Lewis Hamilton's dominant year: 11 wins and seventh Driver's World Championship. Photo / Don Kennedy
Abu Dhabi has been on the F1 calendar since 2009, and in nearly all of those 12 races as the season finale.
Last weekend's race was no exception, but the race was held in an exceptional year, dominated by the coronavirus pandemic that has polarised the world and severely restricted sporting events and venues.
The race around the spectacular Yas Marina circuit was the 17th and last in a calendar reduced from the scheduled 23 races, and a season that didn't get under way until late June. It is a credit to the FIA, F1 owners Liberty Media and the circuits that played host to grand prix that a championship, albeit mostly crowd-free, was held at all.
Lewis Hamilton with 11 race wins and a record equalling seventh drivers' championship, has dominated the season, as has his Mercedes team, with 13 victories, as Hamilton's teammate Valtteri Bottas added two victories, giving Mercedes a record seventh consecutive Constructors' championships.
The other race winners were Pierre Gasly in Italy, Sergio Perez in Shakhir and Max Verstappen in the 70th Anniversary GP at Silverstone, and now the season finale in Abu Dhabi.
For Red Bull it may have been a question of saving the best until last, but Mercedes supporters will argue Verstappen only won because Mercedes turned down its engines to avoid reliability issues, while Hamilton fans may say their man wasn't at his best because he was struck down with coronavirus, missing the Sakhir race which his substitute George Russell nearly won.
Hamilton finished third behind Verstappen and Bottas, and then proclaimed, "you can't win them all" and he was "truly grateful for my health and to be alive".
Verstappen had started the race from pole position, his first of the year and led the race from start to finish, eventually winning by a comfortable margin of 16 seconds.
"It was enjoyable. It was already really enjoyable after yesterday," he said, referring to the pole position. "I think once you start up front you can control the pace a bit more and it makes your life a bit easier.
"Of course, it's always good to finish the season like this, the team worked very hard over the whole year to improve the car, and to be able to win that last race is a good boost for everyone."
Verstappen was aware that Mercedes had turned down their engines, but reliability plays a big part in winning races, so nothing should be taken away from Red Bull on that count.
Bottas says he was surprised at the pace of the Red Bull, with even Alex Albon in the other Red Bull pushing Hamilton towards the end of the race.
"Yeah, I think Red Bull was too quick today, surprisingly quick," Bottas told Sky F1.
"I finished ahead of my teammate, it's been a while since I've been on a podium so that's nice even though there isn't champagne there."
Bottas no doubt made the comment about beating Hamilton because many questioned his calibre after Russell was brought in from the Williams team to replace Hamilton in Sakhir, and but for a botched team pitstop and a puncture late in that race, would have probably won the race at the expense of Bottas' reputation.
It did not look good that Russell, with only three practice sessions in the car, was faster and better than Bottas. It also shed some light on whether it is the car or Hamilton that has enabled the world champion to have his most dominant season yet, albeit one shortened by the Covid-19 situation.
The general conclusion seems to be that Mercedes has given its drivers a superior advantage.
Yes, you have to have the ability and the fortitude to make the most of that superiority, but it helps to have a car that is faster and more reliable than any other car on the grid.
Although Mercedes has acknowledged it turned down its power to make sure their cars finished, and didn't tell its drivers, you have to wonder why, given they had already sewn up both championships and had nothing to lose.
"We have a gremlin in there," Mercedes boss Toto Wolff explained. "The damage to the MGU-K occurred below the mileage it is normally supposed to last. And we do not yet understand exactly why."
Mercedes having a reliability issue is big news, albeit coming at the end of its most successful season yet.
They didn't lose much other than the race-win, but the team that did lose something was Racing Point. Coming into this event, that team led McLaren by 10 points in the Constructors' championship. It didn't auger well for Racing Point after Sergio Perez, who won the Sakhir GP to record his first grand prix victory after 190 starts, had to start this race from the back of the grid due to engine penalties.
And during the race he suffered a transmission failure, in what could be his last grand prix until 2022 at least, unless Red Bull decide to put him in the seat currently occupied by Alex Albon, who said he gave it everything to retain the drive.
"If it's enough or not, it's not mine to say really," Albon said. "But of course, I feel like I've done everything. I'll leave it in the hands of the others to decide."
Perez was unable to help his team hold out McLaren in the Constructors' title with his race retirement and his teammate Lance Stroll wasn't able to do much either, finishing 10th for one point. McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz were fifth and sixth respectively, earning 18 points, thus giving McLaren third place by 7 points over Racing Point.
"Let's go! Third in the Constructors' World Championship! What an incredible achievement and I couldn't be prouder of every single person in his awesome team. Both @landonorris & @ carlossainz 55 finished the season with mega drives coming P4 and P6#F1#McLaren#Abu DhabiGP-Zak Brown (@ZBrownCEO)."
Daniel Ricciardo, who finished seventh for Renault and moves on to McLaren in 2021 to replace Sainz, who in turn replaces Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari, was happy with his fifth place finish in the driver's championship, and even happier given "the bonus is I now walk in to the team that got third so it's a big day for them as well".
For Vettel it was not a big day, as he only finished 14th, and brought an end to a six-year tenure at Ferrari. The team presented him with a trophy almost as tall as he is, and he sang a brief song in Italian on his way back to the pits, but you have to wonder why the trophy and why the song, given he was sacked by the team almost as soon as the season got under way.
In 119 starts since joining Ferrari in 2015, Vettel had 14 victories and 55 podiums. Not a failure by any means, but with Mercedes dominating, there was little chance Vettel would win a title for Ferrari, jut as Fernando Alonso had been unable to in his five-year stint at Ferrari, ironically because Vettel was dominating at Red Bull.
Kevin Magnussen, in his last race for Haas, has also had his last F1 race, as he has admitted he is done with F1. His first F1 race with McLaren in 2014 began with second place in the Australian GP, which turned out to be his only podium in 119 starts.
Before the F1 cars leave Abu Dhabi, several drivers will take part in a young driver's test, including controversially Alonso, who will return to F1 next year with the Renault team.
As a two-time world champion and 39 years old, he is clearly not a 'young driver' but the FIA changed its rules to allow drivers who did not race in 2020 to participate in the test, so former F1 drivers Robert Kubica and Stoffel Vandoorne will join Alonso.
The latter drove on all three days of the Abu Dhabi event, but only to demonstrate the R25 Renault with which he won the 2005 world championship. His fastest lap was only 2 seconds slower than Magnussen's qualifying time, but it was the noise from the V-10 engine, which recalls a bygone era in F1, that had almost everyone in the F1 paddock, including Hamilton, enthralled.
But there is no going back it seems to those halcyon days when the sight, sound and smell of F1 cars excited, entertained and mesmerised all who followed the sport, given electric or hydrogen cars are seen as the future.
For now, it is remarkable that F1 has been able to hold 17 races in 12 countries across Europe and the Middle East, given the coronavirus pandemic caused hundreds of thousands of deaths in some of those countries.
Perez missed two races and Stroll and Hamilton one each after contracting the virus. Hamilton admitted the virus took its toll on him physically.
"At obviously not 100 per cent, it doesn't feel as good as perhaps you would like, but congratulations to Max," Hamilton said.
"That was really a hard race for me, physically all year I've been fine, but today I definitely wasn't, I'm glad it's over."
That is a sentiment we want to apply to Covid, which unfortunately is not over. We wish our readers a merry Christmas, a happy Covid-free New Year and a 2021 F1 season that is more competitive than this one has been.