Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris are among the leading F1 names who will not take part in the first practice session at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
It just makes sense, they’ve got their cars tuned in by now, Abu Dhabi is a circuit they know well so they’re not likely to mess up the setup (or conversely find some amazing leaps through setup).
They now likely have a huge selection of used parts they can put on the car so they don’t risk wear/damage on the parts they might need at a later date.
So if you’re not expecting to be fighting for championship positions in the final race it’s a no-brainer.
The others did it in Mexico which is the 2nd best option, if you don’t want to use up all of FP1 in the final race for the young drivers.
It just makes sense, they’ve got their cars tuned in by now, Abu Dhabi is a circuit they know well so they’re not likely to mess up the setup (or conversely find some amazing leaps through setup).
They now likely have a huge selection of used parts they can put on the car so they don’t risk wear/damage on the parts they might need at a later date.
So if you’re not expecting to be fighting for championship positions in the final race it’s a no-brainer.
The others did it in Mexico which is the 2nd best option, if you don’t want to use up all of FP1 in the final race for the young drivers.