Ferrari had a horrible weekend at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, and Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton had the same problem throughout the race.

Both drivers were hit with grid penalties for changing engine components. Hamilton’s totalled up to 65 places, which left him P20 on the grid, while Leclerc lined up 14th.

Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton lament Ferrari’s struggle with tyre temperature in Sao Paulo

Hamilton was one of the first to switch to the dry tyres at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, and it initially paid off. However, when the rain returned, the Brit struggled, and was lucky not to slide into the wall.

Bernie Collins thought Leclerc outsmarted Hamilton with his strategy, but the Monegasque driver was also struggling for pace. He could only bring home four points, while his teammate was one place behind, but a lap down.

Coming into the race, the rivalry between Leclerc and Hamilton was hot on the agenda in the paddock, especially after their conflict in Mexico. The pair had not spoken to each other before they arrived in Sao Paulo, but Fred Vasseur did arrange talks in the paddock.

After the race, the Ferrari drivers lamented how they could not get the tyres up to temperature, with Leclerc even saying that his SF-26 was ‘undriveable’.

He said via F1.com: “The execution was okay but the pace was, on the first stint, horrendous for me. Particularly at the start, we just have so many struggles in putting those tyres into temperature.

“It’s unbelievable, and it’s just undriveable. Lewis definitely found a way because he had an incredible start, but for me it was just like driving on ice. Later on I had the pace, but I had very little free air and we also lost a lot of time on the straights, so the first stint was very poor.

“The second stint on the soft was actually pretty good, but not much free air. At the end, by being patient and making the right choice late on, we ended up P7 behind the top three teams. It is the way it is.

“There is so much to be learned. I felt like we were going into the rain and it was like a coin flip – maybe we end up on the right side of things or we end up… it’s just a complete disaster to drive. We’ve got a lot of work to do on that side.”

Hamilton also complained about getting the tyres up to temperature, but he did take some responsibility for his spin at the end of the race.

“I had a great start, and I thought I was on for something positive, then the tyres dropped off almost immediately as the track dried. It’s really hard to then stay on the track. Just massive challenges with getting the tyres in the window and having them working,” he said.

“The triple triple [header] has been really tough and challenging for the team, but they’ve done a really amazing job through it all.