Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur revealed the extent of the damage Lewis Hamilton suffered on the first lap of the Formula 1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix, which led to his race prematurely ending.
The Brit was immediately in the wars, having started 13th and being caught up in the thick of the typical first corner action.
Taking to the outside on the approach to the Senna S, Hamilton was clipped by the Williams of Carlos Sainz, sending him tumbling further down the order.
In a quick attempt to fight back through the field, Hamilton misjudged his speed and tagged the back of Franco Colapinto’s Alpine on the start-finish straight going into Lap 2.
The Safety Car was brought out in that very moment after Gabriel Bortoleto crashed out, leaving Hamilton with an opportunity to pit for a new front wing.
When racing resumed, Hamilton was unable to free himself from the foot of the pack and complained over the radio that he felt like he could crash at any moment.
He pitted for Mediums on Lap 15 in a bid to solve some of the instability he was feeling, his day worsened by a five-second penalty for the Colapinto collision.
After serving the penalty, Hamilton was asked to retire the SF-25 on Lap 37, his first retirement in Brazil since 2012, ending a thoroughly miserable weekend.
After the race, Vasseur reasoned that it made no sense for Hamilton to carry on, as performance of the car was massively compromised, as well as potentially incurring additional damage to the car.
“When you are last and you are missing 35 points or 40 points on downforce on the car, I’m not sure that it makes sense to damage the engine,” he told media including Motorsport Week. “We serve the penalty and we stop the car.”
Hamilton DNF completed a miserable day for Ferrari at Brazil GP
Vasseur was unsure as to what incident caused the irreparable damage to the car, saying: “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.”
It was a thoroughly wretched day for the Scuderia, with Charles Leclerc’s promising race – starting from third – ending early after being caught up in a clash between Oscar Piastri and Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
The Monegasque was running third when the McLaren and Mercedes touched at Turn 1 on the restart after a Virtual Safety Car, and was left a hopeless passenger as he was spun onto the grass, his left-front suspension damaged, sending him into immediate retirement.
“If you have a look at what Max did today, with a decent pace, I think we can come back and you can score good points,” Vasseur rued. “But two crashes is too much.”
READ MORE – Charles Leclerc: Kimi Antonelli ‘as much to blame’ as Oscar Piastri for F1 Brazil GP collision
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