Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton managed a meager six points between them at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, wrapping up a bruising weekend that marked Ferrari's lowest-scoring outing since the Italian Grand Prix. It was a proper disasterclass born from a toxic mix of grid penalties, brutal track conditions, and an absolute inability to switch the tyres on.
Leclerc's afternoon started on the back foot thanks to a ten-place drop for changing his Internal Combustion Engine (ICE). A brutal opening stint meant the Monegasque made virtually zero headway toward the points early on. Things eventually stabilized as he clawed back positions through the stops, nailing the switch to intermediate tyres right as the heavens opened. He managed to muscle his way past Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson to take seventh on the road, only to cop a post-race five-second penalty for minor contact with the Kiwi, dropping him down to P8.
I had a great start, and I thought I was on for something positive, then the tyres dropped off almost immediately as the track dried,
“The execution was okay but the pace was, on the first stint, horrendous for me,” Leclerc said after the race. “Particularly at the start, we just have so many struggles in putting those tyres into temperature. It’s unbelievable, and it’s just undriveable. Lewis definitely found a way because he had an incredible start, but for me it was just like driving on ice. Later on I had the pace, but I had very little free air and we also lost a lot of time on the straights, so the first stint was very poor.” He added that gambling on the rain felt like tossing a coin, calling the machine "a complete disaster to drive."
On the other side of the garage, Hamilton's day began with a mountain to climb from a distant 20th after his own grid penalty. Yet, the early laps painted a totally different picture. He sliced through the field, gaining eleven positions immediately to look like a genuine menace to the frontrunners. But the machine had other ideas, as his rear tyres fell off a cliff and sent him tumbling back down the order.
Compounding the slide, Hamilton faced an investigation for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. To dodge a penalty, he handed a position back to Haas driver Ollie Bearman, then spearheaded the team's gamble to jump onto slick tyres after some radio debate. The roll of the dice initially worked, but a late spin left him mired in ninth place as he crossed the finish line a full lap behind race winner Lando Norris.
“I had a great start, and I thought I was on for something positive, then the tyres dropped off almost immediately as the track dried,” Hamilton explained. “It’s really hard to then stay on the track. Just massive challenges with getting the tyres in the window and having them working. The triple triple [header] has been really tough and challenging for the team, but they’ve done a really amazing job through it all. We didn’t get the points I think the team deserved today. I definitely take some of that on me today, with that [spin] at the end. We live and we learn and we move on.”
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