Final battle in Ferrari awaits Sainz: 'Nothing to lose'
Last season, entering the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend, Ferrari were fighting against Mercedes to finish in P2 in the constructors' standings. That time the Scuderia did not succeed. This season, they are fighting for the prize itself, against McLaren.
Carlos Sainz, who will leave Ferrari at the end of the season, sees that Ferrari have nothing to lose entering the final Grand Prix of the season. "I think it's still going to be tough. 21 points requires a perfect weekend from Ferrari and a bad weekend from McLaren. But we've seen worse things in racing, so we're going to give it our best shot. I think if we nail a good weekend, we can still make it happen."
"That's why we're going to give it our absolute best, nothing to lose. Going to throw everything in to make sure we give ourselves the best chance," he continued to GPblog among others.
Vasseur wants Ferrari to focus on themselves
While not only Sainz, but also team principal Frederic Vasseur was the most worried about the Qatar GP in terms of how the SF-24 would perform before the final two tripleheaders, in a chaotic race, the Italians ended up gaining on Ferrari.
Vasseur does not necessarily agree with the Spanish driver that pressure comes into play. "I would prefer to have 20 points in the pocket. It's not a matter of pressure, it's a matter to do a good job and to be quick and then we'll see first to be focused on ourselves," he begin also talking to GPblog among others.
"We were able to do 1-2 some weekends during the season to try to do the best to do this but it's true that even if you do 1-2 that they can be champion and that it means that but first the most important is to be focused on yourself, not to start to think about what the others are doing and so because you are losing a little bit the pace of the weekend."
According to the Frenchman, that could already pay off in Qatar. "At least this weekend, the approach was very good because we went into the mix for the championship that we stayed focused on our car, on our strategy and not thinking too much about what McLaren or Red Bull is doing."
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