2025 Race 24 - Abu Dhabi

[Nitrodaze]

Still 50 seconds behind his teammate!
However I do give "The Boss" a lot of stick. I don't really believe it. I'm just sort of a rude a--hole that way!

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Nah, you are free to say what you think. Dropping out in Q1 was always going to produce a 50-second gap. It could have been worse, like finishing outside the points. But I agree with you, it seems the partnership between Ferrari and Hamilton may not bear fruit. And l think Ferrari would be the reason why. They have no excuse as this is the third multiple world champion that Ferrari has been unable to win a championship with. With that kind of statistics, it is definitely a Ferrari problem, not the drivers.

[airshifter]

Dude's toast dawg.
Dude's toast.
I think you know who I'm talking about.

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Yeah I kind of figured you were talking about that dude. I think that dude made a bad move and now he's paying the price. Even if they get the car right someday he has to beat his teammate, and right now it doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon.

[Nitrodaze]

Yeah I kind of figured you were talking about that dude. I think that dude made a bad move and now he's paying the price. Even if they get the car right someday he has to beat his teammate, and right now it doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon.

Ha, you forgot about the China sprint, The car went downhill from that race. If the car is competitive, the picture would be quite different and Leclerc knows it.

[Used to be Starter]

Nah, you are free to say what you think. Dropping out in Q1 was always going to produce a 50-second gap. It could have been worse, like finishing outside the points. But I agree with you, it seems the partnership between Ferrari and Hamilton may not bear fruit. And l think Ferrari would be the reason why. They have no excuse as this is the third multiple world champion that Ferrari has been unable to win a championship with. With that kind of statistics, it is definitely a Ferrari problem, not the drivers.

No question a Ferrari problem. You don't get that bad quite that fast. Mid pack team next year?

[airshifter]

Ha, you forgot about the China sprint, The car went downhill from that race. If the car is competitive, the picture would be quite different and Leclerc knows it.

Both drivers had much better finishes after China, and Leclerc even managed two back to back podiums in the last 1/4 of the season. But I'm sure Charles is shaking in his drivers shoes.

Unless you want to count that one Sprint win as something important, Leclerc beat Lewis in virtually every metric that a driver is judged by. That can always change, but it's hard to ignore that one driver managed 7 podiums in races while the other had none.


No doubt the Ferrari was far from the best car this season, but considering the double DSQ in China, and two more races with double DNF's, they could have easily beat RB in the constructors points. For that matter had Lewis matched Charles on points they would have beat Red Bull. AND Mercedes! Granted Red Bull is essentially reliant on a single driver, but performance alone kept Ferrari from being higher in the WDC either way. But Ferrari is Ferrari, and the car isn't going to suddenly be on top because they hired a new driver.

He picked his poison, he paid the price. I'm sure Kimi is ok with the decision though, he had a better car and a podium in his rookie season.

[airshifter]

As for the race itself, not much real excitement but once again a major shuffling of the deck somewhat. I think these cars have smaller setup windows and it doesn't take much to get it wrong.

Max did what Max does when he puts it on pole, and probably the best move of the race by far was Oscar hanging it on the outside on the hard tire. Lando didn't really try to defend it much, but I'm not sure he could have if he wanted to. As for Lando, he seemed cool and content to just stay in third and take his title, and it was probably the safest move to make. Well done on him for bouncing back over time and fighting for that title as Oscar faded and Max came back on strong through the end of the year.

As for Max, once again proving he never gives up. He overcame a deficit of over 100 points when McLaren got the upper hand and RB faded for a period. It's hard to take anything from his season really. Though McLaren might have made it hard with the split strategy I was glad to see neither Max or RB pushed to try to back Lando up into traffic. They just played their hand and hoped for Lando to have issues.

Leclerc had a strong race overall, but part of me wonders if Lando just did enough to keep him at bay and never really pushed his own pace much. Either way, Charles overall had a decent weekend.

Stroll managed to get into the points again, and it goes without saying Alonso had a better race as usual. Kimi just didn't put things together, but George managed to have a decent weekend. The rest of the field had some surprises as well, some of the "rest of the best" usual drivers struggled.



Overall not a bad season. Lots of car development kept it a bit more fun than some years, and having three drivers in contention for the WDC kept it interesting.



Well done Lando, and kudos to Oscar as well. I think both have upped their game some and they fought through the years in a solid way.

[Nitrodaze]

Both drivers had much better finishes after China, and Leclerc even managed two back to back podiums in the last 1/4 of the season. But I'm sure Charles is shaking in his drivers shoes.

Unless you want to count that one Sprint win as something important, Leclerc beat Lewis in virtually every metric that a driver is judged by. That can always change, but it's hard to ignore that one driver managed 7 podiums in races while the other had none.


No doubt the Ferrari was far from the best car this season, but considering the double DSQ in China, and two more races with double DNF's, they could have easily beat RB in the constructors points. For that matter had Lewis matched Charles on points they would have beat Red Bull. AND Mercedes! Granted Red Bull is essentially reliant on a single driver, but performance alone kept Ferrari from being higher in the WDC either way. But Ferrari is Ferrari, and the car isn't going to suddenly be on top because they hired a new driver.

He picked his poison, he paid the price. I'm sure Kimi is ok with the decision though, he had a better car and a podium in his rookie season.

On paper you would be right. But 2025 was a season for Hamilton and the Ferrari team to build an on-track relationship in preparation for 2026. The dismal performances that we have seen was not down to Hamilton solely. The Ferrari engineers have a lot to blame for most of it. If we take the Abu Dhabi race, Hamilton's qualifying 16th is a good example of it. With good pitwall analysis and execution, there is no reason why both Ferraris should not qualify in the top ten.
After some analysis, I think most of the poor showing of Hamilton was due to poor co-operation between the Ferrari engineers and strategist. They just failed to gel together, which suggests that 2026 may be another painful season for the seven-time world champion.

LeClerc has been in the team for six years before Hamilton joined. He knows the Ferrari chassis and the workings of the team like the back of his hand. He was expected to do better than the new comer thiss season, and he did. Nothing new there.

As far as Ferrari goes, we did not learn anything new about them this season. It was a wasted season, which unfortunately puts a lot of doubt on their 2026 chances. You don't leap to the front from a bad reference point. It is new regulation, so anything is possible.

[Nitrodaze]

Both drivers had much better finishes after China, and Leclerc even managed two back to back podiums in the last 1/4 of the season. But I'm sure Charles is shaking in his drivers shoes.

Unless you want to count that one Sprint win as something important, Leclerc beat Lewis in virtually every metric that a driver is judged by. That can always change, but it's hard to ignore that one driver managed 7 podiums in races while the other had none.


No doubt the Ferrari was far from the best car this season, but considering the double DSQ in China, and two more races with double DNF's, they could have easily beat RB in the constructors points. For that matter had Lewis matched Charles on points they would have beat Red Bull. AND Mercedes! Granted Red Bull is essentially reliant on a single driver, but performance alone kept Ferrari from being higher in the WDC either way. But Ferrari is Ferrari, and the car isn't going to suddenly be on top because they hired a new driver.

He picked his poison, he paid the price. I'm sure Kimi is ok with the decision though, he had a better car and a podium in his rookie season.

He would be stupid to not worry about it. Schumacher had four seasons with Ferrari before he won his first World Championship with them. When you say these kinds of things, it just makes me wonder if you really understand how things work in F1.

[gm99]

LeClerc has been in the team for six years before Hamilton joined. He knows the Ferrari chassis and the workings of the team like the back of his hand. He was expected to do better than the new comer thiss season, and he did. Nothing new there.

Yet, when Leclerc himself joined Ferrari in 2019, he did better than Vettel, who had been with the team for four years. Vettel himself was immediately faster than Raikkonen when he joined Ferrari in 2015, even though Kimi had plenty of experience (and one world championship) with the Scuderia. Alonso also had the upper hand over Massa right when he joined Ferrari in 2010. So no, the experienced Ferrari driver doesn't always perform better than the newcomer, rather the opposite.

[Nitrodaze]

Yet, when Leclerc himself joined Ferrari in 2019, he did better than Vettel, who had been with the team for four years. Vettel himself was immediately faster than Raikkonen when he joined Ferrari in 2015, even though Kimi had plenty of experience (and one world championship) with the Scuderia. Alonso also had the upper hand over Massa right when he joined Ferrari in 2010. So no, the experienced Ferrari driver doesn't always perform better than the newcomer, rather the opposite.

Interesting hypothesis. The only flaw in your analysis is that those were better cars than the SF25. All of those cars won races. In fact, the Chinese GP, where Hamilton won the Sprint race, is along your thinking. The SF25 went downhill from that race on. This season tells us nothing about Ferrari's future, but it tells us a lot about how much they messed up by changing an already great car. So, unfortunately, your theory does not hold up.