Abu Dhabi GP: Post-Friday practice comments from Vettel and Leclerc

After a disappointing double header in Bahrain, Ferrari entered season finale race at Abu Dhabi with low expectation. The Yas Marina Circuit, home to the 17th round of the 2020 World Championship, will not suite strengths of SF1000, both Ferrari drivers Vettel and Leclerc expects tough weekend.

Four-time World Champion Vettel entering his final grand prix weekend with Ferrari, The German’s teammate Charles Leclerc pays tribute to his outgoing teammate with a special helmet design .

Like other teams Ferrari drivers mainly focused on validating 2021 car parts during FP1 before switching their focus on to normal set-up work, Both drivers struggled for the pace . Leclerc did 25 laps, the best in 1.39.344, while Vettel did 19, the quickest being a 1.39.670. Their times are only good enough for 12^th and 14^th.

During Second session under twilight, both cars tested  the Pirelli prototype tyres to be used in 2021, each driver using them for 10 laps. Team run Qualifying simulation on the Soft tyres, Leclerc posted a best time of 1.37.508, making him eighth quickest, while Vettel stopped the clocks in 1.38.198, for 15th place. After that, both men did long runs, using the Medium and Hard compounds.

Sebastian Vettel

“We did quite a lot of work today but we have more to do, as we have still not managed to get the tyres into the right operating window, especially when it comes to the Softs.

For qualifying I think we will more or less find ourselves in the same position as last weekend. If we are able to put together a very good lap, maybe we can get to Q3, which would be positive for my last race with the team.

I appreciated Charles’ nice touch in running today with a helmet dedicated to me. I hope we can give the fans something to cheer about this weekend.”

Charles Leclerc

“On a track like this, we expected to struggle a bit more, but in fact we seem to be in the mix with the guys we usually fight with. This is probably not going to be as good a weekend as the last one in terms of performance, but it’s definitely better than we had expected.

The balance of the car evolves over the course of the lap, as you have little grip in the first corner and then you gain more and more throughout the lap. Let’s work tonight and hopefully we can make a step up for tomorrow. I will also work on my driving as I am lacking a bit of speed here and there, but in the end it’s tomorrow that counts.”