F1 Talk: Hamilton Ends on a High; as Hulkenberg Crash Sparks Halo Debate

408 points. That’s the number of points Lewis Hamilton has scored this season after succeeding in becoming a 5-time world champion. In fact, it’s the most points anybody has ever scored in an F1 season (albeit the points system has changed and there are more races nowadays). Nevertheless, it doesn’t detract from the incredible performance Hamilton has executed this year and he more than deserves this championship.

It looked like it would be a close fight after three closely fought practice sessions with the long runs looking encouraging in terms of another Red Bull/Ferrari/Mercedes battle at the front of the field. Hamilton had other ideas.

The 33-year-old put down a marker in Q2 with a lap that was just as spectacular as his pole position lap in Singapore. He always seems to turn on the afterburners for Q2 and Q3. The Brit backed it up with a solid lap to take his pole position tally to 83. Can Hamilton really get to 100? That would be something.

Come Sunday, he nailed the start and looked like he had it totally under control. Mercedes elected to pit him under the VSC after Kimi Raikkonen stopped out on track whilst none of Hamilton’s rivals pitted to try and do something different to him to win the Grand Prix.

Hamilton rejoined the race in 5th position on his supersoft tyres but rather than fighting his rivals (other than 2-3 laps with Max Verstappen) he just sat back knowing that Verstappen, Ricciardo, Vettel and Bottas would all come in to the pits giving Hamilton the lead again. This is exactly what happened.

With fresher tyres, Vettel managed to close the gap down after overtaking Bottas but Hamilton was just winning at the slowest pace possible. Remember, Hamilton’s engine was damaged so Mercedes were nervous all weekend as to if it was going to go bang during the race. I thought Hamilton would have needed to take a grid penalty but Mercedes decided to risk it and it paid off as Hamilton took his 11th win of the year – equalling the most number of wins he has had (2014 being the other year).

Valtteri Bottas had a race to forget. I touched on this in my Driver Ratings article earlier this week. I honestly believe that had Mercedes not signed a contract with Bottas so early (in July) and waited until the, Ricciardo to Renault and Sainz to McLaren and everything else kicked off, to play out Esteban Ocon would be at Mercedes next year and not Bottas. If Ferrari and Red Bull can improve and put even more pressure on Mercedes, Bottas must perform because Hamilton might not score 400+ points again.

Whilst it was relatively quiet at the front, the midfield saw plenty of action as it has done all year long. A collision between Romain Grosjean and Nico Hulkenberg at turn eight saw Hulkenberg’s car flip over and land upsidown on a barrier. A small fire made things even scarier but luckily the marshals put out the fire very quickly. The collision itself was a racing incident in my opinion.

It was very similar to the Ocon/Verstappen collision in Brazil and in a way I’m surprised we don’t see cars flipping over more often after wheels collide like that.

Hulkenberg couldn’t get out of the car and with a sudden fire it sparked the question of whether the halo prevented Hulkenberg from getting out of the car and whether it could even create a problem that wasn’t a problem at first.

I have a lot to say about the halo and safety in general in motorsport so some of my thoughts will now be said.

In the early 1990s, people were sayings F1 is too safe… then Imola 1994 happened. The whole world looked at F1 in such a negative way with many reactions including banning motorsport or not racing in certain countries etc. As we know, many brilliant changes were made to the cars which have saved many drivers from injury or even death in the last 20 years in the motorsport world.

Now, we have people again saying F1 is too safe and that the halo takes away some of the dangers of the sport. The acceptable level of risk is constantly on the change and we cannot simply draw a line and say “we are not going to make the cars any safer.” I hear some of you saying “you might as well have driverless cars then.” That’s not what I’m saying at all, I’m just saying making things safer around the sport, whether it is the cars, or the track or something else cannot be argued against because it wouldn’t be done if it wasn’t safer.

When Bernie Ecclestone proposed that every F1 circuit have a minimum quality medical centre, helicopter evacuation available, an FIA approved doctor following the pack in a medical car. Many circuits and people resented the proposal.

It is a very similar scenario to the halo now. It doesn’t look great but has it really stopped you from watching F1? Is the halo THE reason that you have stopped watching F1 (if you have)? Of course it isn’t, in fact probably nobody has stopped watching F1 because of the halo. You really don’t notice it during a race because you’re just focusing on the racing.

In the past, it looked silly/strange when high cockpits or when drivers feet were mandated to be no further forward than the front axle but they don’t look so silly now. A 1970s F1 car were deemed to be “safe enough” compared to a 1960s F1 car, but horribly dangerous compared to one from the late 1980s which in itself was dangerous to an early 1990s car, which in itself was dangerous to an early 2000s car which in itself was dangerous compared to a car from 2018 and so on…

That is why I don’t mind the halo, I just don’t see how you can be against it when in 20 years it will be seen in exactly the same way as the HANS device (for instance) is looked at now.

I don’t think I have talked about the halo in a negative way this year and we mustn’t forget that this is the first season we have had the halo. It’s now normal and is used in all open cockpit series apart from IndyCar. In terms of safety, I think focus needs to move back to the tracks to see if each one on the calendar can be improved.

Things like making the fencing higher in some places or not having kerbs that are too high at the end of a fast part of the track should be looked at – especially after Sophia Floresch’s nasty accicent in Macau two weeks ago.

Back to the on track action we saw in Abu Dhabi.

Charles Leclerc impressed again in his final race for Sauber. The Sauber car itself has been the 4th-5th best car at times in the latter part of the year which has made some of Leclerc’s performances look better then they are in reality. The Monegasque driver is super composed and is ready to fill the boots of Kimi Raikkonen.

I have always thought that Leclerc’s biggest strength is qualifying. Vettel is an excellent qualifier so if he can outqualify Vettel next season, that will be mightily impressive. Leclerc vs. Vettel will be the teammate battle to watch out for in 2019.

Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez flew under the radar with good results. Both making the most of not getting through to Q3 to not start on the hypersoft tyre and both having very good pace to stay ahead of the likes of the Haas driver whilst taking advantage of the high number of retirements that occurred.

It was the final race for Fernando Alonso who get a massive farewell throughout the weekend. Alonso cut the turn 7/8 chicane three times in the last three laps to try and catch Kevin Magnussen to take a solitary point. In doing so the stewards gave him a 5-second time penalty each time! Alonso just rings the neck out of any car he drives and it’s F1’s loss that the Spaniard is departing.

After nearly 3792 miles of racing, the season is over. A 5-time champion was crowned and a team won 5 championships on the spin. We got a lot from 2018 and can only hope that 2019 gives us more of the same, plus a championship that goes down to the wire.

There is only 80 days until testing so the F1 world will be back on tour again before you know it.