Ferrari Endures Frustrating Brazilian GP as Vasseur Blames Tyre Pressure Issues for Hamilton’s Collapse

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Ferrari's weekend at Interlagos turned into a bitter disappointment as Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finished only seventh and ninth, respectively, in the Brazilian Grand Prix. Team Principal Fred Vasseur delivered a candid assessment of the race, highlighting critical tyre pressure complications that undermined Hamilton’s remarkable start and hampered the team’s overall performance.

Hamilton stunned the field at the start, vaulting an extraordinary 11 positions on the opening lap. However, this blistering launch proved to be a double-edged sword. “Probably it was a matter of tyre pressure,” Vasseur explained during a post-race interview with Sky Sport F1. “There’s always a positive and a negative with every choice: he went very well at the start but suffered in the middle of the stint. You can’t do a first lap like that and then not pay the price later.” The team struggled with tyre degradation throughout the race, leaving Ferrari unable to extract the pace needed to challenge higher up the order. “We had some issues with the tyres during the race, so we missed something and for this [the race] didn’t go exactly as we wanted. Surely, we can do better.”

Leclerc’s outing was equally turbulent, marked by inconsistency and a challenging car setup. Vasseur attributed the lack of race pace partly to driver errors but primarily to the difficult handling characteristics of the SF-23. “We were too inconsistent throughout the race,” Vasseur said. “When we lost pace, it was more a matter of mistakes because the car was very hard to drive and the lack of performance came from that. It’s also true that Charles was very fast at the end of his stint on the old soft tyres, now we know why, but it’s a real shame because the potential was probably there. But it was tough for us to put everything together over the course of the race.”

Looking ahead to the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Vasseur warned of extreme challenges posed by the expected cold track temperatures of around 5°C. “That will be an extreme race in terms of conditions,” he said. “Usually, we try to cool the tyres, but there we will have to warm them up, so it will be totally the opposite of what we have seen all season.” The Maranello boss’s remarks underline the uphill battle Ferrari faces as they strive to unlock performance and consistency in a turbulent 2024 campaign.