Ferrari staff face internal ‘repercussions’ after they missed out on P2 in the championship

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Ferrari are no longer able to finish second in the Formula 1 world championship. That’s after they scored just four points during an unacceptable Qatar Grand Prix weekend.

The final Sprint weekend of the season gave Ferrari their last opportunity to vault back into contention for the runner-up spot behind McLaren. But the SF-25 was a midfield car at Lusail.

On Saturday, both Ferrari cars finished a race outside the points for the first time since France 2021. Lewis Hamilton started from the pit lane after qualifying 17th, while Charles Leclerc dropped from ninth to 13th.

Hamilton then suffered another Q1 exit ahead of the Grand Prix, effectively ruling him out of points contention given the difficulty of overtaking and the lack of strategic variation. Leclerc qualified 10th and finished eighth, ensuring Ferrari did at least score some points.

Still, the gap to Mercedes has now grown to 77 points with only 43 more on offer. With Red Bull 44 up the road, Ferrari are almost certain to finish fourth.

The fallout inside Ferrari after woeful Qatar Grand Prix

Ferrari will miss out on the top three for the fourth time in the 21st century (2009, 2014, 2020). They were firmly targeting the world championship after taking their fight with McLaren to the wire last year.

According to Corriere della Sera, this inevitably has ‘repercussions’ for Ferrari staff. Their bonus payments will be affected – the team have lost out on up to £17.6m in prize money – but the atmosphere at Maranello has also soured amid demands for accountability.

This time last year, Ferrari vs McLaren went to the wire…

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One employee who will be feeling some heat is Hamilton, who ‘seems like a foreign body to the team’. Hamilton was signed to ‘raise the bar’ but has arguably anchored Ferrari this year.

Intriguingly, the report adds that ‘many’ staff are ‘nostalgic’ for Carlos Sainz, who scored his second podium as a Williams driver at the weekend. Hamilton is still yet to finish a Grand Prix in the top three, while Charles Leclerc has done so seven times.

Carlos Sainz’s verdict on Lewis Hamilton’s struggles is too generous

Hamilton remains on 152 points for the season, which accounts for less than 40% of Ferrari’s total for 2025 (39.8 to be exact). He’s now at risk of dropping out of the top six in the championship, with Mercedes successor Kimi Antonelli just two points behind.

Sainz scored 44.4% of Ferrari’s points last year and also delivered nine podiums to Leclerc’s 13. The car was clearly much better, but he was also far more productive relative to his teammate.

Speaking last weekend, Sainz defended Hamilton and pointed out that Leclerc ‘knows the car and the team so well’. And yet, the Spaniard was the top-scoring Ferrari when he first joined in 2021, albeit by just five points.

Sainz is willing to rejoin Ferrari ‘in the distant future’, though that will depend on how Williams fare in F1’s new era.