Lewis Hamilton is living his “nightmare” at Ferrari, the “Scuderia” is on the way to missing all of its goals for the season – and now the management is targeting both drivers.
Hamilton and Charles Leclerc should “drive more and talk less”said Ferrari President John Elkann: “Our mechanics and also the engineers did their job because the car has obviously improved. The rest was not at the same level.”
A race to forget for Hamilton
At the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on Sunday, Leclerc retired through no fault of his own; he was involved in a collision between Oscar Piastri (McLaren) and Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes). Hamilton, on the other hand, had an early rear-end collision, damaged his underbody, also received a time penalty, was later lapped and then parked the car prematurely.
“I’m incredibly sorry for the team, it was a disastrous weekend”said the record world champion, who is still waiting for his first podium in a Grand Prix after the 21st race of the season. No new Ferrari driver in the team’s history has needed this long, and Hamilton has had numerous disappointments since moving from Mercedes to the Italians. “It’s a nightmare and I’ve been living in it for a while now”he said: “The transition between the dream of driving for this team and the nightmare of results has been challenging.”
Car recently improved
The car has actually made progress recently, with Leclerc taking third place on the grid for the race in Brazil. “This shows that something is possible”said Hamilton: “I have to believe that these difficulties will lead to something.”
Only fourth in the team ranking
Second place in the team world championship “still possible” and continues to be the goal, said Elkann. However, due to the double exit in Brazil, Ferrari (362 points) fell back to fourth place, behind Mercedes (398) and Red Bull (366). McLaren (756) has long been confirmed as team world champion with three race weekends to go.