The 2009 Season Finale: Yas Marina Abu Dhabi

My last predictions of this Formula One season! The final race of this season takes place in Abu Dhabi at the newly constructed Yas Marina Circuit. No one has seen this track firsthand and right now both McLarens are on the pace. Kovalainen leads Hamilton by a few tenths and then it is F1 World Champion 2009 Jenson Button in third. Vettel is in fourth right now followed by the impressive rookie Kamui Kobayashi in the Toyota. I think that this race is going to come down to who can keep up with both of the McLarens. This also means that I think…no, I know that McLaren will retain third in the manufacturer’s standings. Fisi hasn’t really done anything with his Ferrari and Kimi don’t care enough to go fast. He’s just looking to next season when he will be driving either a rally car or listening to his awesome speakers hewn from living rocks. Right now he is trying to sew up a deal with McLaren to be their second driver, but his contract states that he is allowed to go rally racing, but McLaren don’t want him to do that during the season. It will be interesting to see whether or not he gets to drive for his old team again, and if he does, whether they will allow him to race rally cars during the season. Personally, I am hoping that he does go to McLaren and then there is a huge squabble between the team and Kimi about driving. That would be fun to read about. Ok, back to the race at hand. Winning this race will be Hamilton. I have a feeling that he is gaining a lot of confidence with his car, and that the KERS system will be in full effect. In second will be Vettel, and third will be Button. The rest of the point scorers will be Raikkonen, Webber, Kobayashi, Rosberg and Kovalainen. I think that this race will be a forgettable affair, but the track will look good and the place will be pretty. The track is very wide open and features huge run-off areas for the racers. I think there may be some passing, but it will be from the people at the back of the pack and won’t matter all that much. As far as crashes go, I don’t expect there to be any of those because the start is fairly simple and all the corners are very wide. Come back on Monday for the full recap and a look forward to next season.

Donnington Done and Rosberg on the Move

The British Grand Prix will not be heading to Donnington Park. That is the statement straight from the horse’s mouth. Bernie has made it clear that Donnington have missed all the deadlines that they needed to make to get the British Grand Prix away from Silverstone, but they could not come up with the money. This leaves the British Grand Prix in doubt for next year, but I think that both Bernie and the BRDC will come to a conclusion, because no one wants to miss Britain having a round of the championship. Of course, I would also like the French Grand Prix and the US Grand Prix back, but what do I know?

Also in the news, it has been announced that it is the last race for Nico Rosberg at Williams. This isn’t really new news per se, as it has been speculated for a couple of weeks now that he would be moving on, but it remains to be seen where. Some people think McLaren, while others are betting on Brawn because of the increased Mercedes backing. Personally, I would say that Brawn and Williams are going to do a straight driver-for-driver swap with Barrichello going to Sir Frank’s team.

Weekend predictions come tomorrow and then it will be time for the final race of the year.

F1 News and Opinions Update

There isn’t a whole lot of news coming out of the F1 camps this week, though there are rumblings that Jenson wants more money now that he is world champion, and Brawn don’t want to pay it. Also, Rubens Barrichello may end up being a Williams driver – Mark Webber seems to think it’s a done deal – and, surprise, surprise, Donnington Park is late and will not be hosting a Grand Prix.

You know, the BRDC (British Racing Drivers Club) seemed to know that Donnington would never get this deal done, and they have a perfectly good track in Silverstone sitting right there, ready to use. I don’t understand why Bernie hates Silverstone so much. Is it because it has too much history behind it? Because the drivers really seem to like it? Ok, so I know it’s because he wants more money and the track is very horrible when it comes to accommodations and the traffic sucks, but come on. I think I have mentioned this before, but I really am not Bernie’s biggest fan. He seems to be trying to destroy the traditional races that have been on the calendar for a long time, to make way for races that sign up for big money, but then can’t sustain the viewership or turnout. Turkey, China and Malaysia are all good examples of this. I saw a video today that the new Yas Marina Circuit has seating for a whole 50,000 people! Whoopty-fricken-do. The Canadian Grand Prix (which is coming back next year thank god) always has more than 100,000 people attend. Now, much of that number is due to the fact that Montreal is much more accessible than Abu Dhabi, but that isn’t the point with Bernie. See he is in it for the money up front and doesn’t care about what happens afterward. As long as he sees the greenbacks (or whatever color money they have there) up front, he is a happy man. So, will this last Grand Prix be exciting? Maybe. Will it have lots of people watching? For this inaugural race, yes. Can it sustain itself for a long time? Based on many of the new tracks in F1, no. But all that will come later, after Bernie is rolling around in his money vault like Scrooge McDuck.