An exciting, but also very long, season is approaching its end. The 22nd race is approaching, in which the title battle will be decided. It has been a war of attrition for the teams and Mercedes and Red Bull have to double-check the cars to avoid unnecessary damage.
Ted Kravitz, F1 analyst at Sky, is warning the rival teams about the war of attrition that this season has been. The cars of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen are being driven to the limit and after 21 races some parts may be wearing out; Verstappen's gearbox, which took a battering in Saudi Arabia last week, in particular.
Battle of attrition between Red Bull and Mercedes
Kravitz told Sky Sports: "Verstappen is still racing that gearbox that had a tap against the wall. Yes it was fine, but it also had some rumbles over kerbs in Saudi Arabia. If I was Red Bull, I'd be thinking about that." As if the battle between the title rivals wasn't exciting enough, Kravitz believes reliability could also play a big part in the outcome of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Mercedes has long been the figurehead of reliability. Kravitz: "For Mercedes, they've not had many technical failures, DNFs such is the quality of both of these teams. Bono will be going through everything double-checking it. The front-wing that was broken in Saudi Arabia has been fixed." Finally, Kravitz wonders aloud what difference the reliability of both teams' cars will make. The answer remains in his hands, and we won't see it until Sunday.