The Ferrari team lost just three points to Mercedes in the battle for second place in the Constructors’ Championship. In Abu Dhabi, Charles Leclerc passed Sergio Perez into second place on the final lap so that, after adding a five-second penalty to the Mexican’s result, Sergio would still finish ahead of George Russell and take points from Mercedes. did not work.
Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz returned to the pits on the final lap as he was not eligible for the points.
Charles Leclerc (2nd): “Sergio got a 5 second time penalty, so I had to help him finish ahead of George – for this I gave him DRS with a slipstream, but it wasn’t enough.
On the one hand, I’m very happy with how we spent this weekend; as a team we couldn’t have done anything better. But that doesn’t mean we had the second fastest car this weekend.
Today we did everything well, so it’s a shame that we ended the season in third place in the Constructors’ Championship. That was all that mattered to me at the end of the season, but we never achieved our goal.
I thank the team for their incredible work and commitment since the very first race. We knew it would be a difficult season because we lacked speed, but the team did everything they could.”
Carlos Sainz (18th): “A disappointing end to the season for me. A difficult race that did not go at all as we expected. In the beginning I had problems gaining positions and luck was not on our side. We expected the safety car to arrive, but it didn’t.
The last two races were extremely difficult for me. After the incident during the first training in Vegas, I feel like everything was working against me. But it is what it is.
In any case, we have made significant progress and there have been many positive moments in the second half of the season. We go into winter break having learned a lot and will try to put all the pieces together as we prepare for next season.
I hope the new car will be more competitive, that the team will regroup and be ready for next season. Thank you to the fans for their support!”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
