Charles Leꦆclerc admits Ferrari was simply “just not 🍨fast enough” in the 2019 Formula 1 season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Leclerc made a quick start from third on the Yas Marina grid and passed Max Verstappen’s Red Bull on the opening lap but Verstappen fought back and r💯eturned the favour to reclaim second at mid-distance, before Ferrari switched Leclerc to ‘Plan C’ and pitted him for a second time.

The Monegasque ultimately finished over 43s behind race-winner Lewis Hamilton and narrowly beat the recovering Valtteri Bot💎tas to the final spot on the podium, though he is under investigation for a possible pre-race 💞fuel breach.

“It was tricky, w🌞e are just not fas💯t enough,” Leclerc conceded.

“At the end I’m happy to finish with ༺a podium this se🦩ason. For me it’s been a great season personally.

“It’s the first time I’ve been fighting for podiums in Formula 1, it෴’s t✤he first time I win my first race, first pole, so there are a lot of positives for me.

“Then when you are looking at the full picture, obviously here and there, we could have done quite a lot better, and on that🍌 I am fully focused on 2020 now to make sure these mistakes, that I don’t do them again, and I’m pretty sure it will be a better season.”

Leclerc said he had no explanation as to why Ferrari✤’s promising early pace dropped off as the race went on.

“We seemed pretty qu♏ick all the time at the beginning in the first few laps, but then with the degradation we are struggling more, so we need to understand this a l𝕴ittle bit,” he explained.

“I have no answers for now, and it’s difficult to find answers from the beginning of the season for that. So now we’ve got quite a bit of time to analyse all this data, and hopefully we’ll come back stronger in 2020.🦩”

Additional reporting by Julliane Cerasoli.