#F1 #Ferrari #Leclerc #Saintz #AbuDhabi #YsaMarina #Verstappen #Hamilton
“Max passed Lewis on controversial last lap, wins F1 championship”— Paul Ebeling
This race was not without drama, excitement, controversy and strategy, and in the end, it came down to the final lap after a controversial restart following a wreck in the late stages of the race.
See the official F1 video here.
MercedesAMG had both appeals over Max Verstappen’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix win dismissed, seeing the confirmed as the F1 world champion.
Results are Final
| Pos | Driver | Time | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | M. VerstappenRed Bull·#33 | 1:30:17.345 | 26 | |
| 2 |  | L. HamiltonMercedesAMG·#44 | +2.256s | 18 | |
| 3 |  | C. Sainz Jr.Ferrari·#55 | +5.173s | 15 | |
| 4 |  | Y. TsunodaAlphaTauri·#22 | +5.692s | 12 | |
| 5 |  | P. GaslyAlphaTauri·#10 | +6.531s | 10 |
| 6 |  | V. BottasMercedesAMG·#77 | +7.463s | 8 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | | L. NorrisMcLaren·#4 | +59.200s | 6 | |
| 8 | | F. AlonsoAlpine·#14 | +61.708s | 4 | |
| 9 | | E. OconAlpine·#31 | +64.026s | 2 | |
| 10 |  | C. LeclercFerrari·#16 | +66.057s | 1 | |
| 11 |  | S. VettelAston Martin·#5 | +67.527s | 0 | |
| 12 |  | D. RicciardoMcLaren·#3 | +1 Lap | 0 | |
| 13 |  | L. StrollAston Martin·#18 | +1 Lap | 0 | |
| 14 | | M. SchumacherHaas·#47 | +1 Lap | 0 | |
| 15 |  | S. PérezRed Bull·#11 | DNF | 0 | |
| 16 | | N. LatifiWilliams·#6 | DNF | 0 | |
| 17 |  | A. GiovinazziAlfa Romeo·#99 | DNF | 0 | |
| 18 | | G. RussellWilliams·#63 | DNF | 0 | |
| 19 | | K. RäikkönenAlfa Romeo·#7 | DNF | 0 |
_________________________________
Behind the title contenders, Lando Norris pulled off a surprise 3rd place for McLaren, beating Sergio Perez who had to settle for 4th place for Red Bull, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr taking fifth place in Q3.
That left Valtteri Bottas in 6th place for MercedesAMG putting part of his time deficit down to a higher mileage F1 power unit.
Charles Leclerc took 7th place for Ferrari ahead of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, as Esteban Ocon (Alpine) and Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) rounded out the Top 10.
Sitting next to Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton observed: “It’s very rare that people lock up in turn one.” He suspects Red Bull always intended to start the race on softs. “I think we’ve got the right tyre but I guess we’ll see tomorrow.”
Starting grid
| Driver | Grid | Qual time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M. VerstappenRed Bull·#33 | 1 | 1:22.109 | |
| L. HamiltonMercedesAMG·#44 | 2 | 1:22.480 | |
| L. NorrisMcLaren·#4 | 3 | 1:22.931 | |
| S. PérezRed Bull·#11 | 4 | 1:22.947 | |
| C. Sainz Jr.Ferrari·#55 | 5 | 1:22.992 |
| V. BottasMercedesAMG·#77 | 6 | 1:23.036 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C. LeclercFerrari·#16 | 7 | 1:23.122 | |
| Y. TsunodaAlphaTauri·#22 | 8 | 1:23.220 | |
| E. OconAlpine·#31 | 9 | 1:23.389 | |
| D. RicciardoMcLaren·#3 | 10 | 1:23.409 | |
| F. AlonsoAlpine·#14 | 11 | 1:23.460 | |
| P. GaslyAlphaTauri·#10 | 12 | 1:24.043 | |
| L. StrollAston Martin·#18 | 13 | 1:24.066 | |
| A. GiovinazziAlfa Romeo·#99 | 14 | 1:24.251 | |
| S. VettelAston Martin·#5 | 15 | 1:24.305 | |
| N. LatifiWilliams·#6 | 16 | 1:24.338 | |
| G. RussellWilliams·#63 | 17 | 1:24.423 | |
| K. RäikkönenAlfa Romeo·#7 | 18 | 1:24.779 | |
| M. SchumacherHaas·#47 | 19 | 1:24.906 | |
 | N. MazepinHaas·#9 | 20 | 1:25.685 |
All times are in Pacific Standard Time
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“Charles and Carlos look to end this season on a high note” — Paul
Ferrari are the favorites to take P3 in the constructors’ championship, as they hold a 38.5-pt lead over McLaren with just this race to go.
There is little to say about the 2 titans of F1 after Friday’s running.
McLaren had very few test parts on the car, which meant they could focus on set-up and tire work and by the time they got to the end of the day, they were reasonably happy with where the car was. Both Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo were encouraged, while technical chief James Key would not read too much into the times because there was high track evolution through the day.
There have been several tweaks to Yas Marina Circuit ahead of this yr’s race, with some teams saying it is almost like a new track so significant are the changes.
The opening chicane has been removed to allow a faster entry into a wider hairpin, Turns 11-14 have been replaced by a sweeping banked turn and four corners in the hotel section have been opened up to make them faster.
Lap times will be around 15 secs quicker, and the early signs are that it will be a little easier to follow and that should in turn improve the chances of overtaking. We will not know until the race, but things look positive.
There were mixed feelings at Ferrari.
Charles Leclerc was pretty happy but team mate Carlos Sainz was at a loss to explain why he could not get comfortable with the car, something he has has encountered for several races.
Overall, the Red cars lack a little pace relative to McLaren without any fuel in the car, but they are the strongest of the midfield when it comes to race simulations, with around 1/10th sec over McLaren.
Ferrari is The Aristocrat of the automotive sector.
Ferrari finished Friday at 261.35 within its 52 wk range of 127.73 – 275.30 in NY, just off of its all time closing high at 275.30 on 22nd November.
Key technical indicators have turned Very Bullish across the board. The candlestick pattern indicated the confirmation of the break out at 196.01 on 3 November and confirmed.
The Key resistance is at 263.70, the Key support is at 256.86 All of our Key technical indicators are all Very Bullish in here.
Societe Generale places a Street high price target of $290 on RACE as compared to the average sell-side price target at 207.57. Most Street analysts still do not know how to view Ferrari.
Morgan Stanley called out $RACE a “sleeper” EV play as the firm can justify more than 100% of the company’s value with its ICE business. MS’s new price target of $350 reps more than 35% Northside potential for shares and is above the average analyst 1 yr target is at 202.71.
MS automotive analyst says, “Longer term, we see scope for Ferrari to offer a range of EV products at potentially higher prices than the average selling price of today’s Ferrari, while leveraging economies of scale on higher volumes.“
Note: At the beginning of Y 2020 I called RACE at 230 by year’s end, the stock was trading at 165.22 on 1 January 2020, on 29 December 2020 it marked 233.66 intraday, an all time high
The Maranello Outfit’s shares were raised to Buy from Hold at HSBC, and Buys at Morgan Stanley and Bank of America.
UBS is now calling the stock at 365. I have not seen any other Street downgrades.
Ferrari will continue to create value in the long term as it becomes the world’s 1st Super Luxury brand.
Ferrari is a quality 1st long term luxury products investment, BAML raised its call to 270 long term.
I have raised my long term target to 375, a Strong Bull call, the strongest on the Street and am holding the mark during this recent profit taking, and seeing RACE as a buying opportunity.
Ferrari has an average rating of Buy and a consensus target price at 186.31.
Ferrari will continue to create value in the long term. Ferrari is a quality 1st long term luxury products investment, and I am calling it 375 long term, the Top call on the Street, and adjusting it to 250/share short term.
A number of large investors have recently bought shares of RACE, and there have been very few instances of insider selling over the past yr that we have seen. And Ferrari continues to buy back its stock in here.
The stock is considered defensive in the sector.
There is F1 racing in the UAE this weekend, click here for the official schedule.
Enjoy this last 2021 F1 racing weekend, Keep the Faith!
