Fred Vasseur doesn’t give up and hopes: “McLaren hasn’t had any retirements yet…”. Ferrari’s team principal motivates the team despite Leclerc’s poor qualifying performance.

Ferrari concluded the final qualifying session of the 2024 Formula 1 season for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix by securing third place with Carlos Sainz and last place with the penalized Charles Leclerc.

The Spaniard was the only one to challenge the two McLarens and, if not for a mistake at the final corner, could have placed himself between the two MCL38s of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, complicating their race more than it might now with the current grid.

Charles Leclerc, however, had his best Q2 lap time deleted and was eliminated, finishing in 14th place. A 10-place grid penalty for introducing his third battery pack of the season did the rest: tomorrow, the Monegasque will start last, making a comeback to fight for the Constructors’ Championship—absent from Maranello since 2008—almost impossible.

After the official sessions at Yas Marina, Ferrari’s team principal Frédéric Vasseur spoke to *Sky Sport Italia*, discussing the outcome of the final qualifying session of the year and outlining Ferrari’s approach for tomorrow’s race.

How is the atmosphere in the Ferrari garage after qualifying at Yas Marina?
“There’s a different mood on the two sides of the garage. Carlos had an excellent qualifying session, fighting for first place at the end of Q3 and missing the front row due to a very small mistake at the last corner. But it doesn’t matter; we’ll fight. Starting second or third doesn’t change much—we’ll fight until the last corner. With Leclerc, the situation is different. Before the session, we knew the best-case scenario was starting from 11th, but then he went slightly wide at Turn 1 in Q2, and that’s how it went.”

Will you change Charles Leclerc’s engine before the race?
“Honestly, I don’t think there’s a significant advantage in changing the engine—at least, not enough to justify putting in a new one.”

You’ll be hoping for a chaotic race, while McLaren will want a straightforward one…
“Yes, that’s true. We’ll race against McLaren with Carlos the same way we have so far. But we won’t do anything drastically different just because it’s the last race of the season. Maybe with Charles, we’ll consider a different strategy to avoid getting stuck in the midfield traffic.”

Does starting third instead of second change much?
“Maybe there’s a slight difference in grip on the right side compared to the left side of the grid. But as I said, there’s not a big difference between the two positions. What’s important is where we are after the first corner and the end of the first lap.”

Tomorrow, achieving your goal will be very difficult…
“Even before coming to Abu Dhabi, it was already very difficult on paper. After the penalty, it’s become extremely difficult. Still, it’s not impossible because we can’t predict what will happen. We’ll fight until the last corner of the last lap and have no regrets.”

At this point, can you afford to take more risks?
“Yes and no, because the most important thing is still to score enough points to become champions. We can’t take too many risks because we never know what might happen with McLaren. So far, they haven’t had any retirements or incidents. You can never know. We need to make sure we score enough points to become champions, and then we’ll see.”