A thousand and one doubts

The first day of free practice F1 Abu Dhabi GP ended up generating a lot of doubt and complications for all the teams in ‘Great Circus’. This Saturday a main classification will be held for everyone’s aspirations in Sunday’s race. And to top it off, the teams ended Friday with more questions than answers. A thousand and one doubts, you can call it a story, near the deserts of the East featured in so many historical stories. This Friday, at Circuit of Yas Marinalittle can be learned after all that has happened on the track, or rather, little can be seen.

The first training sessions were very unrepresentative. Almost nothing. On the one hand, because 10 young pilots participated to replace another 10 officers. And also, because the track is very dirty and ‘green’, with a lot of room for improvement. The teams faced the Free 2 with a lot of work to do and extensive programs to find the right height of their cars that will allow them to find the best balance between the greatest possible aerodynamic grip and the greatest reduction in bounce that singles have experienced -seater in FP1. They also had to find the appropriate adjustments to be as competitive as possible in the straight parts of sector 2 and the crooked areas of sector 3. All this, to prepare for a classification that is more key to Abu Dhabi.

However, two accidents prevented the teams from completing their programs. All the drivers rode very little and were unable to perform a long test of race speed and tire wear. Just a few turns with the medium to attack directly with the soft in the final classification simulation.

Sainz and Hülkenberg accidents

Carlos Sainz, who had already tried several adjustments and heights in Free Practice 1 that did not work, went to the track with the aim of improving the sensations of his car. But in turn 3, due to the strong rebound of his car in that turn and the dirty air that the car in front of him released, he lost control of his Ferrari and went quickly into the wall. The impact was severe, but the driver was able to get out of the vehicle on his own two feet and was uninjured.

The accident of Sainz This happened with just 8 minutes of the session underway and with 26 minutes to go the cars were lining up again in the pit lane to exit the track. They have so much to do and so little time. But what they don’t know is that things will get more complicated at that moment. With 22 minutes remaining, a second red flag was shown due to an accident by Nico Hulkenberg.

The cars returned to the pits without conducting tests and returned to the track with 15 minutes to spare. After a few rounds in the medium, came the ‘qualy’ simulation, with all the teams with a lot of doubts to be lost, with less conclusions than the other dayssomething you can add greater complications in the preparation of ‘qualy’ this Saturday and give more uncertainty to the match at one turn.

Leclerc takes the lead before Norris and Verstappen hide

On this track, on paper, Red Bull should be the big favourite, but at the moment, Verstappen is 3rd in his attack and was unable to improve his time in his last attempt. The fastest of FP2 was Charles Leclerc, with Lando Norris (McLaren) at 43 thousandths and Max, 3rd at 0.173.

In this sense, in the pursuing zone, the theory says that McLaren should be more competitive than Ferrari at Yas Marina. The doubt is in Mercedeswhich should keep a tight fight for 4th place in Builders with Ferraris on this track, and to see what Aston Martin is capable of. For now, Alonso was 11th and Stroll, 13th. The The parity across the grid is huge and getting into Q2 and Q3 will be very expensive for almost everyone. And more, with so many questions in the air.