F1 2018 - Abu Dhabi - A legend says goodbye

Justin:

It's been a while...

My last blog was in June, after the Canadian GP. A lot has happened in F1!

It was indeed the last F1 race I'd see Fernando Alonso at, as he soon after announced his retirement from F1.

Fitting tribute

There were a fair few nice, classy touches from F1 and McLaren over the Abu Dhabi race weekend for the fighting Spaniard.

F1 repainted the driver briefing room with moments from his career - see here.

There was a paddock barbecue after the race.

There was this reflective video piece from McLaren and the man himself here.

McLaren changed their car livery in honour of the helmet colours of Alonso.

And almost finally, the F1 paddock gave their tributes here.

Here's Fernando himself with a final video goodbye and thanks.

But the thing I loved the most? It was like a guard of honour. After the chequered flag, Fernando cruised up to Seb and Lewis doing donuts. And from there the 3 champions drove around the track together. It was as if Fernando's two greatest rivals were giving him a guard of honour and respect to see him on his way. It was a beautiful moment of respect. I remember how tough the Fernando vs Seb fight got in 2012. And from 2010 to 2013 all three of them were contenders and huge rivals. Of course, 2007 is also woven into the tapestry of Lewis vs Fernando. That's where it all began.

Then after driving around to the start/ finish straight, the three legends with 11 titles between them let rip with a series of donuts. 

I've been a massive Alonso fan since the start. He fights. All the time. He drives cars to the absolute limit. He is relentless. He is an F1 legend and an F1 all time great.

I've been lucky enough to attend his home race in 2009 and have seen him race additionally in Belgium in 2012 (where he got punted on the first corner so I have no race photo), Hungary 2015, Singapore 2016 and Montreal this year. I also visited the Fernando Alonso museum in 2017. Here's a picture from each of those below:

Elsewhere

It was a fairly interesting race. We had a scary role for The Hulk. Happily he was fine. Lewis won from Seb whilst Max pipped Daniel to the last podium slot. There was a fair bit of fun racing throughout, featuring some balls out overtakes for sure.

The end is the beginning

Kimi had his last race for Ferrari and is off to Sauber for 2019. Charles Leclerc had is last race for Sauber and is off to Ferrari for 2019.

Daniel Ricciardo is off to Renault next year where Ocon is off to be a Mercedes reserve driver.

Sainz is off to McLaren, and Vandorne is off to Formula E.

Plenty to look forward to next year for sure. How will Seb cope with the young charger next to him? How will Daniel cope being midfield for a year or two? Will Red Bull Honda be the package to see Max challenge Lewis and Seb at the very front?

Thank you Channel 4

I only dabbled once with Sky Sports live coverage for one of the GP's where the highlights were going to be shown at around 11pm or so. And I found their show to be pretty dull actually.

The Channel 4 team are ace! Enthusiasm, action, fun, banter, serious, explaining stuff for the casual viewer they want to entice. Channel 4 have a tricky role in that they have to appeal to die hard F1 fans as well as more casual viewers. It's a fine balance. A balance they achieved and yeah.

Just, thank you to Steve Jones, Karun Chandhok, DC, Mark Webber, Susie Wolf, EJ, Lee McKenzie, Ben Edwards.

You've made the last 3 years so much fun for us peeps who don't want Sky! I noticed the coverage today came up with the graphic "Australian GP highlights will be on C4 on XXX March 2019".

Hope I see some of the gang in 2019 :-).