Leclerc ‘hurt’ by Ferrari title failure in Abu Dhabi

Charles Leclerc insists Ferrari “gave it our all” as it narrowly failed to defeat McLaren in the constructors’ championship – something he said “hurt.”

From 19th on the grid, Leclerc climbed to third in the race, but that, coupled with Carlos Sainz finishing second was not enough to overhaul McLaren, who won the title by 14 points after Lando Norris’s win and Oscar Piastri’s 10th place after a difficult race.

Ferrari’s title drought will now extend into a 18th season in 2025, as Leclerc detailed how his aggressive race paid off, but not enough to deliver the constructors’ title.

“I knew I had to be aggressive, so I knew that on lap one, I had to take all the risks to gain as many places as possible to be in a good position for the rest of the race.

“Unfortunately, we started just too far back to do anything better than we’ve done today, but I think we did the maximum. 

“It hurts, because when the season is so close until the end, but it was a hard hit on Friday when we knew we had the penalty, but we still gave it our all, and we just came short of our goal, but in the end, we tried everything. 

“The first part of the year, we were nowhere near being in the fight for the constructors’, then the second part, the team did an incredible job.

“So we ended strong, and hopefully we will start as strong as we have ended this year.”