From quiet goodbyes and regulatory slip-ups to a finale that still couldn't conjure much excitement, here's everything you may have missed amid Lando Norris's title celebrations in Abu Dhabi
A drivers’ championship was won by Lando Norris, and teams locked in their constructors’ positions to cement their prize money, but away from the on-track outcomes, there were a number of goodbyes in Abu Dhabi, as well as an unusual team mistake.
A venue that still doesn’t create excitement
I hate to be negative to kick this one off, but I’m sure you’ve seen loads of great coverage of the drivers’ championship already, so I’m picking up on one of the regular sentences that was uttered at some point as people debriefed in the paddock: “…but it wasn’t a great race, was it?”
For the first time, the championship went down to the final round of a 24-race season, and for the first time that also meant a title decider in a triple-header that ended the year. None of the last three races provided particularly exciting on-track action, although Las Vegas could at least claim a huge crowd and the feel of a massive event that is deserving of a title decider.
For the final two rounds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, nice facilities and decent crowds – a record 203,000 attended over the weekend at Yas Marina Circuit – are not matched with tracks or conditions that are particularly conducive to excitement and drama. Even the 2010 championship finale was only made interesting because overtaking here was impossible.
The racing in the final events has been underwhelming
Grand Prix Photo
Prior to this triple-header, Brazil had the mix of weather, a huge crowd, and a track that is great for racing, all going for it. And it has hosted some of the most dramatic title deciders in history.
It’s easy in this job to get a bit jaded after such a brutal schedule to end the year, and the atmosphere did feel like it was lacking at times this weekend, but the bigger audience is tuning in on television and many casual fans will want to watch a deciding race, that should showcase the best of F1 wherever possible.
There’s certainly a place for all of the regions that are currently on the calendar, but it feels like F1 could set itself up better for the sporting aspect being as engaging as possible by reworking where it hosts its finale.
Aston Martin fan engagement
Teams have quite publicly become very good at their approach to fan engagement, and I would certainly count Aston Martin in that category with its I / AM fan programme. So it was somewhat of a surprise when both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were reported to have missed the fan engagement activity at Yas Marina Circuit on Friday.
Stroll and Alonso were a no-show
Aston Martin
That is the fan stage appearance when ticket holders get a chance to hear directly from the drivers and show their support, and all teams are mandated to attend with their line-up at each venue.
As the commitment is written into regulation, the stewards summoned Aston Martin representatives to explain the non-attendance – that was apparently due to the mistaken belief that the replacement drivers from FP1 would be appearing – and ultimately came up with a very good punishment to rectify the situation.
Drivers have sometimes questioned where fines go, but the stewards stated the proceeds from the €10,000 (£8745) that the team was fined for each driver should be allocated “at the FIA’s discretion, to the encouragement of fans in this region to become involved in motorsport as officials or by engaging in grassroots motor sport activities.”
Aston Martin also proposed that the team would attend the fan zone later in the weekend and give signed team caps to all fans wearing Aston Martin apparel, as well as select two fans for a garage tour, view a session from the garage and meet both drivers for a photo opportunity.
That led to a further €15,000 (£13,115) fine being suspended for 12 months, with a focus on rewarding the fans that missed out, rather than lining the FIA’s coffers. Good work all round.
A race of farewells
It was the end of an era in a lot of ways in Abu Dhabi. Some of them were tinged with sadness, others less so…
To start with the most sad – but perhaps not most talked-about this weekend – it was the final race for Renault as an engine supplier in Formula 1. There have been periods when Renault pulled out in the past and then returned, and also plenty of fluctuations in terms of its interest as a full constructor, but while the Alpine team will remain — with Mercedes power units — the Renault engine project is closing down.
Over the past decade, Renault has not been particularly competitive, but Viry-Chatillon has been an important part of F1’s history, and its departure is a sad moment for all of the employees there who were pushing to continue its 2026 development, but also the sport overall, as it loses an engine manufacturer.
Merci, Viry
Grand Prix Photo
Still, as it loses one, it gains another, with Audi’s entry also adding another farewell to this list.
It’s a very exciting time to have a full Audi works team joining the grid next season, but its arrival will see the Sauber name disappear. Even with BMW’s investment in the late 2000s, the team retained the Sauber moniker in its title, so it was a bittersweet moment.
Mark Hughes explains how McLaren’s pre-planned lap-one swap and split-tyre strategy blunted Verstappen’s threat and laid the groundwork for Norris’s title-winning drive
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Mark Hughes
The level of investment and commitment from Audi signals exciting times ahead for the workforce in Hinwil (and now Neuburg an der Donau and Bicester), but there’s still a little sadness that Peter Sauber’s team has a complete change of identity.
The final one is less likely to be mourned by F1 fans, as DRS was used for the final time in a racing scenario on Sunday night.
It might have been a necessary evil to try and improve the racing, but it was only ever meant to be a temporary solution, and yet 15 seasons went by before the regulations led to a different approach. Power modes (with ever-changing terminology) will be a different way of influencing the way a driver can try and overtake next year, and hopefully DRS will be consigned to the history books, and not rewritten into future rules.
Cadillac money makes rivals wince
As attention turns more and more towards 2026, one of the team launches was confirmed that caught the eye of rivals. Cadillac announced it will reveal its first-ever livery during the Super Bowl in early February, having purchased an advertising slot at halftime.
Will Cadillac’s marketing pay off?
The average cost of a 30-second advert during the 2025 game was reported as $8 million (£6 million) by CBS MoneyWatch, and that’s only likely to increase. Add in the actual cost of producing the video, and it’s one heck of an investment into the launch.
Multiple other teams were digging for more details when the announcement was first made, and one suggested they could hire 20 more people for a year with that sort of money.
It is, of course, marketing spend that is not included in the cost cap – whereas spending that money on additional personnel that operate the car would not have the same freedom – but it’s a sure sign that Cadillac’s financial clout is being enviously looked at from some quarters.
