Martin Brundle admits 29-year-old had a nightmare in Abu Dhabi last weekend

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Martin Brundle has admitted that nothing went to plan for Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz during the season’s final race in Abu Dhabi.

In his column for Sky Sports, Brundle was reviewing the finale to the 2023 campaign at the Yas Marina Circuit.

The start of the weekend in Abu Dhabi was always going to be disrupted by a mixed-up first free practice session.

Half the grid gave their cars to rookie drivers as part of a mandatory test, putting more pressure on FP2 later that afternoon.

That session was much more important to the teams because the track conditions were set to be very similar to qualifying and the race.

However, running was limited due to two crashes, the first of which was a heavy shunt for Carlos Sainz.

A mixture of turbulent air and a bump in the road saw him lose control at turn three, ending his involvement after a handful of laps.

Sainz then had a disastrous qualifying and Brundle believes he wasn’t ever entirely happy with his set-up in Abu Dhabi.

He took a gamble in the race to try and earn Ferrari the points they needed to overtake Mercedes.

Unfortunately, the strategy Sainz used required a safety car that never arrived.

Brundle laments nightmare for Sainz in Abu Dhabi

Speaking about the 29-year-old Spaniard, Brundle said: “But Carlos was never fully happy with his car, experiencing unpredictable understeer and oversteer and sliding around, and on a strategy which needed a never-to-be-seen safety car to help it play out, he couldn’t score the crucial few points which Ferrari needed, and in fact retired with a lap to go, almost unnoticed.”

The performance Brundle described sums up many of the performances Sainz had this season leading up to the finale in Abu Dhabi.

His race win in Singapore was sensational and showed the potential that he had during 2023.

However, too often he was battling for a place in the top five on race day rather than a podium finish with luck not always on his side.

His 18^th-place finish last weekend saw Fernando Alonso, Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris leapfrog him in the Drivers’ Championship.

While it’s unlikely that will bother him too much, finishing with just three podiums to his name will be a source of frustration.

He and Leclerc will hope that Ferrari builds a much more competitive heading into 2024.