Ferrari, Leclerc closes 2024 with a great comeback to the podium: “We did our best”

After an uphill start to the weekend, with food poisoning, elimination in Q2 (for time cancelled due to track limits) and penalties for changing the battery, Charles Leclerc concluded the last race of the season in the best possible way. The Monegasque was in fact the protagonist of an extraordinary comeback from the back that saw him reach the podium with a series of overtaking moves.

A P3 that allows the Monegasque to close the final race of the season in a positive way, but does not allow the standard-bearer of the Prancing Horse to obtain the second position in the Drivers’ Championship that remained to Lando Norris winner in the race in the Emirates. Precisely the points obtained by Norris allowed McLaren, who at the start lost Oscar Piastri up front affected by the accident with the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, to conquer the Constructors’ Championship that saw Ferrari fighting until the end of the season.

“I knew I had to be aggressive and I knew that on the first lap I had to take as many risks as possible to gain as many positions as possible so that I could be in a good place for the rest of the race,” Leclerc said at the end of the race. “I managed to do that but then unfortunately we started too far back to do better than what we achieved today. We did our best, it hurts when in such a hard-fought season until the end we learned about the penalty. We gave it our all and we narrowly missed the target, and it’s a shame: but we tried everything.”

On the season just ended and the next one: “If we look at our first part of the year we were nowhere, not fighting for the constructors’ championship. Then the second part of the season was very good, the team did an incredible job and I think that together Carlos and I did a good job. We finish this season very well and hope to start next year as strong”.

On Lewis Hamilton, future teammate: “Am I excited? Yes of course, Lewis has achieved a lot of success in this category and it will be a great motivation to race alongside him. But now I am thinking about the year we had and I did it with Carlos. We had a fantastic relationship, we pushed each other, I hoped to end these four years together with the constructors’ title. We gave everything, but it wasn’t enough and so for the moment there is a certain disappointment. Now I will have four or five days to reset and then think about next year”.