Following the penalty for Charles Leclerc (Ferrari): “It’s like playing the lottery”

All in all, a day to forget for Ferrari. Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc finished seventh (having started from 14th on the grid), but was handed a penalty after the race – five seconds added to his race time for bumping into Liam Lawson – meaning he finished eighth rather than seventh. Lewis Hamilton didn’t fare much better in ninth place either.

If Max Verstappen could stage a comeback from 21st on the grid to finish second, why was Ferrari unable to achieve a better result in Brazil?

Charles Leclerc, the 2022 World Championship runner-up, looks back on his São Paulo Grand Prix as follows: “The pace in the first part of the race was terrible, especially at and after the start; we really struggled to get the tyres up to temperature, and the car was virtually uncontrollable.”

“Lewis undoubtedly found a better way of doing things, as he had a brilliant start and a fabulous first lap of the race, but for me it was like driving on ice.”

Strange: Hamilton had a strong first lap but then soon stagnated; Leclerc had major problems at the start but then went from strength to strength.

Leclerc continued: “So the first part on intermediates was rather negative, but the second part on the soft tyres was actually quite good. However, I didn’t have the chance to drive in clean air. In the end, by staying patient and making the right decisions, we finished the race in seventh place, behind the drivers from the other top teams. Ultimately, it was like two races in one.”

“For us, rain is like playing the lottery – maybe we’ll be on the lucky side and we’ll be right up there, or maybe on the unlucky side and it’ll be a nightmare to drive. We still have a lot of work to do to achieve more consistency here.”