sportsmanship in the pit lane.

I hope someone picks up Sergio as I'm sure he is done at RB.

I was also not surprised that Riccardo did not live up to hype. He never has been much of a winner, as he is too much of a showman for his own good. His seat must be available.

[Dare]

For me biggest plus to this last race of season was to see all 20 cars complete the race - NO DNFs!!!!   

Just shows how good the engineering has become on F1 chassis, engines, drivetrains, etc; to have no parts penalties at last race of very long season.
Pretty sure most teams managed to complete the season inside their slim allocation of ICE, MguK, MguH, gear box, etc.

A far cry from few years back when muliple penaties upon penalties racked up, for oh so many teams, at an awful lot of races after half term - and even before for some. 

 

F1.com had Sainz listed as a dnf. That's what I went with in the GG. Correct me if I'm wrong Mr S.

[John S]

For me biggest plus to this last race of season was to see all 20 cars complete the race - NO DNFs!!!!   

Just shows how good the engineering has become on F1 chassis, engines, drivetrains, etc; to have no parts penalties at last race of very long season.
Pretty sure most teams managed to complete the season inside their slim allocation of ICE, MguK, MguH, gear box, etc.

A far cry from few years back when muliple penaties upon penalties racked up, for oh so many teams, at an awful lot of races after half term - and even before for some. 

 

F1.com had Sainz listed as a dnf. That's what I went with in the GG. Correct me if I'm wrong Mr S.

Not sure Sainz was truly a DNF Dare, he took very late mandatory pitstop at end of penultimate lap for tyres and just never came back on track, Max crossed line and ended race before he could get out. So in reality he just never left the pits since race was over.

Ferrari were screwed when they left him out too long to sensibly pit to change tyres. They were crazily hoping for a safety car that never came and even that wouldn't have kept them in the points at about 10 laps from finish. 

I guess technically he can be regarded as a DNF, since he never ran proper tyre combo in race & would be DQ'd if he finished like that........... or just a lap down - in 18th place ahead of Bottas & KMag - as shown on official FIA result.

Matters not anyway as no one in GG chose Zero or only 1 DNF, so either way result is not affected. 

Reckon my point about all 20 cars running at the end still stands, it's a technicality not a car breakdown that prevented him finishing the race properly. 
Yeah, Yeah I know he may have broken down on last lap if he stayed out - guess we'll never know. 

[Alianora La Canta]

Technically, Sainz is a "not classified" as he completed over 90% of the distance, but he also didn't take the chequered flag. Stick with the appropriate precedent you've been using all these years