Max Verstappen & Lewis Hamilton set for thrilling Formula 1 finale



The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix can be heard on radio and on the website.

The next two weekends in the Middle East will see the most intense Formula 1 championship fight in years.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen leads Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton. The season ends with races in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, both on tracks with unknowns for the teams and drivers.

If results go his way, Verstappen can become champion on the new street track in Jeddah this weekend.

Hamilton has the strength. He is heading into the end of the season on the back of two convincing wins and with the performance trend clearly favouring his team.

There is a lot at stake. If Verstappen wins, it will be the beginning of a new era, his first drivers' title, final confirmation of his status as the leading man of the new generation of F1 stars, and the end of seven years of Mercedes domination.

Hamilton will set a new record if he wins. He is already the most successful F1 driver in history, with more wins and pole positions than anyone else, and equal on titles with Michael Schumacher, an eighth crown would move him clear on every possible statistical measure.

The points situation.

Verstappen can win his first title on Sunday.

If he wins with the fastest lap point, Hamilton is lower than fifth.

If he wins without the fastest lap point, Hamilton is lower than sixth.

If he is second with the fastest lap.

Hamilton does not score if he is second.

It's simpler for practical purposes. In a normal race, the two title contender will finish first and second, without any problems for either of them.

They are faster than their team-mates, who will be subject to team orders to help them, and no other team is likely to be competitive enough to disrupt their battle.

What's at stake is simple. Verstappen is likely to win the title if he beats Hamilton in Saudi Arabia.

If Verstappen wins with Hamilton second, the Red Bull driver's points lead will be extended to either 14, 15, or 16 points, depending on who sets the fastest lap. Hamilton would have to rely on Verstappen hitting trouble in Abu Dhabi to have a chance.

If Hamilton wins with Verstappen second, the gap will be reduced to either nothing or two points. That would set up a winner-take-all battle.

Hamilton and Verstappen clashed at the Italian Grand Prix in September.

Who is faster right now?

The performance trend favors Mercedes.

The Red Bull was quicker in the first half of the season than the cars were.

The tables have turned in Mercedes' favor. The average advantage is 0.248 seconds.

Who will win the race is not determined by the pace of the race. It's difficult to say which team will have the fastest car in Abu Dhabi and Jeddah.

Both teams think the Mercedes will be quicker. It is quicker on the straights, and the circuits are known as "power-sensitive" because of the effect engine performance has on lap time.

The expected trends have not always been followed by their relative competitiveness. The US Grand Prix was held in Austin last month. Red Bull has been a Hamilton stronghold since its first race in 2012. Verstappen won the race because they had the quicker car.

It's not possible to predict which car will suit which circuit best this season, so much has changed.

He doesn't see a pattern. It's random. I think it's random and unexpected, but I think the engineers will understand by now.

There are many different elements to why that could be. It is crazy.

Red Bull is worried about Saudi Arabia. The new street circuit has a number of fast, flat-out sections that don't require hard braking.

That should favor Mercedes. Then add in the fact that Hamilton will be using the new engine for just the second time this season, when he took his most spectacular win of the season, coming from the back of the grid in the sprint race, and a five-place grid penalty.

It is not necessarily that simple. Will the Mercedes be faster than the Red Bull? Absolutely, almost certainly. Does that mean it will be quicker? Not necessarily.

The track surface and tyres are very important in F1. If Red Bull doesn't get their tyres into the correct window, that could swing things in their favor.

There are questions about Abu Dhabi.

Since 2009, it has held a grand prix, a track well known to teams. It has undergone extensive revisions this year to try to eradicate its reputation as a terrible track for racing.

A chicane has been taken out before the first long back straight. The left-right- left-right sequence at the end of the second straight has been replaced by a long banked corner. The corners around the marina have been reprofiled to make it easier to follow other cars.

It's a new track, and it's also a new set-up.

The rear wing of the Mercedes.

The rear wing of Red Bull is being worked on.

The politics and rows.

There is a possibility of a protest by Red Bull against Mercedes in the final two races.

Red Bull spent the last two grands prix in Brazil and Qatar highlighting questions as to whether the Mercedes rear wing complies with the regulations.

They believe that the main plane of the wing flexes backwards, which increases straight-line speed.

At both races, team principal Christian Horner spoke about this.

The team made a number of representations to the stewards in Brazil. In Brazil, Hamilton's straight-line speed advantage over the rest of the field was "not normal", and he spoke of the existence of "score marks" on the inside of the wing's end plate that provide proof of their.

Verstappen claims that Red Bull has video evidence of the wing flexing. There are a lot of photos and videos floating around on the internet that claim to show one aspect or another of the allegations.

Mercedes does not agree with the claims of Horner. They say Red Bull is watching ghosts. They say that Hamilton's straight-line speed in Brazil was nothing out of the ordinary because he had a brand new engine in the car, had the DRS overtaking aid in operation, and they were quicker on the straights than Red Bull.

A new test on rear wing rigidity was introduced. They say the Mercedes wing is the same one used in Brazil.

Wolff said that they struggle to keep up with the rumors that are being made from that side.

Red Bull were mollified by what they perceived to be a drop in Mercedes' straight-line speed in Qatar - but Hamilton was using an older engine there, and the reversion to the new one used in Brazil could well lead to Red Bull's complaints being revived in Saudi Arabia.

Red Bull have a problem with rear wings.

The flap of their car's engine has been open in three of the last four races. Red Bull tried to fix it.

The problem seems to be caused by an aerodynamic phenomenon that overloads the DRS mechanism. It only happens on Red Bull's rear wing.

They switched to the high-downforce wing in order to solve the problem.

The medium downforce wing is the one that they would be expected to use at both Jeddah and Abu Dhabi, neither of which suits a high-downforce set-up.

"If those wings are needed in Abu Dhabi or Jeddah, we will need to have fixes in place to strengthen the DRS mechanism."

Red Bull is trying to fix it in the gap between races. If they can't find a way to use that wing, Red Bull will be in a worse position at the final two races.

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix circuit is almost complete.

The question of human rights.

The moral questions that were raised at the last event in Qatar are likely to be revived by this weekend's race in Saudi Arabia.

F1 has found it difficult to resist the large amounts of money offered by these countries to host events.

The human rights records of both countries are extremely troubling, according toAmnesty International.

F1 president Stefano Domenicali said before the meeting that he hoped F1's presence could lead to progress on human rights, and that shutting the countries off would be a mistake.

Hamilton said that F1 needed to raise awareness of human rights issues in the countries and that they needed to be scrutinized.

The sport will face a lot of controversy in the future because both countries have signed long-term contracts with F1, so this will be an issue for a long time.