Lewis Hamilton described his Ferrari dream as a nightmare after both he and teammate Charles Leclerc retired from the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday, leaving the Italian team fourth in the Formula One standings.
The seven-time world champion made contact with Williams’ Carlos Sainz and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto at the start of the race at Interlagos, severely damaging his car’s floor and front wing. Stewards issued Hamilton a five-second penalty for the incident with Colapinto, and he retired on lap 37 after serving the punishment.
Leclerc, who qualified third, was forced to retire after being punted out in a three-way collision involving Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, an incident for which McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was blamed.
“This is a nightmare, I’ve been living it for a while,” Hamilton told Sky Sports. “The flip between the dream of driving for this amazing team and then the nightmare of the results that we’ve had, the ups and downs. It’s challenging. Tomorrow I’ll get back up, I’ll keep training, I’ll keep working with the team. I really wanted to get them good points this weekend but I’ll come back as strong as I can in the next race.”
It was Ferrari’s third double retirement of the season. Hamilton, the sport’s most successful driver of all time, won a Shanghai sprint in March but has yet to stand on the podium in 21 races. Ferrari are now four points behind Red Bull and 36 behind Mercedes in a championship already clinched for the second consecutive year by McLaren.
During the race, Hamilton complained his car lacked downforce and was unstable, describing the combination as “pretty disastrous” through corners. Team principal Fred Vasseur admitted it had been a tough day.
“In sprint qualifying we got a decent result, in the sprint race the pace was good and qualifying went well with Charles. It’s been a very tough Sunday,” Vasseur said. “I had the feeling that, at least with Charles, we were in a good place but we paid the price for a collision between Antonelli and Piastri, which is very harsh for him and the team.”
