The 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has seen an intense battle for second place in the Constructor Championship between Ferrari and Mercedes, let’s see how it started and what happened in the end
The Circus went into the last race of the 2023 season with an already-proclaimed Constructors Champion. Red Bull won the title in the Japanese Grand Prix, at Suzuka. However, not every hope was lost and the daring battle for second place was still on. In the remaining races, Mercedes and Ferrari put on an intense fight to claim that second place. The 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was therefore the culmination of a hard-fought battle.
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Both Mercedes and Ferrari went into the final race of the season with one clear goal: to claim second place in the Constructor Championship. Mercedes had a slight advantage of four points over Ferrari. But as both teams had their fair share of ups and downs not all hope was lost for the Prancing Horse. The important things for both teams were: to get the strategies right, to look as much as possible after the tyres, and to ensure that both drivers scored as many points as needed.
Leclerc and Russell managed to get into Q3, respectively in second and fourth place. Hamilton and Sainz did not have the same luck and started in eleventh and sixteenth place respectively. So both teams started the 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in similar positions. Plan A for both Leclerc and Russell was a one-stop with a medium-hard sequence. There was, however, the risk of doing a two-stop if tyre degradation had been too high. After the lights went out, Leclerc started the race with a quite aggressive opening lap in the hope of catching Max Verstappen. However, after Verstappen slipped away Leclerc settled his pace as the McLaren’s behind him were too managing their tyres.
After making a pitstop on Lap 14, Russell passed Norris in the pits after the McLaren was stuck making a 5.1 stop. After a train sequence of pit stops, Russell found himself running in third place. Despite Russell’s attempts to pass Leclerc, the Monégasque defended that second place like his life depended on it. Yet, Sainz and Hamilton’s placements were the deciding factors in who was going home with the highly acclaimed second place in the Constructors’ Championship.
Leclerc top-notch strategy
To simply put it, Sainz’s Abu Dhabi GP wasn’t going very well. Ferrari had planned to one-stop him, but his hard tyres were finished after just 23 laps. The remaining 35 laps were far too long for the medium tyres to cover. Despite deciding to use a two-stop strategy, Ferrari fitted him with a new set of hards. He then had to make a second pitstop to conform to the two compound requirements. For this reason, he dropped out of the points. This is where Leclerc’s clever strategy came in handy.
Perez, who started ninth, had picked up some positions and was running in fifth place behind Russell. After a previous contact with Norris, however, he got a 5 seconds penalty that could have helped Ferrari. If Leclerc allowed Perez to pass him it might have enabled the Mexican to pull out more than 5 seconds on Russell. This could have cost Russell three very important points. So as long as Leclerc remained less than 5s behind Perez, the second-place would have scored him six more points than Russell’s fourth. So it was game on.
But there was a complication: Hamilton. He was running in eight and if he managed to pass Tsunoda for seventh, he’d take six points rather than four. This could have secured Mercedes’ position even if Russell was demoted by Leclerc’s plan. On the last lap, Leclerc backed off, and Perez passed him. He didn’t back off significantly to delay Russell and crossed the line only 1.5s behind Checo. Russell was still able to push enough that he found himself 3.9s behind Perez. Hamilton succeeded in passing Tsunoda and got six additional points. And this is how Mercedes’s second place in the Constructors’ was secured by 1.1s on the very last lap.
What can we expect from the future?
For both Mercedes and Ferrari, this season has seemed a long chase towards competitiveness. With some highs and lows during 2023, they’ve been looking straight ahead to 2024 for some time now. Concluded the 2023 season, both teams prepare for a change of course in 2024. Now their only goal is to develop new cars.
Chassis layout, weight distribution, and airflow are just a few things that Mercedes is already planning to change. Everything will be designed with a new concept. Mercedes’ Team Principal Toto Wolff already identified the main problem, the “lack of stability”. This, per the Team Principal, is the main reason why the Mercedes drivers had a lack of confidence in the car. For next year they have decided to completely change the direction of the project for the new W15. It’s clear that their main goal is returning to fight to win.
Just like Mercedes, Ferrari’s 2024 car will be developed to find more consistency in performance. After a second part of the season where it seemed like they found a balance with the car, they had a rude awakening when they saw that there was still too much work to be done. However, the mechanics of the Prancing Horse noticed that the main problem was the aerodynamic load distribution. Despite working on it during the season. The problem of tyre wear management, especially the hard one, remained. In spite of the work done, it’s clear that they still have much to work on. Sloping sides, new rear and rear end are some of the changes implemented on the new model. Let’s hope therefore to see a profound improvement by both teams to have an even more exciting Championship next year.
