The remaining scores to be settled in Abu Dhabi's F1 finale

Each position in the constructors' championship is worth millions; the drivers' championship might have more prestige and media attention, but the teams' standings holds the true value. Even under the cost cap, the extra millions can be poured into capital expenditure, any outside-of-cap expenses, or even to simply operate at the full $135million amount. If the concept of 'finishing on a high' didn't exist anyway, the extra finance on offer is enough incentive to give it everything when the lights go out at the Yas Marina circuit.

There are a few big-ticket constructors' placings available - a battle for the runner-up spot, the best-of-the-rest duel, and a valuable battle for seventh contested by four teams. In fact, the only positions locked in are Red Bull's championship win and Alpine securing its middle-of-the-road amble to sixth. We can't wait to see the Renault-owned squad do the same next year.

When the summer break began, Mercedes' advantage over Ferrari had seemed to be evident through the Scuderia's 56-point arrears. Ferrari sat fourth on 191 points, five behind Aston Martin, but fortunes have shifted significantly since summer came to an end at the Dutch Grand Prix. Breakthroughs in set-up have ensured that Ferrari has managed 197 points in the nine races post-hiatus, Aston Martin just 77, and Mercedes 145.

There are now just four points between Mercedes and Ferrari, as Aston Martin tailed off dramatically in the second half of the year.

On pure pace, using the supertimes metric, Ferrari has been second over the course of 2023 with a 0.238% shortfall compared to Red Bull. The start of the year, however, had been plagued by unreliability and a continued tendency to melt away at the tyres to force the drivers into heavier management within the races. Greater understanding into the SF-23 was acquired over the summer, and an initial set-up swing towards Carlos Sainz led to the team becoming the only outfit to interrupt Red Bull's hegemony over race wins. Charles Leclerc has underlined the team's stronger form with three poles in the past four races - but, on race day, his conversion rate to wins continues to dwindle.

Mercedes' recent form has been less impressive and the team has managed only one podium in the past six races, albeit after one was declared null and void when Lewis Hamilton was disqualified from the United States Grand Prix with excess skid block wear. Initial efforts to rectify its 2023, when the "zero-pod" sidepod and associated bodywork were found to be a design concept that did not bear fruit, the team played its way into a seemingly secure second in the championship.

But things have fallen away since then, as mistakes and misfortune had begun to creep in. Had Ferrari not suffered with its own failures to start the races in Qatar and Brazil with two healthy cars, there's every reason to suggest that the Italian squad would have already overhauled Mercedes in the points stakes. And, with form in Ferrari's favour at the moment, it will be up to Mercedes to go on the offensive.

Mercedes will need to nail practice to get over the line and, with just FP2 offering representative conditions for the race, it tightens the boundaries significantly. And, if the two teams are racing together on track, Mercedes can attempt to push Ferrari into wearing its tyres out more. However, if Ferrari gets the sense that Mercedes is ever so slightly defensive, it can exploit this. Either way, it's a mouthwatering sub-plot for the weekend, and one that could get fiery if both squads are up for the challenge.

On paper, this should be an easy win for McLaren. The MCL60 is now the stronger machinery, and the combined forces of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri should be able to handle an Aston Martin team that has one leg (Fernando Alonso) longer than the other (Lance Stroll).

But, if McLaren sustains another weekend like Las Vegas, then this very much brings Aston Martin back into play. The 11-point gap between the two teams was about twice the size prior to last weekend's race, and it was only Piastri's late charge after a painful extra pitstop that mitigated any further damage.

As an illustration of McLaren's progress over the year - and Aston Martin's regression - let's look at the gap. After the Canadian Grand Prix, the eighth round of the championship, McLaren had a 137-point deficit having only mustered 17 points in the opening third(ish) of the season. It was over the next four races where the turnaround began and McLaren had closed this to 93 points. The Woking squad has managed 181 points since.

Aston Martin had managed to revive its form to a certain degree in Brazil and Las Vegas, albeit after some pretty heavy experimentation over the second half of the season as it hopes to inform the design of its 2024 car. Perhaps its incredible start to the year set expectations that it was unequipped to handle, but it's clear that its developments over the season had not been as potent compared to the cars around it. While Alonso was able to make the most of its early-season gains, Stroll was much more profligate - although, with all fairness considered, he had a broken hand to recover from early on in the year. When he was fully up to speed, Aston no longer had the second-best car.

Regardless, fifth is a great achievement for Aston considering where the team was last season, and McLaren's surge to fourth would also be an excellent reward given its early-year struggles. It's probably not quite as an important battle compared to the other constructors' skirmishes, but it's nonetheless valuable.

A conventional race at Abu Dhabi would realistically leave the battle over seventh to Williams and AlphaTauri, as the other two teams have fallen off the pace somewhat in comparison. And, had tyre graining not afflicted Williams so badly in Las Vegas, it's a battle that would likely be over already. That neither Alex Albon nor Logan Sargeant could score in Vegas ensures that AlphaTauri can live to fight another day.

AlphaTauri's developments over the season have given the Italian team much more to work with in the season finale; at the start of the year, the AT04 was probably the slowest car on average, but great strides have been made on the aerodynamic front to bolster the package. Getting Daniel Ricciardo (and for a time, a hungry-to-impress Liam Lawson) into the team has been a positive boon too, as there's more direction for the technical side of the team to work with.

But a seven-point deficit, although small for a top team, is a difficult one to close in on at this level. AlphaTauri either needs to surpass its Mexico heroics with a sixth-place finish, or get both Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda into the top 10 and chalk up a seventh and a 10th at the very least. Given that the team has not managed to secure a double-points finish this year, makes this a more arduous task.

If night-time conditions in the Abu Dhabi desert manage to cool things down sufficiently, then it becomes a race that Williams can grow into. There are already two long straights that should assist with any defensive efforts should Albon find his way into a good grid position, while Sargeant has managed to cut out the crashes and is starting to show good progress. He's managed one point thanks to disqualifications in Austin, and capping off the year with a bona fide top-10 finish would make a contract extension a no-brainer for James Vowles' squad.

In a non-conventional race, Alfa Romeo and Haas might be able to capitalise. Valtteri Bottas had impressed in qualifying in Vegas, but a nudge from Perez cracked his diffuser and pushed him into an about-faced Alonso to wreck his chances of wresting Alfa into the battle over seventh. But the C43 appears to be missing too much to break a 12-point deficit; it's lacking downforce, efficiency, and all efforts appear to be on getting the C44 in a far better frame of performance. Haas...well, it needs a podium to make P7, and it's not ever managed that feat.

But if Alfa or Haas can make up a spot - either taking it from AlphaTauri or through battling each other, then it would remain worthwhile. Remember, Alfa Romeo strategised last year's race purely to hold up the Aston Martins in their constructors' battle over sixth - so there's bound to be plenty of shenanigans...

First, second, and third are all sewn up in the drivers' championship stakes, but there's a fight over fourth between four potential suitors. Sainz and Alonso are tied on 200 points, with Norris on 195 and Leclerc on 188. It's not worth anything, but there's certainly pride at stake.