For the first time in three years the world championship will be decided in the final round at Abu Dhabi.
Not the drivers’ title, of course, but a fight for the constructors’ crown between a pair of teams who haven’t won it for a long time. Ferrari’s 16-year title drought is their longest ever, while McLaren has gone 26 years without a championship – no team has ever gone that long between crowns.
After 282 days and 23 rounds, Formula 1’s longest ever season finally comes to an end on Sunday with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It will see many ‘lasts’ plus one notable ‘first’.
Lewis Hamilton’s record-breaking tenure at Mercedes will come to an end after 12 seasons. Other drivers are changing teams and a few more are saying goodbye to F1. But for one racer, the final race of the season promises to be the first of their career.
Here are the talking points for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
McLaren or Ferrari?
The drivers’ title fight may be over, but one championship remains to be decided on Sunday at Yas Marina.
McLaren and Ferrari are two of the biggest names in Formula 1, yet neither has won either of F1’s titles for over 15 years. That will change on Sunday, with Red Bull now eliminated from contention.
McLaren lost their chance to clinch the championship last weekend in Qatar, with Lando Norris’s penalty proving costly. With a 21-point advantage over Ferrari, McLaren look far more likely to succeed, but Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jnr will be ready to punish any error or setback for their team’s rivals on Sunday for their last grand prix as team mates.
Hamilton’s Mercedes farewell
After 12 seasons, 84 grand prix victories, 78 pole positions, 153 podiums, 3,937.5 points, six drivers’ championships and eight constructors’ championship titles, this Sunday will be Lewis Hamilton’s 246th and final grand prix as a Mercedes driver.
Officially the longest and most successful tenure for a driver at any team in Formula 1 history, it’s fair to say Hamilton has proven those who criticised his move from McLaren to Mercedes for 2013 comprehensively wrong.
The last three seasons of the ground effect era have been the most challenging and unsuccessful of Hamilton’s time at Mercedes. But this year’s British Grand Prix victory will forever stand out as one of the most memorable moments in their shared history. Hamilton also added a second win at the Belgian Grand Prix following the disqualification of team mate George Russell.
After a dismal Qatar Grand Prix, both Hamilton and Mercedes will be desperate to make this final race together a positive one.
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Perez finished at Red Bull?
Although it is far from official, rumours abound that Sergio Perez’s four-year spell at Red Bull will come to a close after this weekend.
Yas Marina was the scene of one of his finest moments in a Red Bull back in 2021, when he played a crucial role in helping Max Verstappen clinch the championship. He has also taken five victories for the team, the most recent in Azerbaijan last year.
Can he finally deliver a performance he can be proud of to cap off a terrible season? And if this is the end, will he get a proper sign-off, or will this be a repeat of Daniel Ricciardo’s awkward farewell from Red Bull’s second team in Singapore?
More drivers moving on
This weekend will be the final race for many drivers with their current teams, with some likely to be racing in F1 for the last time.
At the end of his fourth season at Maranello, Sainz will leave Ferrari after this weekend and join Williams. Sainz has won four grands prix in his time with the Prancing Horse, including two victories this season in Melbourne and Mexico City.
Nico Hulkenberg marks the end of his second and last season as a Haas driver before his move back to Sauber next year ahead of their transition into Audi. His team mate Kevin Magnussen will likely compete in a grand prix for the final time this weekend, his 185th start.
Both Sauber drivers, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, will race together for the final time and possibly for the last time as F1 drivers. Neither has secured a race seat for 2025 but both have been linked to reserve driver roles for 2025 with Mercedes and Ferrari, respectively. Franco Colapinto is also making his final start for Williams, but his performances since taking over from Logan Sargeant have marked him out as a candidate for a return at some point in the future.
And as for Esteban Ocon…
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Doohan’s debut
…there will be no Ocon on the grid this weekend. Alpine previously announced Jack Doohan would take his place in 2025, but following last week’s race the team revealed he will make his grand prix debut one race early.
The son of multiple Moto GP 500cc champion Mick Doohan, the 21-year-old will line up on the grid for the first time ahead of his first full season with Alpine in 2025. Doohan’s opportunity comes after Alpine agreed an early release of Ocon to allow next year’s Haas driver to drive this year’s VF-24 in next week’s post-season test.
While Doohan may have driven this year’s Alpine already in Friday practices in Montreal and Silverstone, he has not raced competitively since last year’s Formula 2 round at the Yas Marina circuit. But the championship situation will add extra pressure on the debutant.
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Settling sixth place
Doohan’s debut comes on a critical race weekend for Alpine who, along with Haas and RB, are fighting over sixth place in the constructors’ championship.
After Alpine jumped up into sixth with a double podium in Brazil, Haas took it back the next round in Las Vegas. But last weekend, Pierre Gasly’s fifth place moved Alpine back into sixth again.
With just five points separating Alpine and Haas, every position gained on Sunday will be crucial. RB will require a major haul of points to snatch sixth at the last moment, but how competitive they are could also determine whether the order changes on the final Sunday of the season.
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Friday practice cameo extravaganza
Friday’s practice sessions are the final time that teams can cram in their rookie driver practice requirements they are obliged to do for each of their cars at least once in the season.
Like last year, expect to see different faces in the opening session of the weekend. McLaren development driver and Toyota WEC racer Ryo Hirawaka makes his debut in a grand prix weekend for the team, with F2 title contender Isack Hadjar driving Verstappen’s RB20 in the opening session. At Aston Martin, Felipe Drugovich will also replace Lance Stroll in the first Friday session.
Race controlled?
The stewards’ decisions last weekend in Qatar made many headlines. But so did another by new race director Rui Marques, who chose not to intervene when Alex Albon’s wing mirror came off during the grand prix. This was criticised by some.
A day after the race, the FIA explained why there had been no Safety Car or VSC when the mirror fell onto the track, outlining that the field was too spread out to allow the incident to be covered under a Virtual Safety Car.
Marques is at the end of a run of four consecutive race weekends in four different time zones, starting with the Macau Grand Prix, then his first Formula 1 grand prix in Las Vegas a week later. That was followed by F1 and F2 the next week in Qatar before the same again this weekend in Abu Dhabi.
F1 and F2 drivers spoke positively of Marques prior to last weekend, but relations between the competitors and the FIA are not good, and a string of sackings at the governing body has provoked questions about Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s administration. On the third anniversary of the notorious controversy involving race control, will the weekend go by without any further dramas?
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