Both Formula 1 world titles were wrapped up long ago, but as ever the world championship still manages to generate headlines, meaning there’ll be much to keep an eye on this weekend.

Can Mercedes continue its good form at the circuit where it felt it was so wronged one year ago? The Silver Arrows and Ferrari are locked in a tight battle for the runners’ up shot, whilst McLaren will do all it can to wrest fourth from Alpine.

F1 legend Sebastian Vettel will race his last grand prix in Abu Dhabi, the four-time champion looking forward to a life away from the relentless cut and thrust of the grand prix circus.

Yas Marina will be hoping its track changes finally pay dividends with good racing, whilst a number of ‘rookie’ drivers, including McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, will be taking on FP1 duties.

Here’s what to watch for at the 2022 Abu Dhabi GP:

Battle for second reaches its climax

For the first half the season Ferrari was in the battle for top honours in the constructors’ title race, but come the season end it’s now clinging on for the runners-up spot.

As the Scuderia has faded, Mercedes has come on strong, particularly with tweaks to the car from Austin onwards which have paid dividends.

A commanding 1-2 for the Silver Arrows in Brazil has seen it edge menacingly close to Ferrari in the standings, a hard-won reward for successful race execution with a slow car throughout the season, whilst its red rival has usually done the opposite.

Mercedes is now just 19 points behind – with a maximum 44 points on offer in Abu Dhabi, it’s still all to play for.

 

Red Bull row to rage on?

Such has been the furore over the Red Bull team orders debacle (Verstappen was ordered to give sixth back to Perez in Brazil, refusing and alluding to an earlier incident in the year), the team has been moved to release the statement on the matter prior to Abu Dhabi.

The team says it only asked Verstappen to hand back the place in the final corner of the last lap, but this has been shown to be untrue, with the initial message being relayed when the Dutchman was at Turn 4 of Interlagos, then three more times throughout the lap.

After both drivers sounded off in the Brazil media pen afterwards, both subsequently said the matter was closed.

Will it remain happy Red Bull families at Yas Marina, or will animosity flare up again?

 

Sebastian Vettel’s F1 farewell

One of F1’s most successful drivers, Sebastian Vettel, bids goodbye to the championship this weekend.

Somewhat of a steady stalwart in recent years rather than the lightning ace he was in early days, the German is still highly thought of in the paddock, particularly by his team Aston Martin who wanted to keep him on.

Vettel’s environmental and civil rights campaigning has endeared to fans in the past few seasons, but the German has still been bring in steady points for Aston – can he do the same on his swansong?

Also leaving F1 – for the time being at least – this weekend will be Daniel Ricciardo, Mick Schumacher and Nicholas Latifi.

 

Pato in Papaya

Pato O’Ward has become McLaren’s forgotten man in some ways.

It appeared as if the rapid Mexican was being groomed for F1 via IndyCar, until a contract row, plus Zak Brown having racing designs on Oscar Piastri, Colton Herta and Alex Palou somewhat shoved O’Ward to the back the queue.

The IndyCar ace has still performed well this year though, winning two more races, and he’ll be running in FP1 for McLaren as part of its young driver allocation.

Can he show McLaren what it’s missing? Liam Lawson will also be running for Red Bull, as will Williams junior Logan Sargeant, who is attempting to rack up the miles for Grove before his prospective move to the F1 team for next year – more on that below?

 

Charging Sargeant

Williams has confirmed its young American junior Sargeant as a driver in the GP team next year – if he can secure the Superlicence points he needs with the requisite F2 championship finish.

He now needs eighth overall to guarantee his place in F1. This might sound straightforward for one of F2’s fastest drivers, but in an ultra-competitive series, nothing can be taken for granted.

 

Abu Dhabi track changes

After years of poor racing, changes were introduced last season to try and improve overtaking opportunities at Yas Marina.

The chicane before Turn 7 was eliminated, with that turn also widened, the four corners from 11-14 were replaced with one long banked turn, and Turns 17 – 20 were opened up too.

These efforts didn’t seem to come to much last season, but with the new generation of cars able to follow each other more closely, will we see more action this year?

 

McLaren’s outside shot

Interlagos was nothing short of a disaster for McLaren in its fight for fourth with Alpine. First Daniel Ricciardo managed to eliminate himself in a first-lap tangle with Kevin Magnussen, then Lando Norris’ Macca spluttered to a halt when he was in a handy fifth.

Meanwhile Alpine salvaged a horrendous Saturday with a fifth and an eight for Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon respectively.

That leaves the Woking team 19 points behind Enstone. It will take a strong showing plus a decent does of luck for McLaren to overturn the deficit.