Ferrari took to the track in Abu Dhabi with the aim of overtaking Mercedes in the race for second place in the constructors’ championship, where a significant financial reward is at stake. But despite his brilliant performance, Maranello’s move went wrong. Second place on the podium was Charles Leclerc. Russell third, Hamilton ninthThe only option to tip the balance was this: Carlos Sainz but the strategy and performance proved a disaster and the Madrid native retired from the race on the final lap of the race. The Scuderia lost second place by only 3 points.
sainz Started from 16th place After falling in Q1. He tried the one pit stop strategy with hard starting tires but it didn’t work. They delayed their first stop a lot since the Ferrari wall (lap 25 of 58), but Carlos, who had to make the second pit stop, was faced with a safety car that failed to arrive. The last race of the year was completely ruined. He stopped and retired on the last lap while 18th.
“We lost the race in the first stage because of the hard tyre. I couldn’t make any progress and the tires didn’t reach the level we expected. To be honest, when we lost the first lap, then nothing happened. There’s not much to fight for anymore,” Sainz explained, resigned.
“When the first stint didn’t work and we were out of the points our only option was to take a Safety Car. We were left adrift while waiting for the security car to help us, but this was not the case. “We tried something that didn’t work, and that was to leave things to chance,” he said.
Carlos, who did not expect such a difficult finish in 2023, complained: “The season did not end well for me. These two races since Las Vegas did not go as I expected and wanted.” He is the only driver not to drive a race-winning Red Bull in Singapore this year.
The SF-23’s race pace was the focus of controversy throughout the year, and specifically regarding the hard tyre: “We’ve had a lot of trouble with this tire all year. Every time we started hard, things went bad, and this happened again on Time.” “It’s something that I don’t know why it happened to us in our vehicle, we can’t do what others can do, and it’s something that needs to be analyzed for the future,” he said.
“There are a lot of positive things to take away from this year but it’s hard to think about them right now because the last two races were so difficult for me, nothing went the way I wanted. It’s hard to see that now, but when I go to sleep and wake up tomorrow in a slightly better mood, there are definitely “I will see positive things,” he concluded.