Charles Leclerc finished in third place at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, an excellent performance from the Ferrari driver from Monaco.
Bringing two Ferraris to the podium wasn’t enough. In the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina, McLaren secured the Constructors’ Championship thanks to Lando Norris’ victory, ahead of Ferrari’s Sainz and Leclerc. A masterful performance from Ferrari’s number 16, who, after starting second to last, finished his race in third place.”
Incredible race from Leclerc, disappointed in the parc fermé but proud of Ferrari’s season. These were his words: ‘I knew I had to be aggressive, and I knew that in the first lap I had to take as many risks as possible to gain as many positions as I could in order to be in a good position for the rest of the race. I managed to do that, but unfortunately, we started too far back to do better than what we achieved today. We gave it our all, it hurts when in such a hard-fought season we found out about the penalty at the end. We gave everything, and we just missed the goal, and it’s a shame: but we tried everything.’
Now the focus is on 2025: ‘If we look at the first part of our year, we were nowhere, not in the Constructors’ Championship fight. Then the second part of the season was very good, the team did an incredible job, and I think that together, Carlos and I, did a good job. We finish this season very well and hope to start just as strongly next year.’
And next season, Sir Lewis Hamilton will arrive, finishing fourth today. This is Charles’ thought: ‘Am I excited? Yes, of course, Lewis has achieved so much in this category, and it will be a great motivation to race alongside him. But right now, I’m thinking about the year we’ve had, and I’ve done it with Carlos. We had a fantastic relationship, we pushed each other, I was hoping to end these four years together with the Constructors’ title. We gave it all, but it wasn’t enough, so for now, there’s some disappointment. Now I’ll have four or five days to reset and then think about next year.’
Photo: Scuderia Ferrari