Discontent in Ferrari, Leclerc defends team: "It hurts a lot"

Ferrari disappeared in Qatar: Charles Leclerc finished in eighth place after an anonymous race, while Lewis Hamilton could not get beyond 12th position. The Cavallino will end its World Championship in fourth place in the constructors’ standings, a failed season in all respects after the ambitions proclaimed at the beginning of the year. “It hurts a lot and I’m so sorry – explained the driver from the Principality. “It’s not that I like to create false expectations, but in the end you also have to say what you think, and at the beginning of the year I really had the conviction that we had done a good job. But our work was not enough and we have to do much more to be able to achieve our goals”.

The Monegasque driver spoke like a true leader, defending the team: “We are doing so much, we are working so much. I also know that we sacrificed a little bit the second part of the season to focus on next year’s car. I’m sorry because everywhere we go we have so much support, in good times but also in bad times, and I know I repeat myself too much saying that our time will come. I will keep repeating myself because I believe in it, but I feel sorry for the fans who are waiting” concluded Leclerc, who will end the season in fifth place in the overall driver standings.

Team principal Frederic Vasseur is also bitter: “We have taken a clear step backward compared to previous weekends. We definitely need to react as a team. I fully understand the frustration of the drivers, team, mechanics and engineers after a weekend like this. But from tomorrow morning we will go back to work to try to do our best”. Drivers’ outbursts: “We have to react and work even harder from the next day: this is a key-aspect for Abu Dhabi, for the winter and for all of us. We have to keep in mind that we have more than 1,000 people working very hard in the factory and we all have to push in the same direction”.