Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur disputed a suggestion that his team played “too fair” with Mercedes at the end of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in its battle for second place in the constructors’ championship. Charles Leclerc was running second ahead …
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur disputed a suggestion that his team played “too fair” with Mercedes at the end of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in its battle for second place in the constructors’ championship.
Charles Leclerc was running second ahead of George Russell, but needed the Mercedes driver to drop to fourth in order for Ferrari to finish as the runner-up to Red Bull. Once Sergio Perez — who had a five-second time penalty — overtook Russell, Leclerc slowed to give the Mexican DRS on the final lap in the hope he’d pull five seconds clear, but opted against trying to directly back Russell up himself.
“Too fair? I don’t think so,” Vasseur said. “That’s because you could imagine, to block Russell, then you have also to be sure that Perez is in between you and Russell. If you want to block Russell, it’s a matter of hundreds of seconds.
“I’m not a big fan of this. We did our best in a fair way when we let Perez go, to give him the DRS, to try to help us, but too much would have been too much.”
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In the end, when Perez’s penalty was applied he dropped from second place on the road back to fourth, finishing 1.1s behind Russell and ensuring Mercedes held Ferrari off by just three points.
The focus was on Leclerc’s approach because teammate Carlos Sainz failed to recover into the points after a Q1 exit in Abu Dhabi, but Vasseur says it was other races earlier in the year that proved costly in the fight against Mercedes.
“For sure Carlos was off the pace — that is clear and we have to understand why. But honestly, it’s not [in Abu Dhabi] that we missed something,” he said. “If you have a look on the championship, I think we had a tough event. We had Miami, we had Zandvoort in terms of pace and we had some events when we had a reliability issue, and this was much more painful than [Abu Dhabi].
“We had a strong pace as a team that we are able to fight for the pole position … We fight with the Red Bull almost all the race. I’m not sure that it’s [in Abu Dhabi] that we missed something.”
Sainz agrees, saying Abu Dhabi showed a weakness that Ferrari has had all season when it came to its tire usage, leaving him unable to fight his way back into the points.
“We started on the hard, expecting the hard to help us do a one-stop,” Sainz said. “Again, like we’ve seen many times this year, whenever we start on harder compounds, we struggle a lot. We had nothing to lose starting 16th and we gave it a go, but in the end again it didn’t work for us.
“The harder compounds — at the beginning of the race with dirty air and the sliding — just doesn’t work for us. Once we saw that we had very little chance of scoring points, we left it out for a safety car and it didn’t work out. Also, we had to retire in the end with a PU issue so it’s not like it would have changed much.”
Fernando Alonso says he did not brake test Lewis Hamilton during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and that it was both drivers using their experience in a fight he came out on top of. Hamilton claimed Alonso had brake tested him into Turn 5 – the hairpin …
Fernando Alonso says he did not brake test Lewis Hamilton during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and that it was both drivers using their experience in a fight he came out on top of.
Hamilton claimed Alonso had brake tested him into Turn 5 – the hairpin before the longest straight on the track – and the stewards did look into the incident but opted against a full investigation. Alonso says he was trying to make sure he wasn’t vulnerable to Hamilton having DRS at that point on the track having recently made a pit stop but that there was nothing dangerous about his move.
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“Nothing,” Alonso said. “Lewis is obviously very clever and understands the sport really good and has a lot of experience but I have more.
“Yes and no [the comments weren’t surprising]. We did the same in Canada in 2012, so 11 years after that episode, we tried to give the DRS to the other guy, braking for Turn 5 but in both cases I won so it is OK.”
Alonso kept Hamilton at bay and went on to overtake Yuki Tsunoda to finish seventh on Sunday, earning himself fourth place in the drivers’ championship as a result. However, having complained to Aston Martin about how slow the car was in a straight line compared to its rivals, he says it’s an area that needs addressing over the winter.
“Occasionally fast on the straight, but we need a lot more pace to overtake. We were a little bit slow on the straights, we noticed it [on Saturday] but obviously that was the best compromise for us in terms of total lap time but it is something that has been our weakness all throughout the season, the top speed, and it is something that we will work on for next year’s car.
“It was tough because of that and because of the tire degradation. We expected to be on the high side but it was higher than expectations. By lap 16 or something like that we made the first stop and we knew that the race was long from that point.
“But at the end the pace was only good for seventh or eighth and as I said [after qualifying] the lap in qualifying was very good for the position but the pace was a concern. That’s what we saw. We were just quick enough to beat AlphaTauri but that is not enough.”
Lando Norris says it was impressive that Sergio Perez hit him in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix despite leaving what he felt was excessive space for the Red Bull. Perez was trying to overtake Norris for fourth place into Turn 6 but was fighting the car …
Lando Norris says it was impressive that Sergio Perez hit him in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix despite leaving what he felt was excessive space for the Red Bull.
Perez was trying to overtake Norris for fourth place into Turn 6 but was fighting the car and understeered wide, hitting Norris on his outside. The wheel-to-wheel contact saw Perez handed a five-second penalty that later led to him branding the stewards “a joke” – a comment that earned him a warning – but Norris was surprised to be hit after giving up the corner.
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“He was ahead, I tried to let him past, I was like four car lengths away from the apex, and somehow he still crashed into me,” Norris said. “Impressive. I don’t know, I literally tried to let him past and somehow he crashed into me.”
Perez was able to pass Norris cleanly a lap later and the incident didn’t cost McLaren any further, as Oscar Piastri backed up his teammate in sixth place to secure fourth in the constructors’ championship. But with Charles Leclerc and George Russell edging away throughout the race, Norris missed out on fourth in the drivers’ standings and admits he had expected to be more competitive in race trim.
“I think the places we were struggling were clear, just the very slow speed corners – Turn 5, Turn 6 and 7, and 12/13/14, the places we know we’re not strong enough, which is the very slow speed. We were expecting a little bit more, with the cooler temperatures, we were expecting the race pace to be a little bit stronger than we had.
“We were definitely missing something but because of the lack of pace I had to push very hard to keep up with the Mercedes and Ferrari and when I did that I destroyed the tires very quickly. So I was in a tough battle to win, but I did what I could. Not quite enough, but we finished ahead of Aston which was my main target.
“In the back of your head, would I love to be fourth? Yes. Charles jumped me, so nothing I could do about that, he had a very good weekend. But no, if you’re not first you’re last, so it doesn’t bother me too much.
“It’s just a good to have thing but doesn’t change my mentality in any way. So respect to those guys ahead of me and everyone, but the main thing was the team, priority in the end, it’s first or nothing for me.”
Sergio Perez has been given a formal warning for calling the stewards “a joke” for penalizing him in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The Mexican collided with Lando Norris at Turn 6 and was given a 5s time penalty, with the stewards deciding that he …
Sergio Perez has been given a formal warning for calling the stewards “a joke” for penalizing him in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The Mexican collided with Lando Norris at Turn 6 and was given a 5s time penalty, with the stewards deciding that he “dived in late, missed the apex of the corner and understeered towards the outside of the corner.” Perez went on to finish second on the road after Charles Leclerc slowed to let him past, but was demoted to fourth by the penalty and showed his anger on team radio after the checkered flag.
“The stewards are a joke, man,” Perez said. “I cannot believe [it]. They have been very bad this year, but this is a joke. That was really a joke.”
Perez was summoned for his comments as they amounted to misconduct towards officials, with the stewards then giving him a formal warning having acknowledged the conflicting position they found themselves in when ruling on the outburst.
“The stewards explained to the driver that they had no issue with someone disagreeing with their decisions, however comments that amount to personal insults are a breach of the International Sporting Code,” the decision read.
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“The stewards note that they are obviously conflicted in this matter as they were the subject of the radio statements and that normally this would be referred to the next panel of stewards, however, as this is the final event of the season, the matter needed to be dealt with here.
“The driver made a genuine and sincere apology to each of the stewards and explained that he made the comments in the heat of the moment and did not consider the fact that they would be broadcast, and the impact of that. He expressed his regret that his comments caused offence to anyone or harm to the sport, which he said he was concerned to avoid. The stewards accept his statements and accept his apology.
“The stewards also note that the driver is not known for making such comments and has always been extremely respectful in stewards hearings. He was also reminded that the stewards are always available to explain their decisions when requested by a driver or team representative.
“The driver, team manager and the stewards had a constructive discussion about the use and broadcast of team radio messages. The incident itself was also reviewed in detail with the driver and, although he still disagreed with the decision, he stated he could understand the stewards’ perspective of the incident.”
Perez now has seven penalty points on his license for the 12-month period as a result of his latest penalty.
Charles Leclerc says he was keen to give Sergio Perez DRS to try and pull five seconds clear of George Russell at the end of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to snatch second place in the constructors’ championship for Ferrari. Perez was given a five-second …
Charles Leclerc says he was keen to give Sergio Perez DRS to try and pull five seconds clear of George Russell at the end of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to snatch second place in the constructors’ championship for Ferrari.
Perez was given a five-second time penalty for causing a collision with Lando Norris, that meant when he overtook Russell in the closing stages he needed to extend the gap quickly to be classified ahead of the Mercedes and take points away that would have moved Ferrari up a position in the standings. Knowing this, Leclerc tried to help Perez’s cause but in the end Russell was classified 1.1s ahead of the Red Bull to defend the position.
“Of course very disappointed with that third place in the constructors’ as that was my only target since two or three races ago,” Leclerc said. “It was until the very fast lap — I tried to give Checo the DRS for him to try and pull five seconds away from George but that didn’t quite work out.
“Quite a few laps before — as soon as I was aware of the five-second penalty, basically — then I was constantly asking for the gap between George and Checo. They told me that Checo had passed George, so I knew that Checo was behind me and his best chance was obviously to get the DRS from me and try to pull away as much as possible from George.
“There was quite a bit of discussion between my engineer and myself and I let him know as well that this was my plan, but it didn’t work out.”
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While Leclerc felt Ferrari was more competitive than he expected during the race, he says his early battles with Max Verstappen were never likely to result in him being able to fight for victory.
While “nice” Leclerc’s early battle with Verstappen didn’t amount to much in the end. Simon Galloway/Motorsport Images
“Yeah it was nice. On the other hand I obviously had the constructors’ championship in my mind so I couldn’t take too many risks, but I saw an opportunity,” he said. “I saw that Max was looking in his mirrors — or I was expecting him to look in the mirrors — so I made him think that I was going to the right then I went to the left.
“Then I tried also in Turn 9 but I knew that it was important for me to take care of those tires and even in the first lap, everything is so sensitive here that if you push too much then this can have a huge consequence on the rest of your run.
“So at one point I just decided to settle for the second place. Anyway, if we had got that first place I don’t think we would have kept that for long.”
Red Bull’s strategy in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was tailored to give Max Verstappen the best chance of hitting the milestone of 1,000 laps led this season. Verstappen held off Charles Leclerc from pole position in the opening laps and led the first …
Red Bull’s strategy in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was tailored to give Max Verstappen the best chance of hitting the milestone of 1,000 laps led this season.
Verstappen held off Charles Leclerc from pole position in the opening laps and led the first stint, but the team delayed his second pit stop in the middle part of the race. Verstappen says his strategy took into account the fact he could hit four figures in terms of laps led, a record he achieved with three laps remaining.
“Well, I knew it was on the cards going into the race, and also from the engineering side with the strategy, we wanted to try and plan it in a way that wouldn’t pit too early, so just wait for others to pit,” Verstappen said. “Of course, to try and achieve that was maybe not always the fastest strategy, but I wanted to stay in the lead to get the laps in.”
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Leclerc could have prevented Verstappen hitting that target had he managed to make a number of overtaking moves stick on the opening lap, and the Dutchman says he relished the battle with the Ferrari driver at the start.
“The first lap, you cannot take it easy. It was good, I think — he raced well. I didn’t expect Charles to go on the left into Turn 6 but it was a good move. But I think at the same time, Charles also had to think about the [constructors’] championship for the team. So yeah it was good, I enjoyed that.
“The first stint, I didn’t really know what to expect because I didn’t do a long run [in practice],” he admitted. “I probably took it a bit too easy in the beginning, but I guess that was better than trying to push ahead and destroy the tires. So, took a few laps. But then I think also the medium was not as good as expected, so then we had to pit, because I saw everyone around me also pitting.
“On the hard tires, everything felt a bit more normal, a bit more easy to manage with the temperatures, and basically I could extend my lead lap after lap. And yeah, it was pretty straightforward. I think from not having done a long run, the car felt quite decent out there.”
Max Verstappen scored a comfortable 19th victory of the season ahead of Charles Leclerc at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to complete one of the most dominant campaigns in Formula 1 history. Leclerc offered the reigning champion a stiff challenge off the …
Max Verstappen scored a comfortable 19th victory of the season ahead of Charles Leclerc at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to complete one of the most dominant campaigns in Formula 1 history.
Leclerc offered the reigning champion a stiff challenge off the line with a fractionally better start, but was hemmed onto the apex at the first turn, forcing him to find another way through.
The Ferrari driver got the better run out of the Turn 5 hairpin and was late on the brakes into turn 6, but Verstappen toughed it out around the outside to take the inside through the chicane exit at Turn 7.
Leclerc’s last chance was to look around the outside at the parabolic Turn 9, but the door was shut to him there too. He had no choice but to fall into line, allowing Verstappen a chance to break free from DRS reach by the time the drag reduction system was activated on the third lap.
Red Bull pre-empted the powerful undercut by bringing the Dutchman in for his first stop early, on lap 16, ensuring he remained well out of reach when Leclerc stopped on the following tour. All that was left for him to do was to massage open the gap to an eventual 17.9s to claim the final win of the year.
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“It was an incredible season,” he said. “It was a bit emotional on the in-lap – it was the last time I was sitting in the car which has given me a lot.
“I have to say a big thank you to everyone at Red Bull. It’s been an incredible year. It will be hard to do something similar again, but we definitely enjoyed this year.”
Fireworks light the sky as the Red Bull Racing team cheer Max Verstappen finishing the year the way he started. Glenn Dunbar/Motorsport Images
Sergio Perez finished second on the road after being waved past by Charles Leclerc in a bizarre ending to the battle for the the podium.
Perez had been recovering from ninth on the grid with a late second stop that put him on an aggressive final stint to haul himself up the order. But the Mexican wasn’t clean in his forward parries, fumbling an attempted overtake on Lando Norris for fourth place at the chicane.
Perez dived down the McLaren’s inside but washed out slightly wide, banging wheels with the Briton and sending him spearing off the road. The stewards took a dim view of the incident and slapped him with a 5s penalty for causing a collision, to be applied after the flag.
His pace was nonetheless strong, and before long Perez was breathing down the necks of Leclerc and George Russell, who had spent the race closely matched in second and third. With Ferrari and Mercedes locked in a four-point battle for second in the constructors standings, Leclerc spied an opportunity to put his thumb on the scales.
When Perez barged past Russell with four laps remaining, Leclerc slowed, allowing the Red Bull Racing driver to speed past him down the back straight in the hope that in clean air he could build enough of a gap to partially offset his penalty.
If Perez dropped to third, behind Leclerc but ahead of Russell, the points difference would be enough to move Ferrari up to second. It was a good plan in theory, but the lap count conspired against it. Perez ran out of time to build the gap, falling short by just 1.125s.
Leclerc and Russell were promoted back to second and third, and Mercedes sealed the runner-up position in the championship.
“I tried to give him DRS and a slipstream, but that unfortunately wasn’t really enough,” Leclerc lamented. “On a weekend like this there wasn’t one thing we could’ve done better. We did an incredible job, doing everything right … it’s just a shame that we finished third in the constructors.”
Russell said he was nervous in the final five laps as he waited for the arithmetic to shake out.
“Checo came from nowhere,” he said. “I don’t know what happened there, but he had great pace.
“It was really tense at the end. The tires were dropping off. I’m really pleased to have secured P2 for the team.”
Lando Norris claimed fifth despite an attempt to undercut his way onto the podium with an early second stop. He was comfortably covered by Russell and Leclerc ahead of him on subsequent laps and was later no match for the recovering Perez.
His McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri, finished 7s behind him, having been slower in the opening stint and then losing race time by having to pit second in both stop windows on an evening the undercut was usually very powerful.
Fernando Alonso finished seventh in a vain attempt to lift Aston Martin back to fourth in the constructors standings ahead of McLaren.
Yuki Tsunoda finished eighth as the best-placed entry on a one-stop strategy. The Japanese driver led the race for the first time in his career before his first stop and was exhibiting strong pace, but his tires faded badly late, dropping him from his target of sixth — which would have elevated AlphaTauri to seventh in the standings ahead of Williams — to eighth.
Lewis Hamilton almost made it ninth but couldn’t make a move through Turn 9 stick, leaving him ninth ahead of Lance Stroll.
Daniel Ricciardo finished 11th ahead of Esteban Ocon and a frustrated Pierre Gasly, who saw a points finish evaporate to poor strategy decisions to pit late, handing undercuts to all his chief rivals.
Alex Albon was 14th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, Logan Sargeant, Carlos Sainz — who save his final pit stop until the final lap in the hope of picking up a safety car that never came — Valtteri Bottas and Kevin Magnussen.
Lewis Hamilton puts his recent struggles down to inconsistencies with the balance of his Mercedes after dropping out in Q2 for the second race in a row at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Las Vegas saw Hamilton failing to reach Q3 in qualifying and he …
Lewis Hamilton puts his recent struggles down to inconsistencies with the balance of his Mercedes after dropping out in Q2 for the second race in a row at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Las Vegas saw Hamilton failing to reach Q3 in qualifying and he looked to be off the pace of teammate George Russell for the majority of the weekend in Abu Dhabi before being eliminated in Q2 once again. Hamilton told his team over the radio that something was wrong with his car, and says he doesn’t have any confidence in how it will behave at each turn.
“It’s just very loose; the car’s unpredictable at every corner,” Hamilton said. “In one corner it’s one way, in another corner it’s another, and it’s not a consistent car or balance. No setup change I can make seems to get it right, and it’s a struggle just to get out of Q1.
“These last two races have been a disaster for me, particularly in qualifying. I’ve had two 11th places. It’s very rare, but it’s the last race, so…”
Hamilton revealed that his setup was the same as Russell’s and, with the other car qualifying on the second row, he believes something fundamental is wrong but is now focused on trying to hold off Ferrari for second place in the constructors’ standings.
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“George managed to get the most out of the car today, finishing in P4,” he said. “It takes some good going for me to not make it into Q3 so we need to do a deep dive and try our best to move up tomorrow.
“The team here and back in the factory deserve a good result for the final race of the season, so we will work hard as always and hopefully it will pay off and we can find improvements ahead of tomorrow.”
Russell backed up Hamilton’s claims, as he doesn’t expect his teammate to be so far off his own pace.
“I think confidence is a huge thing, and if you start on the front foot you can just build from there,” Russell said. “I’m not too sure. There’s different theories week-in, week-out, but for sure Lewis isn’t a driver who is 0.4s off the pace this weekend, or whether it was last weekend, so something as a team we need to understand.”
After dropping out in Q1 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz said some drivers deliberately cost others lap time in close qualifying sessions by being within a few seconds through certain corners. A crash on Friday put Sainz behind …
After dropping out in Q1 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz said some drivers deliberately cost others lap time in close qualifying sessions by being within a few seconds through certain corners.
A crash on Friday put Sainz behind heading into qualifying, and he duly was eliminated in 16th place after saying he struggled with traffic on his final Q1 run. The Spaniard says drivers know the distance that would prove tricky for a following car in quick corners and when the field is closely matched, it opens up the potential for some gamesmanship to try and impact others.
“It’s tricky, but there were cars out there today and between us drivers we know that if you do a corner within two seconds of another car — one or two seconds in front — then you’re going to make him lose a tenth or two in that corner,” Sainz said.
“I see people as the weekends have gone by relaxing a bit on that, and when it’s tight in Q1 or Q2 I see people giving some dirty air on purpose in some corners, to maybe make the others lose some time in those corners. Which we don’t consider impeding, but it’s not like (it’s obvious) but you know you’re giving him dirty air and you know you’re giving him a bad run in that corner. So by going out last, I did basically all of Sector 1 and 2 very close to the cars in front and found myself losing tenths in Turns 3 and 4.”
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However, Sainz acknowledged he was already on the back foot even without any potential influence from other drivers, and that it will be tough to score points on Sunday.
“Clearly, the pace all weekend hasn’t been the strongest and we needed a perfect Q1 and Q2, given how tight the field is,” he admitted. “We had a very scrappy Q1 — we went out very late onto the last run, we had a problem with the front wing which meant we were the last car out and once I opened my last lap I found myself in a lot of traffic in Sector 1 and 2 and lost a couple of tenths there that probably cost me the spot in Q2.
“I’m hoping it will be better. I feel like for some reason this weekend we have struggled on the soft tire but the long runs haven’t looked too bad. We know what we need to do tomorrow, which is a good recovery, get back into the points and see where Mercedes ends up. We need a very strong day tomorrow if we want to score any points.”
Lando Norris says he is “doing a s**t job on Saturday” after an error on his final qualifying lap left him fifth on the grid at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. McLaren has looked a candidate for the second fastest team throughout the weekend in Abu Dhabi, …
Lando Norris says he is “doing a s**t job on Saturday” after an error on his final qualifying lap left him fifth on the grid at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
McLaren has looked a candidate for the second fastest team throughout the weekend in Abu Dhabi, with Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri both in the top three in FP3. While Piastri went on to secure third on the grid, Norris was set for a quicker lap time but had to catch a massive slide in the final sector and says it cost him at least three positions on the grid.
“It cost four-tenths,” Norris said. “100 percent (it cost a front row spot). I didn’t do it, so it doesn’t matter.
“I don’t know if it was for P1, maybe, but I don’t think it would’ve been P1. I don’t care if you make any mistake in qualifying, when you’re fighting for a good position, it’s frustrating, but the thing is, I just make so many mistakes on a Saturday at the minute.
“Every other lap was some of my best laps. My first lap in Q3 was very strong, it’s just one little mistake, I don’t know why it happened, I’ve not done that all weekend. Just frustrating, I’m just doing a s**t job on Saturday.”
Norris denied a suggestion that he’s being too harsh on himself after earning another top-five starting position.
“Not at all. I should’ve been P2, and I end up P5 because of a stupid mistake,” he insisted. “I’m too soft on myself.”
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Norris’ boss Zak Brown was less frustrated by the situation, with both cars starting in the first five spots.
“I think we left a little bit on the table in qualifying, but as I said to Andrea [Stella, team principal] it’s pretty good when we’re a little bit disappointed with P3 and P5,” Brown told SpeedCity Broadcasting. “I think we’re in good shape. We’ve got two fast race cars, two very fast racing drivers, so we just need to execute tomorrow.
“I think [Norris] had a P2 in him there, but if he can get to P2 like he did in Brazil at Turn 1 then I think that will mean Oscar will want to be in P1 because I don’t think he’s going to want to be passed by anyone.
“Max [Verstappen] doesn’t seem to have been as quick all weekend long. I’d like to think we could push him, but my sneaking suspicion is he’s now got it all together come qualifying, he’ll be pretty tough in the race, but we’re going to try.
“We want to race for the win, for the podium. It’s kind of defensive driving to worry about people behind you so we’ve got to look forward.”
