The events of the Mexican Grand Prix summed it up perfectly. After snatching pole from under Verstappen's nose, he was slower off the line than his teammate and beaten into Turn 1 - he would eventually retire with a hydraulics issue.
An overeager marshal would then damage the car further by accidentally spraying fire extinguisher foam up the exhaust of his car. The change that followed resulted in a grid penalty for Brazil. Ricciardo cannot shoulder much of the blame for his results in the second half of the year, such was the frequency with which he encountered trouble.
Verstappen finished the season as the in-form Red Bull driver, and Ricciardo's failure to record a farewell podium for the team in the closing races was disappointing. He is a man who deserves a car capable of winning a championship, and hopefully his move to Renault will open up a different route to finding one in the near future. Things refused to click for the first three rounds of Leclerc's rookie season, but as soon as he scored a breakthrough sixth-place result in Baku, he never looked back.
Those eight points kicked off a series of strong results, and by the end of the year he was a regular contender for best of the rest behind the top three teams. Sauber's steady improvement throughout the year helped him exceed expectations, but Leclerc still dominated his teammate Marcus Ericsson over the majority of the year. The average gap between the two grew to 0.
Interpreting those stats largely depends on how highly you rate Leclerc's Swedish teammate in , but the fact he started in the top 10 at the final six races means his performances were not impressive only in relation to the other side of the Sauber garage. On top of that, he only seemed to improve once it became public knowledge that he would be racing for Ferrari next year.
The Italian team has historically steered clear of employing drivers with limited experience, but after just 14 races in F1, Leclerc had secured one of the most coveted contracts in sport.
He celebrated with points at five of the remaining seven races, bringing his tally to 39 by the end of the year. Verstappen's turnaround in was remarkable.
The young Dutchman appeared to be completely imploding in the opening months of the season as Ricciardo stole plaudits for a series of spectacular drives see above. Verstappen's long list of mistakes and transgressions included clumsy overtaking attempts on Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel in China and a crash in final practice in Monaco, meaning he blew a chance of challenging Ricciardo for pole position in the qualifying session.
It was clear to everyone who attended a Verstappen session that he found the questions about his mindset and his approach to racing tiresome - ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, he half-jokingly said he would head-butt the next person to ask him about it. He thinks the podium he claimed that weekend was the turning point, and he followed it up with second position in France and a brilliant victory out of nowhere in Austria.
Red Bull's car struggled in the rounds before the summer break, but afterward Verstappen was clearly a rejuvenated figure. While Ricciardo never finished higher than fourth in the same period, Verstappen claimed six podiums and one victory from those nine races. Hopefully, we can get both cars in the points. Ocon had power issues in FP3 and missed much of the session, but looked back to his best in qualifying and made it all the way to Q3 in his final race for Force India.
Perez tried to scrape through Q2 on the ultrasoft rubber but even once he fitted the hypersofts, the Mexican lacked pace to record a worst-ever qualifying in Yas Marina of P Hopefully it will be a different story tomorrow with a free choice of tyres for the start of the race. My Q1 lap was really good and I think we really extracted the best from the car across the session. We missed out on track time in final practice, but it was a great effort by the team to get the car ready for qualifying and make Q3.
There will be a threat tomorrow from the cars outside the top 10, starting on better tyres, but hopefully we can make our strategy work starting on the hypersoft. It will be a tricky one but it will be interesting. Esteban had power unit and hydraulic issues in final practice, but still managed to qualify in P9 with some tidy laps, which was an excellent effort. It is hard to say who will be the happier Renault driver tonight.
Sainz was initially disappointed to miss out on Q3 after looking strong all weekend but starting P11 means free tyre choice for the Spaniard. His team mate made the top 10 shoot-out but wound up in 10th, and starts on used hypersoft tyres.
By all accounts, that puts Sainz in a great position while Hulkenberg will have his work cut out We should be more competitive in the race as we have the package to be able to fight and race hard. The midfield was again extremely tight and finding a few tenths was a real challenge.
After a strong first run in Q2, I struggled with oversteer and rear locking on the second run and just missed the top I am confident we can target the points tomorrow. Start, strategy and pit stops will all be crucial, but we are ready for it. Carlos just missed out on the top ten but if there is any silver lining, he has a free tyre choice. However we are well-placed with both cars and where we need to be to achieve our aims in the race tomorrow.
All the same we need to make sure we are in the running in case anything happens in the race. It looks like it will be a fairly straightforward race, but we will keep focussed until the very end. Sauber initially seemed off the pace on Saturday, not helped by Leclerc having a clumsy crash in final practice and losing plenty of running, along with his rear wing. But as the temperatures cooled, the C37 came to life, with Leclerc impressing again in making Q3 for the fourth consecutive race, while Ericsson narrowly missed out in his final race for the team.
We went from a rather difficult beginning to the weekend to a successful qualifying outcome and did a good job as a team. Setting the car up in the way we did and making the necessary progress ahead of qualifying is very positive. The driving felt good, and I kept making improvements throughout the session. I put in some nice laps and am really happy with that. I am starting from a strong position with a free choice of tyres. We have a good chance to score more points and it will be a fun race to drive.
It was a good qualifying to end the season on a high and to thank the team the way they deserve to be thanked. It has been a great year and I aim to finish it with a strong result tomorrow.
I look forward to the race. He out-qualified his team mate for the 26th straight race, and recorded a season whitewash to boot. It has been a miserable run of qualifying sessions for the Belgian, with Vandoorne exiting in Q1 for the 14th consecutive race.
I was pushing quite hard on that qualifying lap — it felt good. It was my final qualifying of the year and it was all about having fun and enjoying it as much as I could. I have mixed emotions about tomorrow. We say farewell and thank you to Fernando and Stoffel, as well as commemorate the end of a chapter in the legendary career of our double world champion. Gasly looked on the fringes of the top 10 but suffered a loss of power on his final flying lap to exit in Q1 in ignominious circumstances, with his Toro Rosso bellowing smoke trackside.
Hartley, therefore, out-qualified his team mate but also missed out on Q2 by 0. The Kiwi driver needs to impress this weekend to stand any chance of keeping his seat next year, but it will be a struggle starting so low on the grid.
The car felt great and I was sixth-tenths faster, but then for the last two to three hundred metres there was no power.
We had the pace to be around P12, so maybe not Q3, but to fight just out of the top To be 16th and just missing out on Q2 two weekends in a row is frustrating. Pierre had to back off his first run due to an electrical issue on the PU side, which was fixed very quickly, and then got hit by Grosjean in the exit of Turn 16, which forced him to abort his last timed lap.
Pierre ran into another problem as he lost power out of the last corner while he was 0. That would have put him in a comfortable position for Q2 and we think we had the car today to fight for P10 - P We are not sure what happened at this stage and we need the car back to investigate in detail.
For tomorrow, some interesting situations could arise from the cars that will start on the hypersofts, so we will look into all of the options tonight to make our way through the field and target some points.
Williams once again propped up the leaderboard, with Sirotkin at least out-qualifying his team mate in what is probably his final F1 race. The lap took a lot more from me than it probably seemed from the outside. The weekend so far has been the worst of the year for me the way it was going, with the struggles I had and the amount of work we had to put in.
It took a lot from me physically and mentally to come back and perform at the top level. Thanks to the guys for supporting me all season long and especially to those who today were trying to understand what was going on and then make the best possible car for qualifying. I am pretty frustrated with it to be honest.
It will be very exciting. We deserve it! I had a very strong pace all the way and it was a perfectly executed race. This last race of the season firmly demonstrates all the progress made this year. This was my last race with the Renault team and I thank everyone for the last year and a half. The race today is a good summary of our year. We had a disappointing qualifying and difficult first laps, but the team kept its head down and made excellent strategic choices in a race that went in our direction.
We were able to take advantage of very strong race pace and managed the lead we had against the others to make sure we got to the end without any incidents. A mixed finish for Force India which rather summed up their season — some good, some bad. Both cars were fighting with Verstappen at one point, albeit ultimately with less drama than Brazil. Ocon was forced to retire late on with engine issues, finishing his season stranded in the pit lane.
We just never solved the balance issue and I think there could be some damage somewhere in the car. The start of the race was very important and after a strong first lap I was up inside the top ten. After that, the strategy worked as planned and my main competition was Leclerc. Everything was going well, we had some fantastic battles and overtakes, and the pace we had was really good.
We did everything right as a team but sadly the car had an oil leak which forced us to retire. I am grateful for all the support I have received from the fans, people inside the sport and of course inside the team this season. Starting on the ultrasoft tyre was definitely the optimal strategy and a strong opening lap was crucial to the final result.
Esteban starred throughout the race with some great battles, but unfortunately his car suffered a loss of oil pressure and he had to retire. They both drove well tonight, as they have done all year, and we end the season on a positive note. With both drivers set to start their final race for McLaren it was always going to be emotional and so it proved.
Vandoorne, having endured a lacklustre year, came alive today and was involved in an entertaining three-way tussle at one point in the midfield before fading on older tyres. Alonso meanwhile was applauded everywhere he went. There have been so many nice things prepared for me from Formula 1, from my team and from the fans. It was quite emotional. I have a lot of respect for them, they are great champions and I feel very privileged to have raced with them for most of my career.
I felt a lot of support and respect for me and this is something I take very seriously. I feel honoured. I had fun out there today — we knew it was going to be a tough one for us, especially without there being many incidents. We fought very hard and closed in on a couple of cars, and that was a really enjoyable part of the race.
I fought like hell to keep cars behind! There was a lot of wheel-to-wheel action and I think overall we extracted everything we could. Thank you, Fernando, for being an inspiration to everyone in this team and for your relentless pursuit of greatness, and many congratulations for an incredible and legendary career. Your messages of encouragement are always well-received and effective! See you next year!
Leclerc finished in seventh, a good result but one that was tinged with bittersweetness, with an early pit stop losing him ground and probably sixth to boot. Nonetheless, an entertaining opening lap with Ricciardo showed his class and the idea of him in Ferrari colours next year is tantalising. Ericsson meanwhile bows out of F1 in disappointing style after his C37 gave up the ghost.
We started on the hardest compound and I struggled with the balance a bit in the first stint. Just a few laps before I had to retire the car started feeling better and the pace was good. It would have been great to continue like that and score some more points today, but I am still happy with our performance. It has been a long year and I am very thankful for the hard work put in by the team.
We should all be very proud of this season and the incredible progress we made. It has been my best season so far in Formula One and I will always remember it. I would like to thank the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team for this incredible year and everything they have taught me. It has been great to work together and to see all of the effort reflected in the progress we have made. We can all be proud to have been part of it, and I wish them all the best for the future.
The improvements made have been huge, and this is thanks to the work done by the team at the track and in the factory. Our targets have risen, and the motivation for next year is high across all departments. A huge credit for our evolution goes to the drivers, who did a great job together and pushed each other to improve session after session and race after race. We thank Marcus and Charles for their great contribution and wish them both all the best for the future.
Grosjean tangled with Hulkenberg at the start with rather worrying consequences in what the stewards deemed a racing incident. Carrying front wing damage, the Frenchman did well to come home ninth. Magnussen was uncharacteristically quiet, running the longest opening stint to work his way up the field and grab the final point on offer in what is his best season to date.
Obviously, there was slight damage to the front wing and maybe more. Obviously, you always want more, and I think today more was achievable. We set a goal this season to take a step forward, which for us would have been seventh in the championship. We challenged the likes of Renault and Force India all the way to the end. The year has exceeded expectations. We can enjoy fifth place in the championship, which I think is a big achievement for a young team.
We are very happy with that. We will be coming back strong next year.
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