Leclerc positive about '24 but: "Long way before we keep up with Red Bull'

Charles Leclerc could never ultimately claim victory in Abu Dhabi, but on the first lap of the Grand Prix, the Ferrari driver managed to give Max Verstappen a brief hard time. It was a battle of man to man, machine to machine. Leclerc had enjoyed it.

"Yeah, it was nice," Leclerc said. "On the other hand, obviously I had, in my mind, the Constructors' Championship, so I couldn't take too many risks. But as I said, I saw an opportunity, I saw that Max was looking in the mirrors where I was expecting him to look in the mirror, so I made him think that I was going to the right, then I went to the left and then I tried also in Turn 9 but I knew that it was important for me to take care of those tyres."

"Even in the first lap, everything is so sensitive here that even if you push too much in the first lap then this can have a huge consequence on the rest of your run. So, at one point I just decided to settle for the second place, which anyway if we will have got that first place, I don't think we'll have kept that for long."

Good result looking ahead to '24

So Ferrari fell just short of Mercedes, ending the season in third place among constructors. A shame, Leclerc thinks, but there is also confidence for the future. "On one hand it is good to finish a season like that. That gives me the confidence that, for next year, hopefully, we know more where we need to set-up our car and where the development needs to be done. On the other hand, there's still a long way to go before getting to the Red Bull pace, especially in terms of race pace. So, on that we are all aware in the team that there's still a lot of work to do."