Collisions for both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton led to a double DNF for Ferrari at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, prompting Team Principal Fred Vasseur to admit it was “difficult to take the positives” from the weekend.
Ferrari are locked in a tense fight with Mercedes and Red Bull for second in the Teams’ standings, and Sunday’s zero score leaves the Scuderia on the back foot with three rounds to go.
After an early Safety Car, Leclerc attempted to pass Kimi Antonelli and Oscar Piastri around the outside for second but was hit when Antonelli and Piastri made contact. A puncture forced Leclerc to retire. Piastri later received a 10-second penalty for that incident.
Vasseur avoided assigning blame between the two drivers involved. “It’s a tough weekend,” he said. “I had the feeling that with Charles, we were in a good place, that he had a good start, a good restart, that he took margin on the kerb, and we are paying the full price of the crash between Antonelli and Piastri. I don’t care about who is at fault between Piastri and Antonelli, but for sure, it was not Charles. It’s tough because in this fight, you can’t give up points. When you are giving up points, you are giving points also to the others. It’s a double penalty, and in our case, it’s very harsh.”
Hamilton’s race was troubled from the outset after contact with Carlos Sainz at Turn 1; later he struck Franco Colapinto’s Alpine, damaging his front wing and floor. Hamilton served a five-second penalty before Ferrari elected to retire his car to preserve the engine.
Vasseur explained the problem on Hamilton’s car: “We lost a huge amount of downforce. We still don’t know if it was from the crash of Sainz or from the crash of the front wing under the floor, but perhaps both of them. But after 200 metres, when you are P20… if you have a look at what Max did today, with decent pace, I think we can come back and you can score good points, but two crashes is too much.”
The double retirement dropped Ferrari to fourth in the Teams’ standings — 36 points behind Mercedes and four behind Red Bull. Asked about any positives, Vasseur pointed to qualifying pace, recovery, strong starts and a attacking mindset: “It is difficult to take positives when you have double DNF. But I would say that if I have to take a positive part of the weekend is the pace in Quali, the recovery, that even the start, the restart, we are fighting, looking at the front, not looking at the guy who is behind us, trying to attack and with a positive attitude, and this is, for sure, good. But when you are at this point of the championship, you are more focused on points than on potential.”