Drivers make their tyre choices for Abu Dhabi

The Formula One teams and drivers have made their tyre selections for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend.

The new three compound tyre regulations from Formula One and Pirelli have worked brilliantly this season.

The drivers and teams have to secretly make their selections weeks in advance and are then locked in with their selections, this has made for some interesting tyre strategies over the course of the 2016 Formula One World Championship.

For the final race of the season around the Yas Marina circuit, drivers were given the three compounds of the yellow soft tyre, the red super-soft tyre and the purple ultra-soft tyre.

As the season has progressed the variants taken by each team and driver have lessened, as they are now in-tune with which tyre compounds will be needed throughout a Grand Prix race weekend.

The shoot-out for the championship between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton will not be decided by tyre selections as both have opted for the same combination of 4 softs, 2 super-softs and 7 ultra-softs.

That combination has also been taken by Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, Williams’ Valterri Bottas both Toro Rosso drivers and Romain Grosjean at Haas.

The Red Bull Racing drivers of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen have gone for one more set of softs and one less set of ultra-softs.

Kevin Magnussen at Renault has also gone for that combination, whilst Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari, Felipe Massa at Williams and both Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button at McLaren have gone for 5 sets of soft, just 1 set of super-soft and 7 sets of ultra-soft.

The drivers at Force India, Sauber and Gutierrez at Haas are the only drivers to go with just 3 sets of soft.

The Mexican drivers of Perez and Gutierrez have paired them with 3 sets of super-soft and 7 sets of ultra-soft, the Sauber’s have paired them with 4 sets of super-soft and 6 sets of ultra-soft, whilst Hulkenberg has paired them with 2 sets of super-soft enabling him to be the only driver in the paddock with 8 sets of ultra-soft compound tyres.