Abu Dhabi GP – All the reactions from the Grand Prix

Max Verstappen, winner:

“I feel great! I was prepared for this finale, because we needed a bit of luck to win. For our part, we optimized the weekend in the best possible way with pole position, the victory, and a dominant performance. There’s nothing else to say about it. Ultimately, losing the championship by two points seems painful, but when you look at where we were at Zandvoort, more than 100 points behind the leader, I think it’s not so bad!”

I'm very proud of the whole team. We could easily have given up, being so far behind. That's not how this team works; we're always looking for what we can improve and understanding our issues. That's clearly what we did, and the comeback was great to experience, and today was great too! We didn't win the title, that happens, but that's life, it's not something that will make me too sad. Life goes on, I'm just very proud of the people I work with; they're my second family. We're going to enjoy this moment, the second half of the season, and next year will be a big question mark for everyone.

Oscar Piastri, 2rd:

“Honestly, I feel pretty good. I knew that today I would have needed everything to fall into place to win the title. I did my best, I put myself in the best possible position to try and win the race, but it just wasn't meant to be. We have every reason to be very proud of this season. On a personal level, it wasn't the end to the season I would have dreamed of, but if you look at the whole season, I'm very proud of the work I was able to do, and that my team was able to do as well, to really improve significantly compared to last year. I'm looking forward to more battles in the future.”

The cars will be different next year, but it's good to finish the last two races with strong performances. Individually, it was good to get back into form a bit, because it would have been painful to finish on the same note as Austin, Mexico, Brazil… There have been ups and downs this year; I'll remember the ups, I'll look back on them with a lot of joy and pride, and I'll look back on the downs and tell myself that they are lessons learned. I still have quite a few years left, and I hope for many opportunities.

Lando Norris, 3rd:

"Oh my god! It's been a long time since I cried, I thought I hadn't, but I did cry, yes. It's been a long road to get here. First of all, I want to thank my whole team, everyone at McLarenMy parents… It's my mom and dad who have supported me since I was very little. It's truly incredible. I don't know how Max feels, well, I kind of know, but I want to congratulate him and Oscar. They were my two biggest rivals this season, and it was a pleasure to compete against them. I really enjoyed it. It was a long year, but we did it! I'm so proud of everyone.

You can't help but think about the title, but I knew it was a long race, and right up to the end, we saw a lot of incredible things happen. F1I kept attacking until the last two or three laps where I was able to ease off a bit, but I wanted to fight to the very end. We had to fight all season, against Max's comeback, and Oscar's too. They didn't make my life easy this year, but I'm just happy!

I didn't know I was under investigation, but I knew what I had done was legal, so I didn't have to worry about anything. I just wanted to enjoy the moment. There aren't many people in the world, or even in Formula 1, who have had the chance to experience what I've experienced this year. I'm happy for everyone, even more than for myself! But I'm truly overjoyed. It's been a long journey; I've been with McLaren for nine years. We've experienced some very difficult times, but also many good ones. To be able to give something back, a first drivers' world title in a long time, I feel like I've played my part for the team this year, and I'm very proud of that.

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Charles Leclerc, 4th:

“Unfortunately, we were short again. That’s how it is. I have no regrets; I gave it my all. I’m still very happy with my race, but we didn’t have the performance. (Regarding the lack of a win) It hurts. I don’t even want to think about it. I want to think about next year and forget this one. Well done to Lando and McLaren. They did a fantastic job. A better job than everyone else throughout the year. Well done to them, especially to Lando, who did an exceptional job, particularly at the end of the year when he didn’t make a single mistake. He was driving at a very high level, so well done to him.”

George Russell, 5th:

“It was a bad race, from start to finish. We had absolutely no pace; it was quite strange. I finished fifth, which is much better than it could have been, but when you see Kimi in fifteenth, it's quite unusual for us to be so far back. You always want to finish on a high note, but we had a goal over these last few weekends, which was to finish second in the constructors' championship. I think we're all glad this era is over because it's been really tough for everyone except McLaren and Red BullI'm looking forward to starting with a clean slate again.

Fernando Alonso, 6th:

"It was a very good race for us. Sometimes we're fast on Saturdays but lose competitiveness on Sundays, but that wasn't the case today; we were fast in the race as well. Finishing sixth here and seventh in Qatar is a good end to the season, for sure."

We have no idea why or how… Adrian (Newey) came to Qatar! He touched the car in Qatar and maybe it gave him something (laughs). Honestly, I think it depends on the race, as we've seen all season. We were very good at Imola, in Budapest we were two-tenths off pole and finished fifth, then in some races we made it out of Q1. It's been a year of ups and downs; we've lacked consistency in our performance this year, and we want to fix that for next year.

Esteban Ocon, 7th:

“I’m really happy to finish the year like this. We had a very good race; it’s the best we could have done. We battled with Fernando the whole race; it was a real battle. There were a lot of overtakes right up to the finish, but I just didn’t have enough to overtake him and finish ahead.” Aston Martin in the constructors' championship. So there's a slightly bittersweet taste, but it was a good race, which gives us a good foundation to start next year.

We should have been at this level in the last ten races, and we were missing a few things. "If ifs and ands were pots and pans," you can say what the world could change, but those "ifs" are clearly there right now. We'll look at what didn't work this winter, and I hope we'll be even stronger next year.

Lewis Hamilton, 8th:

“I had fun, yes, I really enjoyed the battles to get back up the order, it was a real fight to get back from where I started! The cars are so close, it’s difficult but the team did a good job, we succeeded with the strategy and I’m happy to score some points.

I don't have a mindset for next year right now; I'm not thinking about next year. 2026 isn't on my radar. For now, I'm thinking about Christmas, spending time with my family, and recovering from the season.

Why Lando Norris wasn't penalized in Abu Dhabi

Nico Hülkenberg, 9th:

“Ollie and Lance have penalties, I don’t know why, but hey presto, two points! After qualifying and having to climb back up from eighteenth, I’m happy. Yesterday, we let ourselves down and it was difficult to move up as everyone had a pretty similar pace. All things considered, I’m very happy to ‘steal’ these two points, and it’s a great end to the season. The legend of Peter Sauber will continue; he’s been in the sport for so long, I respect him enormously. He’s done some great things, we’ll digest the season, and I can’t wait to discover the new cars – winter won’t be very long this year!”

Lance Stroll, 10th:

“It was a fun race with some good overtaking and a good strategy. I think we might have pitted two laps too late and could have finished eighth, but it’s still not bad. We weren’t as competitive as we would have liked. We want to fight higher up the standings, but today was a good race and it’s always good to score some points.”

Gabriel Bortoleto, 11th:

“We didn’t deserve the points today. We didn’t optimize everything; for one reason or another, we had a lot of porpoising from the first lap. I don’t understand why, because we had no problems on Friday, so I think something wasn’t right, and we didn’t have the pace today. Maybe I could have stayed with Fernando, but when he manages like he did today, he can control everyone’s pace. It’s a shame the car wasn’t great today because it was truly incredible yesterday, and I thought we could score points, but that’s how it goes.” 

It was a special year for me, with very good results, and very good qualifying as well. It was a great season, but I'm already looking ahead. The season is over, and I want to start working for next year and hopefully fight for even better results in the future.

Oliver Bearman, 12th:

“I don’t know why I was penalized. It was a good race, we made a fairly early pit stop but we were able to keep everyone behind us. With StrollI was penalized for more than one change of direction, but I broke the slipstream once, which is allowed by the regulations, and then I defended the inside line. As for the rest, I'm a bit confused about the penalty, to be honest.

 I'm looking forward to the winter break. I think we've built some very important foundations this year, which is positive. I'm just a little annoyed that I don't know why I was penalized.

Carlos Sainz, 13th:

“I started twelfth, we had the twelfth best car, and since nothing surprising happened in the race, that’s where we were going to finish, taking into account the additional Hamilton who were moving up through the peloton. We did our best to finish in the points, but we didn't have enough pace all weekend. I hope this will wake us up a bit, in case we thought we were in good form after a podium finish. I'm glad it happened because we're heading into winter without getting complacent.

Yuki Tsunoda, 14th:

“I wanted to at least score some points, but I got a strange penalty again. It’s become the norm, I guess. I gave it my all, it was very difficult to keep up with the other cars. I had good pace at the start of the race, but I overheated the tires a lot, I struggled with that a lot during the race.”

I really enjoyed spending time with the mechanics, and the support they gave me was phenomenal. At times they probably hated me because there was so much to change and fix overnight, setup changes between FP3 and qualifying, but I told them yesterday that I gave them a good workout, they're really precise now! I'm sure they appreciate me.

Kimi Antonelli, 15th:

“I really struggled in the car, I struggled with the balance, and I honestly didn't have any pace. It was very strange, it was a bad race, but before this weekend we had done some very good things since Baku. It's not how I would have liked to end the season, but now we have to look ahead to 2026, which starts on Tuesday.”

Alexander Albon, 16th:

“I got off to a really good start, but we should have done a long first stint, or a short one… and we opted for something in between! We pitted on the same lap as all the drivers ahead of us, which meant we spent the entire race stuck in traffic. It happens, and we'll analyze it. But overall, it's a weekend to forget, but a season to remember. I'm really proud; we finished at the top of the midfield, and I'm very happy with my performances this season.”

Isack Hadjar, 17th:

“I don’t even know how I managed to qualify ninth. Honestly, I knew we were going to have a bad pace, I said so yesterday. But to be this bad… I don’t understand.”

Liam Lawson, 18th:

“We were really slow in the race! We didn’t have a great strategy, but the goal was really to secure sixth place in the championship. Even with a good strategy, we would have just been too slow. It was a difficult race, but we achieved our objective for the weekend, and I’m happy for the team.”

Pierre Gasly, 19th:

“My season in one word? Complicated (laughs)! I’m a competitor. Despite the difficulty of the season, I think there are still some good things to take away. Ten Q3s, with the car we had, shows the performance we managed to extract on Saturdays. As for the number of points… We had to fight very hard to get them. It remains a very disappointing season. We have explanations regarding the sacrifices we made for next season. I really think it will pay off. I have very high expectations for the team for 2026. On the one hand, I’m relieved it’s over because it was complicated, and on the other hand, very proud of the team. A year like this, you might think it would be divisive. The reality is that it united us. We all brought out the best in each of us, and I think it will be a good springboard for next year.”

Franco Colapinto, 20th:

“It was a long day, I just didn’t have the rhythm. We struggled as a team, it was tricky in these last few races, we didn’t get the results we were hoping for. It was a difficult end to the season, but I’m looking forward to next year, there’s a lot to work on. We’re going to make sure we have a good 2026 season.”

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