Be in no doubt, there is no sport that feels more like the set of a glorified TV show than F1. This is a TV drama on wheels, whether the tyres are soft or medium, and here at the Yas Marina Circuit, with the curtain about to come down on the whole production, it got the most spectacular and bewildering of late plot twists, the most epic of endings. You want heart-in-your-mouth TV? Well, F1 has rules that should never disappoint. And, somehow, it will contrive to find you a winner.
Did the right guy win, and was it the good guy or the bad guy? Well, it was the most fortunate guy, for sure.
•Max Verstappen pips Lewis Hamilton to Formula One title
Lewis Hamilton led the race for nearly 300 kilometres. Comfortably ahead. Fastest car. Yet it was decided that all this should count for nothing; the entire drivers’ championship would be a 5.5km, one-lap, big-thrills shot at glory instead. And therein was Hamilton the runner-up.
The murder of Hamilton’s drivers’ championship wasn’t even carried out by his year-long rival, Max Verstappen. That was the twist. The identity of the villain turned out to be Nicholas Latifi with the over-steer under the W Hotel. Cluedo at 200 mph.
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“Unbelievable!” was the reaction from Hamilton on race radio when it became clear that Latifi had crashed and his long lead was now to be snuffed out. Then a long expletive. As if he was waiting for the poison finally to work its way through his system and kill him off.
For the first 53 laps, here by this reclaimed Abu Dhabi harbour, this grand prix was proper sport worthy of the name. Grand racing. Yet, at the end of it all, Hamilton remained seated in his Mercedes, still holding his emotions back behind his visor, unable to face the reality that somehow this championship had been taken from him.
Obviously there was a camera in his face. Or feet away from his visor. We then panned to Verstappen going nuts and everyone hugging him going nuts. Some quick words for the viewers: “It’s insane. I don’t know what to say.”
Then the show continues. Verstappen celebrating with his father, Jos, F1’s ultimate helicopter parent. Then Hamilton being consoled by his own father, a bit-part player who was largely written out of the show years ago.
Just when we thought it was all over (isn’t there a familiar piece of TV commentary to fit here?), the news broke that it wasn’t. Hamilton’s team were appealing against the outcome. At which point, this TV show started to look more farce than whodunnit.
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More on this TV show thing: every professional sport needs its TV broadcasters, F1 just services them better. The drivers know they have two jobs: they are the fastest racers on the planet and they double up as TV stars. You can’t be a talented athlete but a reluctant showman here. The paddock is heaving with cameras and not just the Netflix crew. These last few days, we have seen some really awkward interviews, but that’s good TV too, no?
You can choose to see this as the future for sport — the ultimate TV reality show — because it is clearly a switch-on. Many sports look at what F1 has done, rightly, with admiration. Conversely, you can filter it into a more modern understanding of the pressures facing international athletes.
Naomi Osaka, the tennis player, told us that it was too much and she took time out of the tour. Nico Rosberg won a similarly tense drivers’ championship in 2016 and within a week had declared that that was it; he was retiring.
The whole F1 cast had arrived here with the rules being reinterpreted throughout the season. Yet the product of it all was that the drivers’ championship was perfectly balanced: Hamilton and Verstappen on equal points.
It didn’t disappoint. It had been expected that Hamilton would get pole but Verstappen took it from him. With that, the odds swayed marginally in Verstappen’s favour. At least, with his superior tyres, he would take the lead at turn one. Yet Hamilton did him at the start. Gripping, edge-of-seat stuff.
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This was what we wanted. Almost every driver, expert, former driver and, of course, TV personality in the paddock agreed that they wanted a race to the finish and that whoever won the day deserved the title.
So it was first honours to Hamilton when he nosed ahead at turn one. Then came turn six, straight into turn seven — always likely to be a decisive stretch. Again drama: Verstappen late-braking and attacking on the inside but Hamilton fighting him off and Verstappen being forced to back down. Another (controversial) Hamilton victory.
Then came the long parade to the finish when it became a competition more between the cars than their drivers, and here Hamilton’s Mercedes was comfortably the victor. Hamilton stretched away and built up a lead that looked irreversible. Red Bull then elected to strategise and changed tyres. Verstappen started to close yet still Hamilton’s lead was too great. It was a procession.
We were about to witness Hamilton’s eighth title — the record, one more than Michael Schumacher. This was to be the crowning moment of the most decorated driver of all time. He had won the start, the battle at turn seven and then the rest of the race. There was no decisive point at which he was second best. And — didn’t we agree? — whoever won the day deserved to win the title.
Yet F1 is not as simple as that, is it? With five laps to go, Hamilton had a 12-second lead. He had definitively won the day. And yet . . .
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Here was where Latifi came in with the late twist: the crash at turn 14, under the W Hotel. On came the safety car and, at that point, Hamilton recognised the reality of his busted title crown.
The race stewards decided there and then that the entire year would be decided by one flying lap. Great television. Obviously. And that 12-second lead, the five laps to go — it counted for nothing.
The whole year has been great television. That has been the triumph of F1. The downfall is that the rules have changed as the year has endured and as the title race/show got hotter and hotter, the two leading teams have been openly arguing over how to apply them.
So this is how it ended yesterday. Verstappen was celebrating. Red Bull were going nuts. Pan to Hamilton’s long face. Credits roll. Thanks for tuning in. Ad break. End.
But the two teams were still arguing. Was that sport or just great drama? See you next season.
