Leclerc says title-defining final race will be "more positive" than Qatar

Qatar was not the greatest weekend for Leclerc and Ferrari in terms of pace. However, due to a hectic and incident-filled Grand Prix, the Monegasque driver was able to find his way up to P2 when the chequered flag dropped. Thanks to Lando Norris' mistake of not slowing down under yellow flags, resulting in a ten-second stop-and-go penalty, he dropped from second to the back of the grid, missing out on vital points as he fought back to P10. His teammate Oscar Piastri did round out the podium in third place, but with Carlos Sainz coming in P4, it was a positive result for the Prancing Horse.

As a result of what happened in Qatar, Ferrari were able to close the gap in the constructors' championship to 21 points before the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi, and although it may be quite a big points deficit to overhaul with one more race remaining, Leclerc is confident that his SF-24 will be much better around the Yas Marina Circuit than it was in Qatar last week.

Abu Dhabi "should be better" for Leclerc and Ferrari

After taking second in Qatar, Leclerc was asked if there would be any improvements from his team going into the final race of the season: "I haven't even seen the numbers yet, so we've got to wait and see. But I feel like on paper, it should be a bit more positive than Qatar was. Today, we've been quite lucky, but without what happened to Lando, we would have been very, very far off. And without the Safety Car, we would have been very far off.

"In terms of race pace, we weren't fast. So I feel like Abu Dhabi should be better for us. So I hope so. But we'll wait and see. But it's not too many points between us. So we've just got to focus on ourselves and try to maximise everything. And hopefully, we'll bring back the title to Maranello," concluded Leclerc.