Why Ferrari dismissed deception in McLaren title fight

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur has explained why the team did not attempt to trick McLaren and Lando Norris into a second pit-stop in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix title-decider.

With Norris leading Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc after the sole pit-stops, Ferrari were on course to lose the constructors’ championship, although Sainz was in position to potentially try the undercut on Norris by making a second stop. 

Ultimately, the trio finished in that order as McLaren won the constructors’ championship by 14 points from the first time since 1998, with Ferrari finishing second as its own drought extends into an 18th season in 2025.

Reflecting on the race, Vasseur explained why the team had not decided to pit Sainz for a second time to try and force Norris into responding.

“Obviously not,” Vasseur replied when asked by media including RacingNews365 if Ferrari had considered a second stop to put pressure on Norris. 

“The most important thing was to be focused on ourselves and do the best that we could do, and if you stayed close, you don’t know what could happen, he could have an issue or a puncture and we were focused on ourselves. 

“We didn’t want to change the strategy just because we are fighting with McLaren, we are focused on ourselves and I think overall, considering the penalty, the track limits, we did a good job. 

“For sure it would have been easier [without the penalty], and I would have prefered Charles to be P1 or P2 and not be with the medical car, but in the end, it is what it is, and we have to [accept] the penalty we got.”

“We were expecting to push Norris at the end of the race with tyre degradation, but it did not happen, but we knew that the delta pace from one stint to the other between us and McLaren was plus or minus a tenth, and that is just not enough to overtake.”