Vasseur reflects on Ferrari's 'very harsh' Sao Paulo GP

Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur was forced to concede it was “difficult to take positives” from a Sao Paulo Grand Prix weekend that saw both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton retire.

Ferrari are involved in a tense battle with Mercedes and Red Bull for second place in the Teams’ Standings, with Sunday’s zero score putting the Scuderia on the back foot with three rounds to go.

In the lead Ferrari, following an early Safety Car period, Leclerc looked to move around the outside of Kimi Antonelli and Oscar Piastri into second, but was clattered into after the battling pair collided. Losing a tyre, Leclerc was forced to retire his car.

While Piastri received a costly 10-second penalty, Vasseur had no interest in playing the blame game.

“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 Sunday was difficult from the start, as Carlos Sainz made contact with his car's rear into Turn 1, and the seven-time World Champion later struck Franco Colapinto’s Alpine, causing damage to his front wing and floor. After serving a five-second penalty, Ferrari opted to save the engine and retire the car.

As a result, Ferrari fell to fourth in the Teams’ standings – 36 points behind Mercedes, and four behind Red Bull.

Commenting on Hamilton’s afternoon, Vasseur added: “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.”

Asked if there were any positives for the team to take from the weekend, he said: “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.”