Charles Leclerc, the 23-year-old Scuderia Ferrari driver from Monaco, finished his 2020 campaign in the Formula 1 outside of the points for the team during the last Grand Prix race of the season.
Leclerc ended the year in thirteenth place at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina Circuit, he finished one position ahead of outgoing team-mate Sebastian Vettel. Not a great ending to the season for the team after they have struggeled for a huge part of the season with the pace – which seemed to have been solved in the earlier race weekends.
The Monegasque driver had a good fight in the middle of the pack as the team tried to adapt different tyre strategies for both of the drivers. Leclerc went with medium tyres for most of the race and decided not to pit under the safety car, unlike the majority of the other competitors – instead Leclerc went in to the pit box on lap 22 to fit the hard compound tyres, but that wasn’t enough to climb up the ladder this time.
“Today, we just weren’t quick enough. We struggled to overtake and were not very good in low speed corners. So we tried something different with our strategy to put ourselves in a better position. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out.” Leclerc said and continued to talk about how the season has been and sent a thank you to Vettel – who will be swtiching teams for the next season.
“It has been a difficult season for us and it’s a shame to end it like this. All the same, we have made some progress over the past few races, and hopefully we can continue doing so over the winter to come back stronger next year.“
“I want to thank Seb for everything he has given to the team. He is an amazing person and a fantastic driver. He pushed me to perform better and to improve. It’s been great to have him on the other side of the garage for the past two years and I wish him all the best for the future. I am also happy that Carlos is joining the team next year. He is very quick, solid, and consistent as a driver. It’s going to be a big challenge for me and I’m already looking forward to it.”
Team Principal, Mattia Binotto added; “Unfortunately, there’s not much to say about today’s race, except that it was a disappointing end to a disappointing season. We have to turn the page and look to the future, taking on board what we have learned during these very difficult recent months. We have to get back on top, working nonstop on next year’s car to make up the performance gap to the best.”
The Scuderia Ferrari team will be running the Young Driver Test on Tuesday at Yas Marina – where the Ferrari Driver Academy talent Robert Shwartzman and Scuderia’s simulator specialist, Antonio Fuoco will be testing a pair of Ferrari SF1000 cars.