Vettel thinks F1 has taken a wrong turn – Abu Dhabi shows why

A tyre wear endurance race in Abu Dhabi illustrated why Vettel is unhappy with F1's current sporting philosophy

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2022 2 Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel at the Abu Dhabi GP

Vettel mentioned what he would change about F1 upon his exit from the championship

DPPI

I don’t want to sound negative because I love Formula 1 and always will, but there were a few statements over the Abu Dhabi GP weekend that, linked together, really made me wonder whether we’re headed in the right direction.

It was, of course, the last F1 race weekend for Sebastian Vettel. The regard for him from his peers was amply demonstrated by all 19 other drivers, with not one absentee, turning out for a dinner to wish him well.

Unsurprisingly and deservedly, his weekend was a plethora of fond recollections from his fellows, special Seb tribute helmets, ‘Danke Sebs’, back-pats, shoulder squeezes and hand-shakes.

Sebastian Vettel leads Fernando Alonso in the 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Vettel found himself struggling after being left out too long on first stint

Bryn Lennon/F1 via Getty Images

It’s a pity that Aston Martin left him out three or four laps too long on his starting set of medium Pirellis, losing him a heap of time and ultimately resulting in 10th place. Without that, he would comfortably have gotten across the line ahead of Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren, ensuring sixth place in the constructors’ championship for Aston rather than for Alfa Romeo on a countback. Vettel wasn’t thrilled. He left F1 as much a racer as the day he arrived.

Forgetting all that, he was asked what he would change about F1 if in a position to do so. As a worldly human being contemplating the next stage of life, it was perhaps unsurprising that he wanted to see more transparency and credibility.

“I think with all the claims and the things we’re saying we’re doing and want to do in the future, we need to prove that we are actually doing them,” he said.

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When it came to the cars themselves: “I would make them a lot lighter. I think it brings a lot of joy. By definition, if the cars are lighter we’ll have less problems with tyres. It will be more physical, more exhausting and more exciting.”

Amen to that. The first GP I attended was Silverstone ’77. It was exciting to stand next to Niki Lauda’s Ferrari 312T2 in the paddock. After only seeing F1 cars on TV, I couldn’t believe how small it was! Apparently, it weighed 575kg.

Today’s F1 weight limit is 792kg and, with a full tank of fuel, they start a race at around 900kg. Talking to Christian Horner over the weekend, he explained that such was the rush Red Bull had to transition onto the 2022 car after fighting to the wire in ’21, that the RB18 was 20kgs overweight in Bahrain. Not surprising that Max Verstappen, who hates understeer with a passion, was not exactly delighted…

2022 Red Bull driver Sergio Perez at the Abu Dhabi GP

Was Perez told not to pass Verstappen?

Red Bull

When Max won his 15th 2022 race after stroking along on his gentle one-stopper at Yas Marina, he didn’t seem to be bursting with excitement.

“It was all about tyre management,” he explained. “I think we looked after the mediums quite well. And then on the hard tyres it was literally managing from lap one to the end.” Great.

I’m not blaming Max, he’s never anything but unfailingly honest, but is that what a fan wants to hear? Any more than it’s a car that a racing driver wants to race?

Look at the key race points. Checo Perez suffered graining with his right front mediums in the opening stint, forcing him into an early lap 15 pit stop as Leclerc threatened within undercut range. But why did the tyres grain? Perez wasn’t racing anyone, Charles Leclerc in a slower Ferrari apart.

“The margins are so fine,” Christian Horner explained. “You can be a click of front wing out, a tiny bit of ride height or a small bit of mechanical balance and it will have a dramatic effect on your tyre life. Checo’s first stint in particular just compromised him.”

Then later, when Perez, now on a two-stop, caught his gently-driving one-stopping team-mate, why did he not simply go by? It should have been a piece of cake on fresher tyres that he didn’t need to worry too much about with a second stop planned.

I’m afraid I don’t have the answer. Was it because he wanted the team to move Max out of the way because he didn’t want to have to compromise his tyres trying to make a pukka pass?

That’s entirely possible given the apparent fragility of the tyres. But it’s just as easy to understand why the team might not have been keen on making a move-over request of its double champion given what the reaction had been in Brazil! Who knows what’s in their respective contracts. Maybe Sergio wasn’t actually allowed to go by.

Maybe the real explanation is rooted way back in Monaco. Despite a couple of agents provocateurs, nobody seemed to have any real interest in opening an investigation into Perez’s Q3 ‘spin’, despite FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem saying that it was no problem if the governing body was actually asked to do so.

2022 Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz at the Abu Dhabi GP

Sainz had to back off to preserve tyres after early Hamilton fight

“No,” said McLaren’s Zak Brown, “I think that train long since left the station…”

And then there was Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari, forced onto a two-stop strategy because of the impact on his tyres of having the temerity to actually try racing Lewis Hamilton early on.

It’s easy to blame Pirelli but these are the fastest, heaviest, severest-loading cars in F1 history. Vettel is right. The cars are too heavy.

But, doing something about it is not easy. Once you’ve committed again to 1.6-litre V6 turbos with loads of electrical energy recovery kit, heavy batteries and so forth, then you’ve basically got a long-wheelbase tractor. Maybe there was an opportunity with the 2026 regs but, to borrow Zak’s words, that train long since left the station too.

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