| Preview – F2 Round 14 – Abu Dhabi |
Just a few days after celebrating our first victory of the season, we are ready to race in Abu Dhabi at the grand finale to the 2024 FIA Formula 2 Championship.
Notwithstanding Paul Aron’s long-overdue win in the Lusail Feature Race last weekend, he has enough podiums and points finishes in hand to still have a shot at the Drivers’ title. It is an outside chance, but anything can happen in Formula 2, and it often does.
Paul is currently third in the Standings, 25.5 points shy of Gabriel Bortoleto. Between them sits Isack Hadjar, just half a point adrift of the lead. The Estonian has a mountain to climb to topple the pair, but Lusail proved that he still has plenty of fight left in him.
What a season it has been. Paul’s Qatar victory brought the number of wins by different teams to 11, which only serves to underline how closely fought the 2024 edition of this highly competitive series has been. We made the most of the 10-week hiatus between Baku and Lusail to try to gain an advantage versus the other teams, and the hard work paid off almost immediately after the first turning of wheels in last Friday’s Practice.
In that opening session, Paul and Amaury Cordeel took the flag in first and seventh positions respectively, which augured well for last Sunday’s race, which they finished in those same positions. Paul’s fourth pole position was obviously decisive for the Feature, and for Saturday’s Sprint, but such is the performance level in the car after Baku, thanks to an impressive drive and a solid strategy Amaury was able to convert a more disappointing qualifying into valuable points, with a seventh-place finish that contributed to Hitech being able to leapfrog two places in the Teams’ Standings in one fell swoop. We now sit fourth, just 2.5 points from a place in the top three.
We can’t deny that the team will be on the edge of our seats with anticipation this weekend, but above all, this event will be about optimising the car, seizing any opportunity that comes our way, and hoping for both drivers to end the season on a high, in whatever form that may take.
Abu Dhabi is always a fantastic venue for bringing the curtain down on a thrilling season. It has witnessed some sensational championship shootouts over the years – and this will undoubtedly be one of them.
The Yas Marina Circuit presents an interesting setup challenge for the teams. The first two sectors need good top-end speed asRemove listing thumbnail most of the two long straights are spent on the throttle. However, they need to find a compromise that also takes into account the tight and twisting nature of the final sector, which calls for downforce. The heavy braking zones at the end of the straights, particularly Turn 6 generate significant brake wear, while the long left-hander, Turn 9, places a heavy demand on the front right tyre. Tyre wear won’t be quite as significant as it was in Lusail, but still a consideration for the drivers.
Given that the stakes are so high in both Championship battles, tyre choice will be key, especially in the Feature Race. Adding to that challenge, new compounds have been selected for this year – the Supersoft and the Medium.
There are so many subplots to this season finale. Paul Aron’s fourth pole position in Lusail puts him ahead of any other driver on the grid. In the six visits to Yas Marina so far, the Feature Race has always been won from pole, so pole number five is a target.
Paul is also tied with Isack Hadjar for the most podiums of the season – they each have eight.
There has also tended to be a high incidence of Safety Car interventions, which can turn a strategy completely on its head here and be the making or breaking of a driver’s race.
Come what may, it all ends here this weekend. Let’s go, Team!
Schedule
Friday 6 December
11:05 Free Practice
15:00 Qualifying session
Saturday 7 December
16:15 Sprint Race (23 Laps)
Sunday 8 December
13:25 Feature Race (33 Laps)
Grid set by reversing Top 12 of Qualifying Results
All times local
