After a poor show at Sakhir Grand Prix, Ferrari concluded their Bahrain GP double header with just 1 point. Charles Leclerc was out of the race after colliding with eventual race winner Sergio Perez on the opening lap. Sebastian Vettel struggled for pace throughout race distance, The German managed to finish the race in P12 after starting P13 on the grid.
Charles Leclerc was handed three place grid drop penalty by stewards for Next weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after concluding their investigation on the first lap incident involving Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
Leclerc took responsibility for his actions on the track, “It was a shame to be out of the race on the first lap. I was on the inside of Max, a bit behind, and I tried to go side by side with him to the first corner and tried to brake a bit later.”
Sebastian Vettel blamed SF1000’s lack of straight line speed for his struggles, “My race was a bit irrelevant, so… (laughs) We were quit slow from the start. I couldn’t go with the people ahead and be in the mix. I wasn’t really gaining anything on the straights, even though with the tow & DRS”.
Next weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will be Four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel’s final race with Ferrari, The German will be moving to Sakhir GP winners Racing Point(Aston Martin) for 2021 season and he is set to replace Sergio Perez.
After the race Vettel spoke about Racing Point’s first victory , “For sure the team (Racing Point F1) is strong and I’m looking forward to it! For now I’m willing to finish this chapter and it seems quite painful (laughs) but yeah, I tried what I could today and it was really difficult”.
“I was just on the defense the whole race & couldn’t benefit with the soft tyres either. The pit stops didn’t make a huge difference I guess because with the last SC it was all neutralized”.
Vettel also congratulated Sergio Perez, for his maiden F1 victory. The German also felt bad for George Russell, for missing out First race win & podium after leading most of the race. “First of all, congratulations to Sergio! Really happy for him. Really! Second, I’m sorry for George, as far as I understood he was in the lead the whole time… He’s got his first points but I wish it was a different outcome for him!”
Sebastian Vettel (P12)
“Today we didn’t have a very exciting race. I really fought hard trying to get a good result but in the end it was very difficult. I was defending today rather than attacking. Even at the end, when I had a small advantage in terms of tyres it was not easy at all, so for me it was a bit of a boring race.
We tried to do something different going quite long in the first stint and then fitting Hard tyres. From then on, I tried to look after the tyres and drive sensibly, but I don’t think that it made a difference today.”
Charles Leclerc (DNF)
“It was a shame to be out of the race on the first lap. I was on the inside of Max, a bit behind, and I tried to go side by side with him to the first corner and tried to brake a bit later. I had seen Checo in front of me but expected him to stay round the outside of Valtteri, which didn’t happen because he braked a bit earlier than Valtteri and came back towards the inside of the corner. As soon as I saw him coming back, I braked but it was too late as I locked up my front wheel and collided with him. I am not putting the blame on anyone else, if anyone is to blame, it’s me. Of course I am disappointed and it will be good to be back in the car in just a few days so that I can put this race behind me.”
Mattia Binotto Team Principal
“Charles’ race ended after just four corners when he collided with Perez, whom we congratulate by the way for his first Formula 1 win. The Stewards investigated the incident and have imposed a three place grid penalty on Charles for the next race in Abu Dhabi, so that ends any discussion about the rights or wrongs of it all. As for Sebastian, it’s a shame we could not get a single point out of such a crazy race. We have to look ahead, get this season done and then concentrate fully on next year.
While it was a disappointing day for the Scuderia, it went very well for the Ferrari Driver Academy. Mick Schumacher took the Formula 2 title and we also had Callum Ilott in second place and Robert Shwartzman fourth. In Formula Regional, Gianluca Petecof won the title ahead of Arthur Leclerc. Out of 91 races across F2, F3, F.Regional and F4, our guys won 20 and were on the podium 59 times. These are amazing statistics that show what a great job our Academy is doing, as is the fact that Mick, Callum and Robert are all taking part in what is known as the Young Driver Test on 15 December in Abu Dhabi.”
