Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg has won the first two dead rubbers at the end of the season and is looking to maintain his strong form to ensure a flying start to the next campaign. (Reuters)
DPA/Abu Dhabi
The Formula One season concludes with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Sunday but with the titles already decided, teams and drivers are already beginning to look to 2016.
Mercedes retained their constructors’ crown with room to spare and Lewis Hamilton dominated the drivers’ championship, winning with three races left on the calendar.
But it is his teammate Nico Rosberg who has won the first two dead rubbers at the end of the season and he is looking to maintain his strong form to ensure a flying start to the next campaign.
“The battle for the next title has already started,” he said. “We will try things for next year, it’s already going well for me and I want to continue that.
“I’ve had two really great weekends now in Mexico and Brazil, so I’m heading into the final race on a massive high.
“Of course, it will be close as always with Lewis and we saw a big push from Ferrari in Sao Paulo, so it won’t be straightforward. But I’m up for a battle and hopefully we can put on a great show for the fans to end the year.”
Hamilton won in Abu Dhabi last year to clinch the second of his now three world titles and is relishing a return to the scene of that triumph in what is a special day-night race in the F1 calender.
“The Yas Marina really is a stunning place to hold the season-ending Grand Prix. The organizers clearly spent a lot of time and effort on designing the most spectacular venue imaginable and the track is one I really enjoy driving,” he said.
“It’s also a twilight race, starting late afternoon and running into the night, which is quite unusual and I imagine must be pretty cool to watch on TV.”
Behind Hamilton and Rosberg, third place in the championship has already been secured by Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who is also turning his focus to 2016 after a debut year for his new team which has yielded three wins and 13 podiums so far.
“We want to go into next year as favourites and not have to hope that we can profit when something happens to the leaders,” he said.
Fourth is the highest spot yet to be decided, where Valtteri Bottas of Williams is a point ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in the other Ferrari by 136-135. Bottas’ team-mate Felipe Massa also retains a theoretical chance but on 117 he would need to win the grand prix to have any hope of leap-frogging the other pair.
At the other end of the grid, McLaren have endured a horrible campaign and are currently second-last on 27 points. Only Manor, without a point to their name, are below them.
“The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend represents many things for us at McLaren-Honda ... the start of the winter period where we are all focussed on working incredibly hard on next year’s package, and seeing more progress and results from our efforts throughout this year.” Fernando Alonso said.
His teammate Jenson Button added: “If we can push for some points in Abu Dhabi, it’ll definitely be a boost for the team to end the season, and will reward all the efforts from every single member of the team over the past year.”
