All eyes were on Alonso last weekend, which was possibly the reason why Vettel managed to slip through so unnoticed.
It always helps when the pressure isn’t being directed right at you. Alonso had varying amounts of dignitaries and royals swarming around him on the grid like bees around honey yet even with all the moral support events unfolded in a rather unfavourable way for him. The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was one that I think a few teams and drivers were fearing and considering that the championship was hinged on the result of this race it escalated the pressure further. Red Bull has been producing well the past few races and so it was no surprise that Vettel had secured his place on pole. A simple tactic was employed but the timing had to be impeccable such that when the driver was called into the pit they had to have a certain time advantage over the midfield pack so that they wouldn’t be caught behind them when returning from the pits. Vettel and Hamilton lead the pack at the start of the race and began to build up a lead over the other drivers, until Schumacher was taken out and luckily escaped having his face impacted by another driver landing on top of him. This prompted a safety car period and compacted the pack so that the leaders were once again up to the rest of the pack. Following this accident nothing major happened that resulted in another safety car being deployed. This led to the leaders once again building up there lead of the pack. A few of the midfield drivers took the safety car period as an opportunity to change tyres but the leaders held off as long as they could to maximise their potential in time. This tactic was hit and miss for the teams, Ferrari made a big mistake with it and ended up letting Alonso back out but stuck behind the midfield pack. This was the one and only problem that Alonso had encountered, since Abu Dhabi is such a difficult track to overtake on it left Alonso stuck in 11th and he only managed to get into 7th be the end of the race leaving him 4 points behind Vettel who secured the win for 25 points propelling him into the lead to take this year’s Drivers’ Championship. What a way to end the season. Thrilling to the last second and giving us a new Champion who has shown his strength in the sport and who I hope we will see giving us an even better season next year. Even though the Formula 1 season is over, there’s always a way to get your racing fix by coming Karting to one of Team-Sports amazing tracks. Since they are all indoors as well it’s a great activity to do in this cold weather.