The final action for the 2024 breed of Formula One cars began today at the Abu Dhabi circuit which hosted the final race of the season last weekend. The one day test was allocated to Pirelli even though the F1 tyre supplier will begin next season with the rubber compounds they finished with this year.

The start of the day was delayed by 25 minutes as the medical helicopter inexplicably failed to arrive on time. Another interruption then occurred as a water leak soaked the track under the hotel bridge which crosses the circuit in sector three.

 

 

Russell crash ends Mercedes test

Mercedes revealed a component failure on their W14 was in part to blame for George Russell hitting the barrier at turn 6 just before the lunch brake. 

The British driver had completed 58 laps and there was around five hours of the day remaining when the car returned to the pits. Initially what was believed to be a simple stoppage saw the end of running for the W14 as the front end damage was more significant than first thought.

The test ended with Esteban Ocon posting the fastest time of 1m24.393s, nearly three-tenths faster than his nearest rival.

Pato O’Ward from IndyCar was the quickest of the rookie drivers taking second place ahead of the much talked about F2 Mercedes’ junior driver Frederik Vesti.

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Water on track – more test delays

Sergio Perez was only fourth quickest as the record braking RB19 saw its final outing before being retired to the Red Bull museum.

Next up were the two Spaniards with Carlos Sainz bringing home his Ferrari ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin. F2 feature race winner in Abu Dhabi, Jack Doohan was seventh ahead of the Ferrari academy driver Robert Swartzman, then came Logan Sargeant whose future at Williams is still undecided.

Charles Leclerc finished tenth as he split the Ferrari duties with Carlos Sainz and the newly crowned F2 champion – Theo Pourchaire – was a respectable 11th for Alfa Romeo followed by Aston Martin’s reserve driver Felipe Drugovich.

Yuki Tsunoda was thirteenth. The Japanese driver just failed to see his AlphaTauri team climb above Williams despite beating Lewis Hamilton in last weekends Grand Prix. 

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Pirelli to ditch C-zero compound

Formula E champion Jake Dennis competed in FP1 of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and he had another opportunity to drive the RB19 finishing 14th ahead of Ayumu Iwasa, who made his F1 debut for AlphaTauri. 

Iwasa caused a late red flag during the final hour of running when his AlphaTauri broke down with smoke pouring out of the rear. 

Pirelli are ditching the C zero compound for next season, though the rest of the dry weather tyres are expected to remain the same. The pressure is now off the F1 tyre supplier given the F1 commission have abandoned the banning of tyre blankets for at least the next two years.

The Italian tyre manufacturer had been struggling to produce tyres that could operate consistently from cold to the extreme highs that they reach during a race with a number of high speed corners. The move was designed to reduce the teams use of electricity in warming the tyres as part of the FIA’s push for net zero in 2030.

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Russell calls for personnel bans

George Russell revealed he was feeling exhausted given the schedule the teams and drivers had been forced to work to over the final 5 Grand Prix of the year.

“The drivers, we have it the best from every single person in this paddock,” Russell said.

”The way we travel, we’re in a very fortunate position, but everybody up and down the paddock – I’ve got so many mechanics who are ill, people in the engineers’ office, just really struggling with the constant time zone shifts, the body not knowing where you are, eating at different times, staying in different hotels, different environments, different climates.

“The body’s getting confused. I think there are talks for next year about personnel being regulated that they can’t do every single race.

“I think that would be a good thing. I don’t think it’s sustainable for 4,000 people to do 24 races a season, especially when you see how geographically it still doesn’t make a huge amount of sense.”

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George been ill for weeks

The Mercedes driver has been living with an infection for the past couple of weeks and described how it affected him during the run up to the season finale.

Russell has been carrying a fever for the past couple of weeks, and revealed how it affected him during his run to third in Abu Dhabi.

“I’ve been really ill the last two weeks. Firstly, in Vegas with a big fever, I couldn’t sleep and just felt awful,” he said.

“Then I’ve had a horrendous cough that stayed with me all week in the car. I was coughing every single lap but when you’re strapped into the car, you can’t breathe.

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“You can’t take a deep breath in to get the cough out. So, it was just constantly with me. It was pretty, pretty miserable. So, I was pleased to bring it home when I saw that chequered flag.”

The drivers have already complained about the end of season schedule planned for next year, which will see Las Vegas begin a triple header of events as the team move on to Qatar and then the weekend after in Abu Dhabi.

It will be impossible for the F1 calendar to be altered for next year given it has been ratified and events like Las Vegas are already selling tickets for their 2024 event.

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