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Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton has clinched the 2018 Formula 1 season with Sebastian Vettel, once again, managing to go only as far as coming second, but next only to Hamilton.
We are at the fag end of a season where the likes of Ferrari and Red Bull gave Mercedes a few scares here and there but without causing any great grief to the Constructor's toppers, who've yet again clinched the title for the fourth time in the last five years.
If there's anything remotely thrilling about a season where Hamilton's quite simply taken the mickey out of his rival then it's mostly in anticipating whether his teammate, Valtteri Bottas can finally claim a win, although, the Finn has got every reason to believe he could have won the 2017 Abu Dhabi contest.
Some surprising developments for the year have been Raikkonen ending a five-year drought at the top of the podium with Ricciardo, a two-time race winner this year seeing a promising season turn sour given the continuous mechanical malfunctions his car forced him to endure.
That leaves us with the possibility of seeking some surprises at the start of the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
So what are these exactly?
Well, what else but the F1 tyre compound choices?
And setting a perfect tone to this weekend's racing extravaganza, not one but three teams have elected compounds that, well, might leave a few thinking.
Here's what you ought to know.
Toro Rosso and Williams have opted for the aggressive compounds having chosen ten sets of the hyper-softs.
However, Renault, all set to claim the fourth step on the Constructor's standings, who have also opted for the similar compound have only chosen seven sets of these.
Is that surprising?
For a track that's renowned for challenging drivers with oscillating track temperatures, the evening nippy breeze in the desert emirate often playing games with a surface sapped in heat and humidity, wouldn't a softer compound have been ideal?
Well, who's to know?
But if you think about the tyre choices that the top three of the pack have chosen- Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull- then you'd reckon that the troika of frontrunners has opted to tread carefully.
In choosing as many as eight sets of the softest compounds available, the trio has posted some questions at those who may have thought that the likes of Toro Rosso, Williams, and Renault made the right choice.
That said, come the 2019 F1 season, the tyre compound choice would get slightly less complicated in the sense that regardless of whatever compound they are made of, there will only be three simple categories to select from, namely- hard, medium, and softs.
