Sainz: Two crashes I cannot explain

Charles Leclerc and Sainz finished the US Grand Prix first and second, then the latter won in Mexico City, his teammate finishing third, as Ferrari showed briefly that they are a threat in the 2024 F1 constructors' championship currently led by McLaren.

But the Scuderia received a reality check last weekend in Sao Paulo, as they were nowhere near as competitive as they were in the first two races of this season's penultimate triple header.

On a weekend where the rain was a main player, Ferrari flopped, especially in qualifying and the Grand Prix as Sainz crashed out in Q2, which meant he started the race from the pitlane.

And while Leclerc was slightly better, qualifying sixth, he did not manage to improve and finished where he started since he paid the price of an early pitstop before the race was red-flagged, but at least did not suffer the ignominy of Sainz, who ended his race in the barriers.

Sainz reflected: "I had two crashes that I honestly cannot explain very well. It’s very unpredictable, this car this year has been extremely difficult to drive in the wet.

"At the same time apologies for the team for the two mistakes and obviously it cost us, but starting from the pit lane it’s not like we were going to get a lot of points, so, yeah, we’ll turn the page and come back stronger."

"Definitely a Sunday to forget for me," Sainz added in Ferrari's team report. "I’m sorry to have given the team extra work on a day that was already super long.

"I’ve struggled with this car in the wet this year, and today I just didn’t have the right feeling either. I tried to push and take some risks to gain positions and it obviously didn’t pay off.

"It’s a hard Sunday to digest but we will turn the page and reset everything ahead of Las Vegas," the Spaniard concluded.

Leclerc lamented a difficult SF-24; he said: "On one side, we were just not fast enough: the car was extremely difficult to drive and very, very pointy, very digital, very oversteery, and it was very difficult to drive.

"On the other hand, I felt with what we had we did more or less the best we could do. If you look at the top three, I think these are the three drivers that put no foot wrong on such a long race and this is very difficult and they deserve to be on the podium.

"On our side we paid the price a lot in the first stop; we stopped too early and ended up in the traffic and that cost us three to four positions and to then come back from that was very difficult.

"P5 in front of both McLarens is at least a damage limitation where we only lose four points to them today – as it could have been a lot worse," the Monegasque claimed.

In Ferrari's race report, Leclerc admitted a wrong setup made things worse for him; he added: "It was a very long and tricky race and the drivers on the podium today are those who did not put a foot wrong, so they really deserve it.

"I have mixed feelings about our race. On the one hand, it was a bit disappointing because we struggled to keep the car on track in these conditions, especially towards the end of the race, due to the way that we decided to set up our car for today.

"On the other hand, we finished ahead of both McLarens, which was a positive surprise and helps in our battle in the Constructors’ championship.

"We are heading home now to recharge for the final triple-header of this season where we will give it our all to try and secure the team championship title," Leclerc concluded.

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur summed up: "We have mixed feelings today as we were able to limit the damage in our fight with McLaren, but on the other hand, we should have also scored points with Carlos, not just with Charles.

"With both drivers the timing of pit stops was not the best but in general we struggled a lot with the pace and in getting the tyres to the right temperatures after every restart.

"At the final restart, Charles did very well to get ahead of Lando (Norris) and George (Russell) but the Mercedes was able to get past again and Charles had to defend from Lando. As the stint progressed his tyres were performing better and he was able to bring home a P5," he explained.

"This weekend was a difficult one but looking at this triple-header as a whole, we are still the team that has scored the most points which is a good way to go into the final three races of the season.

"We will do our best to keep the fight open all the way to Abu Dhabi," Vasseur concluded.

Ferrari remain second in the F1 constructors' championship, 36 points behind the leaders, McLaren, and 13 points ahead of third-placed Red Bull Racing.