Ferrari suffered a double retirement at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix after separate collisions left both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton unable to finish, and Team Principal Fred Vasseur admitted it was hard to find positives from the weekend.
With three rounds remaining Ferrari are embroiled in a close fight with Mercedes and Red Bull for second in the Constructors’ standings, and scoring zero points on Sunday has left them on the back foot.
Leclerc had been running well after an early Safety Car and attempted an outside pass for second on Kimi Antonelli and Oscar Piastri at the restart. Contact between Antonelli and Piastri put Leclerc into the wall, causing a puncture that forced him to retire; Piastri was later handed a 10-second penalty for that incident. Vasseur declined to apportion blame between Antonelli and Piastri, saying emphatically that Leclerc was not at fault and that losing points this way is particularly painful in such a tight championship fight.
Hamilton’s race was compromised from the first corner after contact with Carlos Sainz, and a later collision with Franco Colapinto’s Alpine damaged his front wing and the floor, costing significant downforce. Hamilton served a five-second penalty during the race before the team decided to retire his car to preserve the engine. Vasseur said it was unclear whether the downforce loss stemmed from the first contact, the front-wing damage under the floor, or both, but added that two incidents in one race made recovery impossible.
The double DNF dropped Ferrari to fourth in the Teams’ standings, 36 points adrift of Mercedes and four points behind Red Bull. When asked about any silver linings, Vasseur highlighted qualifying pace, recovery potential, strong starts and an attacking mindset, but stressed that at this stage of the championship the priority has to be scoring points rather than potential.