Vettel Finishes His Final F1 Lap As Ferrari Holds on for P2: Takeaways From Abu Dhabi

The bittersweet season finale left some teams looking to the future and other drivers focusing on one final bow.

After a long 246 days, the 2022 Formula One season finished in a puff of smoke as fireworks sounded off and two Red Bulls, a Ferrari and later, an Aston Martin perfectly executed donuts in front of the main grandstand. 

Elsewhere on the track, a McLaren and a Haas followed suit as fans cheered through the looming farewell that hung over the paddock in recent months, weeks and, for one driver, days. Some drivers were left likely hoping for more from Abu Dhabi, like Lewis Hamilton, who had his first mechanical failure of the season, while others, like Charles Leclerc, could finally let out the breath they were holding after a roller coaster year.

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was a nail-biter once again as Leclerc and Sergio Pérez battled for second place in the drivers’ championship, while Ferrari hoped to hold onto its lead over Mercedes for second in the constructors’ standings. This season was the longest one yet, starting back with the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 20 and ending in the United Arab Emirates on Nov. 20, approximately 372 miles from where the first match of the World Cup kicked off on Sunday. 

In the end, Max Verstappen brought home his 15th victory of the season while Leclerc hung on with his one-stop strategy to stay just 1.3 seconds ahead of Pérez, securing his spot as vice champion. 

Pérez, who won in Monaco and Singapore, said after the race, per formula1.com, “Certainly there are some great, great days that we had during the season. We had great moments, great battling. I think I did struggle a bit with the tires for this year, in terms of managing the tires in the race. So, hopefully that can be something we improve for next [year] and generally just be a bit stronger.”

Coupled with Hamilton’s DNF and Carlos Sainz’s fourth-place finish, Ferrari took home second in the constructors’ championship after a season that saw both the highest of highs (Bahrain) and lowest of lows (the double DNF in Baku). 

"Yes baby!"

Charles Leclerc celebrates clinching P2 in the drivers' championship 👏#AbuDhabiGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/WcUj7mPnze

— Formula 1 (@F1) November 20, 2022

But it was Sebastian Vettel who stole the show in Abu Dhabi as the German scored points in his final F1 race before retirement. Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo, Mick Schumacher and Nicholas Latifi also bid farewell to fans for now, as all three are left without a full-time seat next season. 

The 2023 grid will look different with both newcomers and a few current drivers shuffling to different teams. Mercedes threw Nyck de Vries into the marina before later tying him to the tire trolley and dumping him off at the AlphaTauri garage, where he is set to take Pierre Gasly’s seat as the Frenchman heads to Alpine to fill Fernando Alonso’s vacancy. The Spaniard, who had to retire from the race early, will be heading to the vibrant green car, taking over for Vettel at Aston Martin. 

“It's great to see that we have the power to inspire you with what we do and what we say. I think there are far bigger, and far more important things than racing in circles,” Vettel said after the race. “But obviously, it's what we love and through that if we can transfer some of the really important values, that's big. And I think for that the last two years have been great for me.

“So, thank you for the support. Thank you for the messages, the letters and all the love in general. I will miss that, but it's been an absolute joy throughout my career, so thank you."

The German Aston Martin driver shakes his competitors’ hands ahead of the season finale :: IMAGO / HochZwei

For the final time this season, here are three takeaways from Abu Dhabi, where drivers and teams shared bittersweet moments and plenty of smiles throughout the finale weekend.

Where does Mercedes go from here? 

As the Silver Arrows tweeted, Abu Dhabi truly was “a race that summed up our season.” But team principal Toto Wolff said to reporters after the race, “Next year, we are back.”

This year marked the first campaign that Hamilton did not snag a pole position or win a grand prix, and a suspected hydraulic issue prematurely ended the seven-time world champion’s final race of the season on lap 55 of 58. He agreed after the race that this was a summary of his year, one where he finished sixth in the drivers’ standings. 

Hamilton started the season with a podium finish in Bahrain (where both Red Bull drivers recorded DNFs and the Ferrari duo went 1-2). But it quickly became evident how far off Mercedes was from the eventual frontrunners, especially given the new regulations and bouncing issues. Hamilton finished 10th in Saudi Arabia and 13th in Imola, his lowest finish this season aside from DNFs in Belgium and Abu Dhabi. 

It wasn’t until June when Hamilton found himself back on the podium in Canada—one of his five podium finishes until summer break. He didn’t find his way back onto the podium until mid-October at the U.S. Grand Prix.

For the last eight seasons, Mercedes had won the constructors’ title while Hamilton took the drivers’ title for seven straight—until last season when Verstappen snagged the 2021 crown. The Dutchman repeated this season while Red Bull took the team title. 

“Ultimately, I think we started with a car that we didn’t want and we finished with a car that we didn’t want, but we were basically stuck with it ... I think the fundamentals have still been there until the end, as you saw this weekend,” Hamilton said to Sky Sports F1. “It’s been more of a team building exercise this year and I’m very, very proud of everybody.”

Hamilton in the Mercedes garage in Abu Dhabi :: IMAGO / HochZwei

It’s no secret that Hamilton cannot wait for the W13 car to be done, with the last remaining obstacle being next week’s tire test. For one, the team has also struggled with porpoising and drag issues as the Silver Arrows worked to become competitive in recent race weekends. Although George Russell and Hamilton recorded a 1-2 in Brazil, they qualified sixth and fifth, respectively, behind a Red Bull front row and Ferrari second row. 

Hamilton revealed, per Autosport, that the Silver Arrows were “losing six tenths on the straight.” Brakes also emerged as a weakness this season, he said. The W13 seemed to perform better with high downforce tracks, such as Mexico and Brazil. 

But on Sunday in Abu Dhabi, his hard landing after going over the sausage kerb on the opening lap hampered his performance before he was able to bounce back in the second stint. Hamilton explained, per formula1.com, how “the balance kind of shifted forwards because it felt like I had all of a sudden loads more wing on, and I was struggling with the car being quite oversteery.”

Despite Hamilton struggling with the W13, Russell came into his own during his first season with Mercedes. Up until Silverstone on July 3, the younger Brit had been finishing in the top five every week, the only driver to do so this season for that extensive of stretch at the time. He bounced back with six more top five finishes before going P14 in Singapore. 

But even Russell had said Saturday to reporters that the W13 is “just not efficient enough” at circuits like Yas Marina, specifically ones “where you have a full range of corners and long straights.” The rising star finished fifth in the season finale, which he described as a reality check in an interview with Sky. 

“While we’re not celebrating a World Championship, we’ll be celebrating them still for their hard work and efforts. I hope that the struggles this year really provide us with the tools and the strength to fight for many more championships moving forward,” Russell said.

Is Ferrari back?

This year has not been easy for the tifosi (Ferrari’s passionate fanbase) or the Prancing Horse themselves. 

Right out of the gates, Leclerc and Sainz recorded a one-two and took a stronghold on both championships before Red Bull came to life. The Italian team navigated a slew of reliability errors, questionable strategy calls and the occasional drivers’ error en route to Abu Dhabi, where they led Mercedes by just 19 points and Leclerc was tied with Pérez for second. This weekend’s strategy needed to go perfectly, but the Red Bull driver had the upper-hand in the early stages. 

Verstappen led for all but one lap, and for a good bit of time, Pérez sat between his teammate and Leclerc. That is until he dove in for his second pitstop while the Dutchman and Monégasque opted for a one stop. Leclerc later revealed that “the plan was always to do a one-stop. But yeah, we managed to push them into doing two stops.” Pérez fought his way through the field but was just over a second behind the Ferrari driver by the time the checkered flag came.

Leclerc had to go flat-out to stay ahead, and said after the race, “I knew that the only possibility for us to beat Checo was with a different strategy and playing with tire management, which we did really well today, and we managed to make the one stop work, so [I’m] really happy.” 

Ferrari celebrating Leclerc’s P2 finish in Abu Dhabi :: IMAGO / Pro Shots

Although Ferrari and Leclerc likely had their eyes on winning it all after winning two out of the first three races, it’s a major improvement from where the Prancing Horse has been in recent seasons. The team has 16 world championships to its name, but it has not won a drivers’ title since 2007 or a team title since ‘08. 

In 2019, Ferrari was the preseason favorite, but the team (Leclerc and Vettel at the time) didn’t win a race until August. The following season was shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic; however, the Prancing Horse failed to win a grand prix at all that campaign and ended sixth in the standings. A title challenge continued to elude the team in ‘21, but they more than doubled the previous campaigns points with the one-two punch of Leclerc and Sainz—who outscored his teammate in his first season with Ferrari.

This year saw Leclerc take three wins, 11 podiums and nine poles, while Sainz brought in his maiden F1 victory, nine podiums and three poles (recording his first in F1). Ferrari scored 554 points, which was 230.5 more than last season. However, they also had a combined nine DNFs, and race pace eluded them some weekends as Red Bull surged. 

“It hasn’t been an easy season, especially the first half, but I’ve managed to recover the pace, and my feeling with the car has been much better in the second half,” Sainz said in the team’s recap. “Even though we’ve only just finished the season, we are fully focused and motivated to push this winter and I am already looking forward to next year.”

Leclerc echoed a similar statement during a post-race interview, adding, “I think we improved towards the end of the season in terms of strategy. We still need to work in terms of race pace because come Sunday, we seem to struggle a bit more, but we will push during the winter break in order to catch them a little bit.”

“Danke, Seb.”

Vettel finished his F1 career the same as how he started—bringing home points. 

The German driver closed a chapter in his storied career as he added one more point to his statistics in what was a hard-fought Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. He seemingly battled a vast majority of the drivers on track, pushed through an out-of-sync one-stop strategy and helped Aston Martin finish level with Alfa Romeo in points, though the latter team gets the upper-hand. Vettel ends his career with 3,098 points, 57 pole positions, 53 wins and four world championships (all won consecutively while with Red Bull).

To top it all off, the four-time champion was voted Driver of the Day by fans, taking 56.6% of the vote. 

And while he will go down in F1 history, Vettel was just as widely known for his care and compassion off of the track. He did a call to action for the rest of the F1 grid for them “to carry on some of the good work” in the coming years. The German has been an active supporter of the LGBTQ+ community, spoken out about climate change and raised awareness for equality. 

He united the paddock for one final track run on Saturday evening, inviting everyone from team personnel to the media. Fellow drivers Leclerc and Mick Schumacher also joined in with the 100+ who participated. 

And there were no shortage of tributes from the fellow drivers throughout the weekend, such as during press conferences or in the group dinner. 

“Of course, I had my heated battles with him, especially at the beginning of my career, but for me, one thing I will always remember for the rest of my life [was] last year at Silverstone, [when] I came back from the hospital [after clashing with Hamilton] to get to my motorhome and get all my stuff. He was there waiting for me when I got out of the car,” Verstappen said Thursday. “He said, ‘How are you doing Max, are you okay?’, and that just shows how he is: a super nice, caring person who is not only there for performance, but also means well. I think it’s really nice to be remembered like that.”

Vettel said after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that he felt “empty” after his final race, which began with a guard of honor from the other drivers and ended with donuts in front of the main grandstand. What’s next for him? That has yet to be confirmed. But one thing he has maintained is wanting to spend time with his family. 

In the cool down room, the top three drivers—Verstappen, Leclerc and Pérez—speculated whether Vettel would return to the sport. It wouldn’t be uncommon. Alonso took a step away in 2019 and ’20 before making his return, and even legendary Michael Schumacher stepped away for three years. But while Pérez said, “It didn’t feel like a goodbye to Vettel,” Leclerc said the opposite: “I don’t think he will come back.” 

A final flourish for Seb! #AbuDhabiGP #DankeSeb pic.twitter.com/X4NrZBQxZF

— Formula 1 (@F1) November 20, 2022

The Final Standings 

Drivers

1. Max Verstappen (454 points, the most in a single season by a driver in F1 history)
2. Charles Leclerc (308 points) 
3. Sergio Pérez (305 points)
4. George Russell (275 points)
5. Carlos Sainz (246 points)
6. Lewis Hamilton (240 points)
7. Lando Norris (122 points)
8. Esteban Ocon (92 points)
9. Fernando Alonso (81 points)
10. Valtteri Bottas (49 points)
11. Daniel Ricciardo (37 points) 
12. Sebastian Vettel (37 points) 
13. Kevin Magnussen (25 points)
14. Pierre Gasly (23 points)
15. Lance Stroll (18 points)
16. Mick Schumacher (12 points)
17. Yuki Tsunoda (12 points) 
18. Zhou Guanyu (6 points) 
19. Alex Albon (4 points) 
20. Nicholas Latifi (2 points) 
21. Nyck de Vries (2 points)
22. Nico Hulkenberg (0 points) 

Teams 

1. Red Bull (759 points)
2. Ferrari (554 points)
3. Mercedes (515 points)
4. Alpine (173 points)
5. McLaren (159 points)
6. Alfa Romeo (55 points)
7. Aston Martin (55 points)
8. Haas (37 points)
9. AlphaTauri (35 points)
10. Williams (8 points)

Let the countdown begin.

In just 105 days, Formula One will be back for the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 5, the first of 24 races currently scheduled for 2023. Pre-season testing is slated to be in Sakhir Feb. 23-25, but first, enjoy a long winter’s nap and the holidays.