Ferrari’s Laurent Mekies: “We want a good race at the end of the season”

Laurent Mekies says qualifying for that Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Saturday was a solid session for Scuderia Ferrari, With Carlos Sainz Jr. and Charles Leclerc both make it into the third quarter.

In an extremely tight midfield season in 2021, it was good for Ferrari to secure top 7 positions for both drivers. Sainz was fifth and Leclerc seventh, with Mekies, the race director of the Maranello-based team that feels that both drivers gave their all Yas Marina Circuit.

“A solid qualifying, especially in terms of our level of performance,” said Mekies. “We saw at the beginning of the season that it is very close behind the two teams at the top and that you can quickly find yourself in front of or behind you in a group that can consist of ten to twelve cars.

“Carlos and Charles did their best and were on the hunt for a place in the second row until the very end and their starting positions are a good starting position for tomorrow’s race.”

Mekies says the updated circuit in Abu Dhabi has once again proven that Ferrari can adapt quickly to new conditions and he hopes both Sainz and Leclerc will finish the year in the points and Ferrari ahead of third in the constructors’ championship to the McLaren F1 team.

“After races on two completely new tracks, we are on a course that has been changed significantly and is therefore much smoother and I think the team once again showed this weekend that it can quickly adapt to anything new,” added Mekies added. “We went against the tide in qualifying today, that will help us to exploit our potential.

“Tomorrow we will try to convert that into a good result in order to achieve the goals that we are still pursuing. We want to have a good race at the end of the season, put a smile on the faces of our drivers and all of us who work hard every day, both on the track and back in Maranello and all the people from all over the world at Scuderia Ferrari with so much Passion and enthusiasm follow. “