Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton surprised by F1 Abu Dhabi GP pace, but left wanted by overall season, as Frederic Vasseur notes on turnaround in the weekend.
After a lacklusture Friday and Saturday, Ferrari turned it around on Sunday in F1 Abu Dhabi GP. Leclerc was hustling Lando Norris after managing to clear George Russell. He had to fend off Fernando Alonso early on, which he did. He then troubled the McLaren driver ahead for multiple laps.
So much so that Norris had to pit early to cover Leclerc and Russell. The Monegasque didn’t wish to go into details why they performed well on Sunday, but Vasseur pinned it on the work done with the setup on track and at Maranello. They managed to improve as the weekend progress.
Leclerc was a strong fourth and teammate Hamilton made a solid recovery from 16th to eighth. He almost took seventh but for the late tussle with Esteban Ocon, who managed to keep his nose ahead. Nevertheless, it was a fighting end to a disappointing first year with Ferrari.
Also, he managed to keep himself ahead of Andrea Kimi Antonelli in the drivers’ standings in sixth. The Italian was two points away from toppling him after Qatar, but Hamilton had a timely race to retain his position. He was in upbeat mood, but wanted to get into the holiday mood as soon.
Race –
Leclerc: “I think I do [had pace to be with McLaren]. No, I cannot explain it, but I think we do understand, but yeah, there’s not another race to prove it, and it’s the last race of the era anyways, of this era of cars, so it doesn’t really matter anyway. The overcut I’m not sure, but there was also George that was pushing quite hard, and we all have get undercut by him. So, I think it was the right thing to stop by that time. I was expecting Max to play some games at the beginning or end of the race, but yeah. He didn’t do any of that, so, yeah.”
Hamilton: “I’m pleased with today’s drive. We made good progress, overtook a lot of cars, and got ourselves back into the points. The two-stop strategy worked well so thank you to the team. It’s been a tough season, but the kindness and hard work of everyone at Ferrari means a lot to me. I stand with team and know we have better times ahead.”
Season –
Leclerc: “It’s tough. Whether it’s the toughest or not, I don’t know. I tend to forget those negative emotions as quickly as possible. So I don’t know if it’s the worst one, but for sure it’s a very disappointing one.”
Hamilton: “I don’t particularly feel relieved, no. I feel fine. I just…I feel pretty fresh, just looking forward to the break. I don’t [reflect]. I don’t. I’ve said all I can about this season already, so there’s not really much more to add to it, just move forwards.”
Retirement jibes –
Hamilton: “I won’t say anything to them. None of them have done what I’ve done, so they don’t even know my level.”
Strategy –
Vasseur: “Plan A is not always the first one, it was on the edge, it was more linked to the strategy imposed by Verstappen we had different scenario for the race depending on the first 10 laps if we push or not. It could have been different but quite early that we had the feeling that to push Norris to do mistakes, it was better for us to do two stop but it didn’t.”
Turnaround in the weekend –
Vasseur: “It happened two or three times this year that we struggled with the initial setup on Friday morning. We had the case in one or two split races. We had the case in Qatar last week for different reasons. And once again, when you start and the setup is not perfect, quickly you move from P4-P5 to P14. And it’s becoming a drama. We’re speaking about tenths of a second, but it’s becoming a drama in terms of position. But thanks to the job done at Maranello and on track, I think the recovery was good. But if you miss one or two sessions, you let on the table a couple of hundredths in two or three corners and it’s enough for you to move from P2, P3 to P5. And I think it’s what’s happened for us this weekend. If we had a better start, probably we could do a better quali. Perhaps just one tenth, but one tenth, it’s a game changer for Charles and for Lewis. But I’m not complaining at all because it’s the same for everybody.
“And for me as a fan of F1, it’s part of the championship. Yeah, but I think sometimes you can be on the edge between quali and race approach and I think we were probably a bit more on the race side of the setup. But it’s always a compromise that you have to do and it’s always a difficult choice because in the past I think we had a delta with the car behind us that we don’t have anymore. Today it’s if you are a bit more on the direction of the race that you have to fight like hell to go in Q3 and a couple of times that we are out in Q2 during the season and once again I think it’s true for us but it was true for Kimi yesterday, also that two races ago he was fighting for the win and yesterday it was P14 or 16. I think we have to accept this I think next year will be probably a different story but with the championship that we have today we have to accept this. I would say that except McLaren and Verstappen, everyone was in the same boat.”
Hamilton’s run –
Vasseur: “If you have a look, it’s also the weekend where we struggled a little bit more with Charles. Charles was also P10 in Qatar, we were struggling a little bit. Charles was also P10 or P9 in Vegas. For sure, if we struggle, the team is falling more. But once again, keep in mind that yesterday, Lewis was six hundredth of P8 or P9 in Q1. When you don’t do FP1 and you do half of the FP3, for sure you are leading some hundredth here and there, and it’s making a difference. The race pace was strong, we had a very good comeback, good overtaking, good tyre management. And I can’t complain at all about the Lewis. He did the job. Let’s continue to watch.”
Here’s Lando Norris on Charles Leclerc threat
Here’s how F1 Abu Dhabi GP panned out
