After a mixed bag for Ferrari on qualifying day at Abu Dhabi, team boss Fred Vasseur revealed that “aggressive” setup changes salvaged Charles Leclerc’s qualifying at the Yas Marina Circuit.
Ferrari endured a tough opening day at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Charles Leclerc complained about his SF25’s long-run performance while his team-mate Lewis Hamilton struggled with understeer after having missed the opening hour of practice.
The Monegasque requested a series of changes for Saturday which clearly improved the situation on his side of the Ferrari garage. Although his car still looked a handful, particularly at the exit of corners, he made it to Q3 and qualified a pretty decent P5.
His team-mate Lewis Hamilton had a very tough day. The Briton looked fairly competitive in the first half of the final practice session, but he lost control of the rear end of his SF25 midway through the practice, crashing into the barriers.
Although the team managed to rebuild his car in time for qualifying, and he looked pretty decent, he made a slight mistake on his very last flying lap which was enough to get knocked out in Q1 for the third consecutive time.
“Overall, we are happy with Charles’ result, as we had a very tough time in both Friday sessions and when it came to deciding on today’s set-up we were quite aggressive and it paid off.
“For sure, if practice had been better then maybe we could have fought for an even better position, but it is what it is. Now, let’s see what happens tomorrow, let’s see what our race pace is like.
Assessing Hamilton’s issues on Saturday, Vasseur explained that the lack of track time was the main reason for Hamilton’s third consecutive exit in Q3.
“It’s been difficult for Lewis, because he did not drive in FP1, having given up his seat to Arthur, and then came the crash halfway through FP3 and in this kind of situation where there are only two tenths separating P4 and P18 if you miss so much running, it’s too much to recover from.
“You can’t produce a performance based just on FP2. Now let’s focus on how to do the best possible for our team to get the best result to end the season well.”