Leclerc finishes disappointed despite his fantastic comeback: “It hurts”

Starting from 19th place on the starting grid, Charles Leclerc made a superb comeback thanks to an exceptional first lap. His podium, however, was insufficient to allow Ferrari to secure the world title against McLaren.

Leaving the cockpit, the Monegasque did not hide his disappointment when recounting his race: “I knew I had to be very aggressive. So I knew that in the first lap 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, which was do.”

“But then, unfortunately, we came from too far away to do better than what we did today. I think we did the maximum. It hurts, obviously, because the season has been very close up until in the end, and it was a big blow on Friday when we knew we had a penalty. We still gave everything, and we didn't reach our goal, which is a shame, but at the end of the day,. We tried everything.”

Given how the season went sportingly, Leclerc hopes that Ferrari's momentum can continue next year: “I really hope so. If you look at the first part of the year, we were far from being in the fight for the manufacturers. The second part of the season was very good and the team made a amazing job I think Carlos. [Sainz] and I also did some really good work together. So yeah, we finished strong and I’m sure next year will start off as strong as we finished this year.”

Next year, Sainz will give way to Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari and Leclerc above all wanted to pay tribute to the Spaniard, with whom he teamed up for four seasons: “Lewis has achieved so much in the sport, and this will be a great motivation [de l’avoir comme équipier]. But obviously, for now, I'm mainly thinking about the past year and the ones I spent with Carlos.”

“We had an amazing relationship. We pushed each other. I really hoped we could finish these four years together with a constructors' title. We both gave everything. It wasn't enough. So obviously, the disappointment is there and yes, I will have four or five days to pull myself together and start thinking about next year.”

With Jonathan Noble