After twenty-two Grands Prix, Mercedes prevailed over Ferrari by three points. The sprint at the last minute rewarded the Brackley team, the margin of four points of advantage with which they arrived in Abu Dhabi was crucial in the end. There was some disappointment in the Scuderia at the end of the race, but it is destined to disappear soon.
Charles Leclerc, although sorry for the team’s missed goal, concluded the Yas Marina weekend with the certainty of having done everything possible, and so did the team. The grand lap in qualifying, which allowed Leclerc to move to the front row, was followed by an impeccable race, and the final place of honor was truly the best possible result.
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Leclerc celebrates second place with Ferrari on the new suspended podium in AAbu Dhabi
“I think overall we were more competitive than we expected – explained Leclerc – we thought we were a little further behind Mercedes and McLaren, but apart from that everything went as expected. Max was stronger, that was obvious, but we had good tire management. We expected to have to fight above all with overheating, which is one of our weak points, but today we did an excellent job on this aspect.”
The second position obtained by Leclerc is the result of the work done over the weekend, from the warm-up of the tires in qualifying and their management in the race. This is one of the points on which Ferrari has grown the most during the 2023 season. “It gives us confidence ahead of next year – confirmed Charles – we know what we are missing, but there is still a long way to go before we reach the pace of Red Bull, especially in terms of race pace, so we are all aware in the team that there is still a lot of work to do.”
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Leclerc at the Parc Fermé in Abu Dhabi where Verstappen’s Red Bull and Russell’s Mercedes are also parked
When you lose a position in the standings by just three points, there is no point in looking for the crucial reason. Without the five-second penalty imposed on Perez the verdict would have been in favor of the Scuderia, and the same would have happened if Sainz had not had what is effectively his worst weekend of 2023.
After a disappointing sixteenth position in qualifying, Carlos started the race on hard tyres, a gamble to take with little to lose. “We started with the hard tires to test in the hope of being able to make just one stop – explained Sainz – but as we have seen many times this year, when we start with the hard tires we struggle a lot. We had nothing to lose, we tried, but it didn’t work.”
The plan was to try to cover a long stint with the first set of hard tires, but the collapse in performance, which came after twenty laps, forced Carlos to return to the pits. With thirty-five laps still to go the only possibility was to mount a second set of hard tires hoping for a safety car that would have allowed him a second pit stop in a shorter time, but the service car remained stopped in the pits until the checkered flag.
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Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23
A flag that Carlos did not see, as the team decided not to return the car to the track for the last lap of the race and of the season. “In the end we had to withdraw due to a problem with the power unit,” explained Carlos, even if there were no warning signs on the engine front from the outside. The unsuccessful attempt cost Sainz a lot, as he slipped to seventh place in the final championship standings, preceded by Alonso (fourth), Leclerc and Norris.
In the end he celebrated (with great moderation) Mercedes. Russell’s hopes of overtaking Leclerc dropped significantly in the first stint, then the switch to the hard tires revived the Mercedes’ pace, but without ever being able to close the five-second gap built by Charles in the first fifteen laps. Halfway through the race the pit wall realized that it also needed points from an evanescent Hamilton, and Toto Wolff opened the radio on several occasions to encourage Lewis, who however remained in a disappointing ninth position.
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
George Russell, Mercedes-AMG, 3rd position, celebrates after the race
Good for him that today two points were still important (even if not crucial), in the end this was what Mercedes needed at Yas Marina. Even if in the summer the margin over Ferrari was 56 points, in the end the final sprint allowed Mercedes to improve on last year’s result, gaining one position compared to third in 2022. It’s something, but still not much for a team who until two years ago was used to something else.
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