THE BIG PICTURE: A few years ago when Lando Norris signed a new contract with a down and almost out McLaren, many wondered what was he thinking? Just like the questions Lewis Hamilton got when jumping to Mercedes. In the end, Lando saw behind the scenes the making of a fast car and a great team, and got the last laugh.

EVENT: Abu Dhabi pays a lot of money to be the final race of the season. But despite 2021, which had nothing to do with the track, it is, for loads of reasons, the wrong atmosphere and track layout to have a championship deciding round.

TRACK: The track changes continue to deliver better racing than the original layout. But that doesn't contradict the comment above.

QUALIFYING: Once again, when the chips are down, Verstappen delivers. Norris crucially gets second. Piastri is looking at a longshot from third. Russell is the solid Mercedes representative. Leclerc is the solid Ferrari representative. Bortoleto and Hadjar are the solid rookie representatives. And you guessed it, Hamilton does not make it out of Q1.

RACE: Sometimes title deciders finales are not very exciting, as everyone is doing just enough, cautiously, to get it done. But the tension was there all along as it's racing, and anything can happen, late and suddenly. Just ask Jim Clark, Nigel Mansell, or Lewis Hamilton, as examples.

START: Norris take a peak at Verstappen but wisely slots behind him, later Piastri does a bold move around the outside, but let's face it, Norris wasn't going to fight it, and Russell again gets a poor start.

NORRIS: Lando always said he wanted to win it his way. To be true to himself. Few of us ever get to do that. Kudos to him. A well deserved championship. For so many different reasons.

VERSTAPPEN: Constantly we heard whether Max can make the greatest comeback from being 104 points behind. The thing is, he did. That deficit was to Piastri, and Max finished ahead of Oscar. What he couldn't do was prevent Norris from staying in front of him.

PIASTRI: His body language at post Qatar versus post Abu Dhabi clearly showed he knew he lost it at Qatar. Abu Dhabi was just the acceptance of that fact.

TSUNODA: The worst impersonation of Sergio Perez ever with his meek attempt at acting like a roadblock to Norris. And now Yuki is a reserve driver.

MCLAREN: Credit where credit is due. Their strategy (which even Red Bull praised as making it difficult to try different things for Verstappen) was spot on. Their pit stops under tremendous pressure were perfect and fast.

RED BULL: Will all this effort improving this year's car hurt them with next year's development time? One thing is for sure, their first order of business is to put "33" back on Verstappen's car.

HADJAR: Isack now receives the career killer ... we mean the second seat at Red Bull for next year.

LINDBLAD: Arvid will be the only rookie to start the 2026 season.

LECLERC: Was very strong in a strong Ferrari, but ulimately could not play spoiler.

HAMILTON: No doubt, Lewis' worst season in F1. It's pretty obvious to state 2026 will either be his last or his comeback season.

RUSSELL: Despite an excellent qualifier lap, the lack of race speed and a long brake pedal made his day pedastrian.

MERCEDES: They never got the ground effects regulations to work. If they really are nailing the new engine rules and have gotten on top of the new chassis rules, they will be true contenders again.

SAUBER: The Sauber name has been around a long time, building sports cars since 1970, winning the World Sportscar Championship twice and Le Mans in 1989. Entered F1 in 1993. The team finished second in the constructors title in 2007 and third in 2008 when they won their only grand prix at Montreal with Robert Kubica. Now, that name goes away and becomes Audi.

ROOKIES: This season may go down as one of the greatest rookie classes in F1 history. Antonelli, Bearman, Bortoleto, and Hadjar all showed periods of brilliance, sometimes outshining their teammates, had some super fast qualifying performances, and held off fast, experienced drivers in racing battes, marking themselves as future stars. However, Colapinto never lived up to his promise at Williams last year. And Doohan (remember, him?) never got a fair shake.

ALPINE: Another useless race to finish a dead last useless season with, by their own accounts, a useless engine led by a useless management comeback in Briatore.

FIA: Can you imagine if they imposed a penalty on Lando Norris for going off track and gaining an advantage? Social media would have melted down. Thankfully, this time they were reasonable, knowing that Tsunoda ran him off the road.

F2: Days after being named a Racing Bulls F1 driver, Brit Arvid Lindblad won the sprint race from the reverse grid pole. The combination of timing the mandatory pit stops with the roulette wheel of safety cars, helped enable eighth starter, Paraguayan Joshua Dürksen, to the feature race win.

WORD OF THE WEEKEND: Satisfaction.

STAT OF THE WEEKEND: 8 -- The number of wins this season Max Verstappen got, which is more than the two McLarens drivers got, which was seven a piece.

HISTORICAL STAT OF THE WEEKEND: Mike Hawthorn, Graham Hill, Jim Clark, John Surtees, Jackie Stewart, James Hunt, Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, and now Lando Norris. The United Kingdom is the home to the most world championships (21) and world champions (11).

TWEET OF THE WEEKEND: From @FDataAnalysis:

Kimi Antonelli was just 4 when Jenson Button pressed the DRS *button* for the first time in 2011
Yesterday, he became the last driver ever to use it!

He activated it in the final DRS zone of the final lap, hitting 330 km/h (but still couldn't pass TSU)

Goodbye, DRS
#F1 #AbuDhabiGP

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: At the end of 2024, Lando Norris said in the media pen, "Next year is going to be my year."

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: Max Verstappen showed his maturity after the race, "You take your pride in different ways. I'm happy with myself and also into next year I'm not in a state of having to worry about my skills or whatever. So I feel good."

SCHEDULE: The final qualifying of the season had multiple drivers separated by thousands of a second. That's how close and competitive the end of this ruleset became. With the new ruleset next year, we'll probably be back to one team, maybe two, probably not three, being dominant. The fun will be watching the others catch up. And no more DRS!

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