“My only target was to beat the Mercedes” - Charles Leclerc talks about his opening lap battle with Max Verstappen in Abu Dhabi

Charles Leclerc felt the battle with Max Verstappen was good but beating Mercedes in the constructors championship was the priority in the 2023 Abu Dhabi GP. Despite being unable to beat the Silver Arrows squad in the championship, the Ferrari driver felt it was best to settle for second place in the race without losing much performance for the rest of the race.

A fierce battle ensued between the reigning champion and Charles Leclerc in the opening laps of a championship-deciding season finale. While the main titles for constructors and drivers were wrapped by Red Bull and Verstappen long before the last race, the battle for second place in constructors between Ferrari and Mercedes was significant.

Sergio Perez, who crossed the finish line third, had a five-second penalty that changed the outcome of the standings. As a result of the penalty, George Russell finished third while the Red Bull driver got demoted to fourth place.

Asked about the battle with Max in the opening laps, Charles Leclerc said (via PlanetF1):

"Yeah, I obviously wanted to try and get that first place. But we also know that in the race, we lack some pace compared to them. So even if I would have passed Max there, I probably would have gotten overtaken again, three or four laps later. And at the end, my only target was to beat the Mercedes. So I didn't want to lose too much tyre juice and also time with Max. But yeah, it was fun."

Elaborating further on his battle with Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc explained:

"Yeah, it was nice. On the other hand, obviously I had, in my mind, the Constructors' Championship, so I couldn't take too many risks."

"But as I said, I saw an opportunity, I saw that Max was looking in the mirrors where I was expecting him to look in the mirror, so I made him think that I was going to the right, then I went to the left and then I tried also in Turn 9 but I knew that it was important for me to take care of those tyres, and even in the first lap, everything is so sensitive here that even if you push too much in the first lap then this can have a huge consequence on the rest of your run."

"So, at one point I just decided to settle for the second place, which anyway if we will have got that first place, I don't think we'll have kept that for long."

In an attempt to not compromise his tyres, Charles Leclerc claimed he settled for second place rather than battling the Dutchman after the opening laps. Despite enjoying the battle, he reckoned that beating Mercedes was the priority, not the Red Bull. The Ferrari driver felt that burning the tyres in the opening laps could have resulted in losing tyre performance and pace for the rest of the race.

The Monegasque even tried giving Perez DRS to help him pull ahead as he had a penalty. While the Ferrari strategy did not pay off for Charles Leclerc, second place was the furthest he could finish at. His Dutch counterpart instead pulled a 17.993 seconds lead on him to make a record of leading 1000 laps out of the 1300 laps this season.

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Charles Leclerc reflects on using Sergio Perez as a tool to beat Mercedes and George Russell

Charles Leclerc claims one of Ferrari’s strategies in the race was to help Sergio Perez finish ahead of George Russell. To beat Mercedes in the constructors’ title, the Monegasque tried helping the Mexican pull a gap on the Briton but was unsuccessful. He had to make sure the Red Bull driver finished five seconds ahead of the Briton and the penalty wouldn’t affect the race result.

If Russell had finished fourth, Ferrari would have eclipsed Mercedes in the title standings. On Ferrari’s pace, he felt it was after the Japanese GP that their car started to become more consistent in performance.

When asked about the pace of his car and the frustration despite all efforts, Charles Leclerc said (via Yahoo News):

“Depends where? Because there was so much going on. Yeah, it depends where we are. It's so much up and down. We've got races where we were definitely the second fastest cars, other races where maybe we were the fourth or fifth fastest car, so it was really up and down. But I believe that since Japan, when we brought an upgrade to the car, it went in the right direction, especially for my driving style."

"I always like to have a strong front and I felt much more at ease and could be much more consistent. So yeah, that's a positive. Then, of course, very disappointed with that third place in the Constructors’ as that was my only target since two or three races now. It was until the very last lap, I tried to give Checo the DRS for him to try and pull away five seconds to George, but that didn't quite work out.”

Explaining his strategy to help Perez, Charles Leclerc said:

“Oh, quite a few laps before; as soon as I was aware about the five seconds penalty, basically. Then I was asking constantly the gap between George and Checo. Then they told me that Checo had passed George, so I knew Checo was behind me and his best chance was obviously to get the DRS from me and try and pull away as much as possible from George."

"So I knew that there was quite a bit of discussion between my engineer and myself and I let him know as well that this was my plan but it didn't work out.”

Eventually, Mercedes retained its second place in the constructor’s title and Carlos Sainz’s retirement didn’t help the Maranello team’s cause, despite Charles Leclerc clinching second place in the race.

Ferrari had finished second last year, however, this year they finished third competing against a struggling Mercedes that beat them by three points. Mercedes gathered a tally of 409 points whereas Ferrari finished the year with a total of 406 points.