Simply Abu Dhabi XX

6 8 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I Honda returned to F1 withMcLaren to reignite the glory days of Senna and Prost and even had a superstar driver line up with Jenson Button being joined by double world champion Fernando Alonso fromFerrari, who replaced Kevin Magnussen. But it was to no avail and by the time the circus reached Japan at Honda’s home track, Alonso was openly critical of the engine supplier, claiming over the radio, for F1’s 600 million TV viewers, that it was slower than a GP2 car. Adding insult to injury, at the final race at Yas Marina, he asked his team over the radio if he could retire the car early. With Alonso at Honda, Vettel shifted from Red Bull to Ferrari, which in hindsight must be the get-out-of-jail card of a lifetime for the quadruple world champ, as Red Bull floundered while he was the only one who could challenge the Mercedes duo all year. Danii Kyvat was drafted in from junior teamToro Rosso to sit alongside Aussie Daniel Riccardo at Red Bull, taking Vettel’s vacated seat. The underdog of 2015 was surelyWilliams Martini Racing with drivers Felipe Massa and Valteri Bottas who, despite having Mercedes power, were in a team with a fraction of the budget of the big boys, yet they managed to finish fifth and sixth in the Drivers title and third in the Constructor’s title as the best of the rest. “It’s amazing to work for Sir Frank Williams,” Massa told Simply Abu Dhabi in the lead-up to the final race of the 2015 season. “What he built is really amazing to be a part of. We have good people around us and people who understand that to fight with the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari we need to make a triple improvement to what they’re doing,” he said. But all the on-track action was put to one side for one tragic weekend with news that the young Italian driver Jules Bianchi succumbed to his injuries suffered during the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix when his Manor Marussia slid off a wet track in Japan and into a recovery vehicle, striking his head. Jules had been in an induced coma for nine months and with his family around him, he quietly passed away on 17 July. Mercedes began as they meant to finish by taking a clear 1-2 win in Australia, giving the team a 28-point lead in the title after just one of the 19 races, and finished over half a minute clear of third-place Vettel. Vettel fired back in Round Two in Malaysia with a rare win from Hamilton and Rosberg before the Mercedes duo shared wins from Round Three inChina right through to RoundNine inHungary when, again, it was the Ferrari driver who trumped them.