29 November 2023 , 20:15
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Carlos Sainz wants talks with Ferrari to get to the bottom of his wretched end to the season.
The Spaniard has the distinction of being the only non-Red Bull driver to win a Formula 1 race this year. But a poor finish to the campaign took the gloss off what otherwise had been a decent season despite his team's struggles.
Sainz went into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend tied for fourth place in the drivers' championship. But a pointless result saw him drop to seventh place as Fernando Alonso, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc all took advantage.
The latter will be particularly galling to Sainz. All F1 drivers are measured first and foremost against their team-mates, so finishing behind the Monegasque at the end of the year will be a source of frustration.
With two rounds to go in the season, Sainz was heavy favourite to finish as the lead Ferrari racer. But Leclerc produced two of his best drives of the year to finish second in Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi.
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In contrast, his team-mate suffered some wretched luck. A loose drain cover which destroyed his car in practice and led to a grid penalty for needing new engine components derailed his entire weekend in Sin City - he limited the damage rather well by coming home sixth in that race.
But a horrifying Saturday in Abu Dhabi saw Sainz qualify just 16th on the grid. And a strategy risk from his team did not pay off as no late safety car came like they hoped it would, and so he did not score a single point while his team-mate was again on the podium.
Sainz cut a frustrated figure as he spoke to reporters after that last race of the year. And he made it clear he was not at all pleased with how his season had ended on such a sour note.
"Today, the last two weekends, this last weekend in general, haven't gone like I expected or like we wanted to finish the year," he said. "Honestly, [I'm] very disappointed and obviously not happy.
"Given how close it was in the end with the constructors' championship, we will have to sit down and analyse what we could have done better today and what was going on. Clearly the pace this weekend and the overall feeling with the car and everything, the end wasn't good."