As per the data engineer of Alpine, Charles Leclerc made two mistakes.
Alpine data engineer Ramon Drost suggested that Charles Leclerc was “too soft” in the battle for first with Max Verstappen in the opening lap of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Starting in the second position on the grid behind the current World Champion Verstappen, Leclerc aimed to challenge the Dutchman at Turn 1 and later at Turn 6.
On both occasions, Verstappen emerged as the victor, even though, at one moment, the Ferrari driver had a clear advantage with his nose ahead. But after falling back to second place, Leclerc’s battle was over by the end of the first lap as Verstappen pulled ahead with a gap of more than a second.
The three-time world champion secured his 19th victory of the 2023 season with a significant 17-second lead over Leclerc. This outcome marked the Monegasque driver’s third winless season out of the five seasons with Ferrari.
Among many others, Drost pointed out that Leclerc made the challenge pretty easy for Verstappen without giving him a tough fight for the lead. Speaking to Motorsport.com, he said:
“I actually think Leclerc hit the brakes too early, especially in Turn 1.
“And he made the same kind of mistake later on the track.
“It’s more like ‘just show that you’re there’, because if you don’t do that, Max will go for it. He can hold his own.
“That is of course what you have to show to get the first position there.
“I had the feeling that Leclerc reacted a little too softly there, which caused him to miss the lead.”
Leclerc clarified that while he wanted to fight Verstappen for the lead, his focus was to help Ferrari overtake Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship for P2. He said:
“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 in 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.”
However, the plan to block Mercedes didn’t work, as Ferrari fell three points short of the target. But, the 18 points earned by Leclerc helped him rise to the fifth spot in the Drivers’ Standings as he overtook Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz.
