Charles Leclerc will relive what he set out to do at the Abu Dhabi F1 GP and will also be joined by George Russell, Sergio Perez and three team principals.
The Abu Dhabi F1 GP wasn’t the most exciting, but things got a little more exciting when we finished second in the Constructors’ Championship and fourth in the Drivers’ Championship. The former attracted more interest due to Ferrari and Mercedes joining the game.
Leclerc held his own pace while Russell chased, but his teammates Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz fell behind, although the Brit still had some pace. In the end, Red Bull’s Perez was penalized in the last few laps.
A five-second time penalty became decisive after Perez began chasing Russell and Leclerc through Lando Norris. After leaving the Mercedes driver behind, the Monaco driver took matters into his own hands and tried tactics to overtake him and create a gap.
The idea was to keep Russell from falling below the 5-point mark while still scoring enough points to get him below the 5-point mark. That would put the two of them on his 406 points after Hamilton finished in his ninth place. Ferrari would have won this battle, considering Ferrari had his one win all season and Mercedes had none of his.
However, Leclerc was unable to use his tactics correctly because he was worried that if he supported himself too strongly, Russell would overtake him. The Briton himself coughed throughout the race and said luck helped him a little, but Perez thought the Monegasque didn’t know what to do next.
Mercedes driver Toto Wolff respected Leclerc’s sportsmanship, but Red Bull’s Christian Horner said Monegasse could have pulled back, which would have helped Perez take the podium. Thought, Ferrari driver Frédéric Vasseur also agreed with his opinion.
Fight Verstappen and keep distance from Russell –
Leclerc: “I think Max saved a lot on the medium because it took him two or three laps to get to the pits where he started pushing and he understood right away :OK, they may have a lot more leeway than they first thought. On the hard court, it was important to close the gap with George at the back. He didn’t want to use the tires too much in the first few laps and didn’t want to push after that because he knew he couldn’t fight Max. At the time, I was also thinking about the one-stop race where I had to run to the end of the race. Perhaps you didn’t optimize this stint because you made another stop after that. Yeah, I think that’s why the pacing didn’t seem that good. ”
Last tactic with Perez –
Leclerc: “Yeah, a few laps ago. Basically right after I noticed the five-second penalty. Then I kept asking about the rift between George and Czech. Then They told me that Czech passed George, so Czech is behind me and his best chance is obviously to take the DRS from me and try to pull as far away from George as possible. So, I know there was quite a bit of discussion between the engineer and I, and I also told him that this was my plan, but it didn’t work out.”< /p>
Perez’s penalty was a blessing –
Russell: “Yes, it was a great weekend. It’s been a really challenging season so I’m really happy to end it with this success. We also didn’t get the result we probably deserved. Many times we had the pace, but the results kept slipping away. Maybe a little bit of luck was on our side with the Czech penalty. , I think it more than made up for the other races this year.”
Coughing all-through –
Russell: “Yeah, I’ve been really sick for the past two weeks. First of all, I had a high fever in Las Vegas and couldn’t sleep and just felt sick. And then I had a really bad cough that kept me in the car. It lasted all week. I was coughing every lap and I can’t breathe when I’m tied to a car. I can’t take a deep breath to stop myself from coughing. So it was always with me. It was pretty, pretty miserable. That’s why when I saw the checkered flag, I was happy to go home. ”
Leclerc didn’t see the big picture –
Perez: “I was surprised. I thought Charles would be behind George in the final sector. I finished 1.1 seconds ahead of George, so it was very easy in the final sector. So he wanted to help him. But maybe he didn’t have all the information.”
What Leclerc tried –
Vasseur: “That’s too fair, I don’t think so, because if you can imagine blocking Russell, you also need to make sure Perez is between you and Russell. Because if you want to stop Russell, it’s just a matter of a few hundred seconds. I tried my best, but I think it was too much.”
Respect for Leclerc –
Wolff: “If you look at Ferrari’s performance in the last few races, we were a little bit behind this weekend, but for some reason we had that kind of result. The car was in a less than ideal location. Carlos had it too, but he wasn’t there this weekend. And that applies to Lewis as well. Then you have two guys up front, and I think George’s performance was perfect in dealing with the gap at the end. The battle with Ferrari is a huge battle between his two great brands, a team we respect very much, and Charles will finally drive like a true athlete. I did. Perez has been out of the spotlight for a while.
“So when he was out front and he came out 10, 11 seconds behind, we knew they probably wouldn’t be able to make that one stop. At that moment, we We just focused on ourselves and said, “Let’s run the fastest race for George.” I kept in mind that if I couldn’t handle the road surface, I would fall off a cliff. I knew I had to be within five seconds of Perez, but Leclerc was so far ahead that I didn’t think he would be able to create enough of a gap to separate us. In the end he was able to pull the handbrake in the final sector and I think that says a lot about the character of the driver. ”
Leclerc didn’t try hard enough –
Horner: “It’s very disappointing for the Czech, because he should have been on the podium. From Ferrari’s point of view, it was logical, but they let the Czech pass. But then I couldn’t finish, so I only did half the job – as Czech showed on that section of the circuit, I think he can last quite a while there. I think we had to hold George back a little bit to get it, and that just means we’ll have another neighbor next year.”
Charles Leclerc hat details: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.2023-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-leclerc-lets-perez-past-in-bid-to -beat -mercedes-in-the-constructors-battle.1783640282292518084.html
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