Nico Rosberg might have won, but it was Sergio Perez the team was waxing lyrical about following the season ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Chris Balfe, Max Noble and Mat Coch are back in the Pitpass studio dissecting the race, refusing to be distracted by the prospect of driverless motor racing. OK, maybe for a bit, but barely more than five minutes as they shudder at the prospect of engineers with thick glasses and thin laptops slaving away over line after line of code.

Kicking off the show, the trio look at the situation at Mercedes as tension mounts between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg before moving seamlessly onto the impressive Sebastian Vettel as Ferrari goes from strength to strength. Just a shame the season is over.

With little to talk about on track, attention instead turns to the 2017 regulations and fears over where it's taking the sport. It might not be Formula Robert, as Noble brands the driverless racing series that will support Formula E, but it may as well be. Mechanical grip is the key, they decide, in a move you can bet will almost certainly be voted against at the next meeting of the F1 commission.

After a season of honourable mentions, Max Verstappen ends the year with a dishonourable dismissal following a calamitous weekend in the desert. Still, it's more than Nico Hulkenberg receives as the German sits quietly in the shadow of his teammate. Even Coch has to finally accept that fact.

Check it out now, it's one of the most reliable podcasts in Formula One history after successfully completing its allocated running in the Pirelli tyre test. Or was that Marussia's hyperbole?

You can download the latest episode on iTunes here.

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