Carlos Sainz demands “perfect weekend” from Ferrari to beat McLaren to F1 title

Carlos Sainz has called on Ferrari to deliver a “perfect weekend” in Abu Dhabi if they are to beat McLaren to their first F1 constructors’ title since 2008.

Heading into the season finale on Sunday, Ferrari are 21 points behind McLaren.

With 44 points on the table, Ferrari realistically will need a 1-2 finish at the Yas Marina Circuit to have any hopes of taking the title away from McLaren.

As it stands, a 1-2 finish for Ferrari will give them the title if McLaren finish fourth and fifth.

Remarkably, Ferrari have never started on pole or won the race in Abu Dhabi since being added to the calendar in 2009.

On the other hand, McLaren haven’t won the race since 2011 with Lewis Hamilton.

Ferrari were arguably fortunate to close in on McLaren after the race in Qatar following a 10-second stop-go penalty for Lando Norris meant he could only finish tenth.

Sainz's unfortunate puncture during the middle part of the race cost them a couple of points.

Speaking to media in Qatar on Sunday, where Crash.net were present in the paddock, Sainz conceded “it’s still going to be tough” to take the title on Sunday.

“I think it's still going to be tough, 21 points requires a perfect weekend from Ferrari and a bad weekend from McLaren, but we've seen worse things in racing, so we're going to give it our best shot,” Sainz said. “I think if we nail a good weekend, we'll still make it happen.

“We're going to give it our absolute best, nothing to lose, we're going to throw everything in to make sure we give ourselves the best chance.”

Ferrari and McLaren’s long wait for an F1 title

F1’s two iconic teams are on a long title drought, stretching back to 2008 in the case of Ferrari.

For McLaren, their last constructors’ title was in 1998 with Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard.

They would have won the 2007 constructors’ had it not been for the disqualification they received for ‘Spygate’.

Norris and Charles Leclerc are still battling it out for second in the drivers’ championship.

There’s eight points between them in favour of the McLaren driver.