The steps that have led to F1's 'very silly cars'

Love him or not, none can deny that Lewis Hamilton's season has been imperious, unquestionably his greatest to date. As with Michael Schumacher, the statistics long ago ceased to register - that tends to happen when a driver wins more than he loses - but what has most impressed me this year, what has been different about it, is that, while his team-mate has been quicker the odd time, Lewis has shed those mysterious 'off' weekends that had previously been a hallmark of his career. At no stage in 2018 has he gone missing, even winning races after clinching the world championship; in times past, he didn't bother.

Hamilton's 11th victory of the season came in Abu Dhabi, and if the race was a pretty humdrum affair that was no surprise, for in 10 years Yas Marina has produced little in the way of memorable racing - in Formula 1, anyway. As at so many tracks, the relatively simple aerodynamics of Formula 2 provide a better show, to the point that a friend recently questioned the wisdom of running the series at grand prix weekends.