How the dull F1 finale could be improved

I reckon that anyone who watched 2020's final Formula 1 Grand Prix from Abu Dhabi would have experienced at least one of three emotions. The first one, elation, that for the first time since the 70th Anniversary GP back in August, Max Verstappen had a car to challenge the Mercedes duo and beat them in a straight fight.

The second, sadness that this was the last race of an extraordinary year and maybe also that unreliability struck Sergio Perez, fresh from his triumph of the previous weekend in the Sakhir GP, and forced him to retire from what we all hope won't be his F1 swansong. Sad also that George Russell, who had so excelled on being given the chance to replace Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes the previous weekend, was back in the Williams and toiling at the other end of the grid.

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And as for the third; hands up, who was thoroughly bored with the whole race? Everyone, teams and drivers alike, seem to like the circuit and the facilities that only the Arabs can afford to provide, but it doesn't take a genius to deduce that it's a very difficult place to overtake on.

"I heard it was pretty boring," said Esteban Ocon after completing one of the few passing moves on Lance Stroll on the final lap. "Yes it was very tough to overtake, that's very clear, quite difficult to follow into the last sector, all the low speed, off camber, you really need the grip of the car."

His outgoing Renault team-mate Daniel Ricciardo added: "It's a shame, because it's such a great venue. Maybe we could play around with the layouts. I know there are a few alternatives around here, because unfortunately on Sunday it is tricky."

So, what can be done in the short-term to make the racing more interesting at the Yas Marina Circuit and some other tracks where it is difficult for current F1 cars to overtake? One of the problems, as Ocon outlines, seems to be that so many slow speed corners are grouped together. The other, perhaps more poignant topic, is that so many of these are 'off camber', designed to punish errors when cars run off-line.

It is certainly a headache for the engineers to set their cars up to cope with this, as it will always promote wheelspin and oversteer, as the outer rear wheel struggles to find the grip. With hydraulic differentials, this is one area where they can be used to good effect and of course it is the same for all the teams.

Doing away with the awkward Turns 5 and 6 would lead a straight run down to the hairpin at Turn 7 and provide another harder braking area

However, if we look back in the season to where the racing was a lot more interesting, we find ourselves at circuits that F1 have used for the first time in this topsy-turvy year. At Mugello, the end of the main straight leads drivers into a gloriously fast banked corner where there is more than one line to take, creating opportunities to pass - as Alex Albon managed on Ricciardo to score his first F1 podium.

Likewise, in Portimao you have a fast final corner leading onto the straight and the opportunity to outbrake opponents into a medium-speed Turn 1.

In Yas Marina, there are two DRS zones, but they come one after the other. As we have seen on many occasions, one driver overtaking at the end of the first long straight following the Turn 7 hairpin, only to lose that place again at the end of the next zone as the car he had just passed repays the compliment. The only time this didn't happen was when fresh tyres gave better traction out of the slow speed chicane in Turns 8 and 9.

The Russian GP in Sochi suffers the same problem of slow speed corners leading onto the DRS zones, so overtaking there is rare too.

Other circuits that provide good racing, like Silverstone, Spa and Suzuka, have fast corners leading onto straights where the use of DRS is much more effective, especially if you have a well-balanced car in high speed sections like Maggotts-Becketts, Pouhon and Spoon.

But how much of this phenomenon is down to the cars themselves? Clearly, it is a contributing factor. In order to have a balanced car able to cope with all types of circuits, teams have to maximise their levels of downforce. This is fine when the car is running in clean air, but the flip side is that the car leaves a turbulent wake that disturbs another car following it.

This is nothing new in Formula 1, but as the series' bosses have recognised with the drastic changes set for 2022, the 2017-spec increase in downforce levels was not conducive to improving the racing. As Hamilton bemoaned, "it's hard to follow other cars through the slow-speed sections as you lose front end performance and in the quick sections you pick up turbulence even being four or five seconds behind".

Unfortunately, I don't expect the moderate changes to the cars for next year will do much to improve the racing spectacle, even if the cars will have less downforce so could be faster on the straights but not stable in the corners. Many of the teams have adapted the front suspension to lower the front of the car when braking and turning the steering wheel, so there will not be much to gain from this.

Mercedes for one will not be able to use its DAS system, so will have to find another way to put temperature into its front tyres - something both cars seemed to struggle with in Abu Dhabi, especially on the softer tyres in the all-important Q3 session.

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But if we accept that we have to wait until 2022 for the cars to be more inclined to produce good racing at Yas Marina, how would we improve the layout to provide a more fitting end to the season? Certainly, let's get rid of a couple of chicanes, doing away with the awkward Turns 5 and 6 would lead a straight run down to the hairpin at Turn 7 and provide another harder braking area.

Leave Turns 8 and 9 as they are, but do away with Turns 11, 12 and 13 and improve the track with a bit more positive camber in that resultant corner. Make the 90-degree left at Turn 14 a proper 3rd or 4th gear sweeper, so that there may be an opportunity of overtaking into the Turn 17 right-hander, especially if it was a little wider there.

The end of the lap could be left as it is, because it's hard to change anyway due to the hotel spanning the track. The last corner, Turn 21 seems to catch a few people out, so that can stay too.

Whatever your thoughts about the racing in Abu Dhabi, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner's succinct quip - "I'm sorry it wasn't more entertaining for you, but it was perfect for us!" - must go down as a candidate for the quote of the year.

Let's hope Red Bull can continue this form in 2021 and provide us with more entertainment, regardless of which circuit they're race on. I've been part of a dominant team over several seasons in the 1980s and enjoyed the feeling then, but now might be time for someone other than the Black Arrows to take over the mantle...