And so the final race has passed with Lewis Hamilton coming out on top . The strange thing is that the final race brought upon quite a few upgrades as well as an infringement from one of the teams. Abu Dhabi applies itself to the medium downforce tracks as well as Sochi and Malaysia. Teams have to find the right balance of downforce and speed.
McLaren 
The recent arrival of Peter Prodromou to McLaren from Red Bull showed in their new front wing on the MP4-29. Their new wing shares every single aspect to that of the Red Bull RB10. What’s new is the endplate of the front wing which has a small gap of 10cm or so above the cutout which therefore reveals where each element of the wing is and where it connects to the base of the footplate. This now shows of the six element front wing tier they have. The reason behind this change is to bring more air outboard of the front wing and feed it to the rear of the car mainly the rear wing. All this has replaced the two element canard they used to run.
Secondly they implemented a small turning vane on to the cascade, likewise to Red Bull. They both have triple element cascade on their cars with the turning vane on top. The reason behind it is for more air guidance as it works in conjunction of the cascade, more air flow is now being pushed outwards of the wheel wake.
Another upgrade on the MP4-29 was the brake duct shroud. At the base was 2 hook like carbon composite peace which were faced inward to the tub and curled round at the end. The reason for this was to get more air blow back around the sidepod and over the rear floors and tyre squirt. Lastly on the McLaren was the engine cover. It featured six venting louvers at the rear jut before the y100 winglet (monkey seat). The reason for these was for better power unit heat extraction in the hot temperatures of Abu Dubai.
Red Bull
There might have not been anything new to the RB10, but does have an important point on the front wing. In qualifying under FIA tests their front top mainplanes were deemed to be too flexible. They were then found guilty of running a small leaf spring on the outside of the front wing adjuster facing the endplate. This under high aerodynamic loud would flex and be pushed downwards creating less rolling resistance and therefore less drag as the air is hitting less of the mainplanes. This isn’t new to Formula 1 and was adopted by Sauber and Force India a couple of years ago. Red Bull were then forced to run an older spec Brazilian front wing for the race which featured a low downforce configuration.
Toro Rosso
Toro Rosso had an unchanged car for Abu Dhabi, but conducted an unusual test whereby the exhaust tailpipe was fitted with sensors. Inside the end of the exhaust a cross-shaped sensor was fitted with electrical cables emerging from it. This was to test the exhaust plume as gases are released something which was going to changed next year.
Lotus
Lotus chose to run its LED steering wheel again in FP1 and FP2. Their new PCU-8D steering wheel features a bigger sent screen on information and a neater buttons to the side, which their drivers say “it’s a real plus”.
