‘Complete joke’: Hamilton’s fury at stewards boils over again after bruising Brazil DNF
Lewis Hamilton left Interlagos livid and empty‑handed, branding the FIA stewards a “complete joke” after a five‑second penalty compounded a bruising Brazilian Grand Prix and an early retirement for his Ferrari.
A week on from fuming over a 10‑second sanction in Mexico for leaving the track and gaining an advantage against Max Verstappen, Hamilton’s frustration with officiating flared again in São Paulo. Starting 13th, his race unraveled almost immediately: a sluggish launch dumped him to 17th and a hit from Williams’ Carlos Sainz didn’t help the recovery cause.
The flashpoint came as Hamilton tucked in behind Franco Colapinto’s Alpine on the main straight and lunged for a look. The Ferrari clipped the Alpine, Hamilton’s front wing was dislodged, and the floor took a hammering. The stewards judged him at fault and handed down a five‑second time penalty before Ferrari eventually told him to retire the wounded car in the pit lane.
“These guys are a joke. A complete joke,” Hamilton snapped over team radio when the penalty landed. Over the airwaves he insisted Colapinto “moved over on me,” and that he’d merely “clipped my wing.” The panel saw it differently.
It’s now two consecutive weekends of Hamilton versus the rulebook, with the seven‑time champion openly questioning the consistency of decisions. In Mexico he said he felt “let down” by the governing body; in Brazil, a short race got shorter and noisier.
The damage was terminal long before the Ferrari stopped. “After the [Colapinto] hit, it felt like the rear suspension was broken, but they said that it seemed to be alright,” Hamilton told F1’s official channel. “And then the loss of downforce. I think we were losing 30 or 40 points of downforce. When you were going through the high speed, the thing was snapping. I was giving it everything to try to keep up with the guys that are ahead of me, and I had no chance.”
That’s the part that stings most at Ferrari: even aside from the penalty, the car simply wasn’t in one piece after the contact. Hamilton served the five seconds, wrestled a snappy SF‑25 through the middle sector, then parked it — his second DNF of the season. For a team grinding to turn effort into points, it was a gut punch.
“This is definitely a weekend to forget,” he admitted. “It’s a shame, because I love Brazil, and also just everyone in the team, every single person in this team, they turn up every week and give it their absolute best. To come away with nothing, to not finish a race, second time of the year, it’s really devastating. I feel terrible for the team. I’m sorry for my part, in qualifying, putting myself in that position. We’ll get back up tomorrow and just give it another go.”
That last line is the tone Ferrari will cling to as the circus moves on. Hamilton had actually praised Colapinto’s season coming into the weekend — calling his work “amazing” — which is a reminder this isn’t personal. It’s the gray area between elbows‑out racing and the letter of the law that’s back under the microscope, with Hamilton and the stewards now in an uneasy holding pattern from one paddock to the next.
Interlagos rarely does quiet Sundays, and this one was no different. For Hamilton, though, it was all noise and no result: a rough launch, a costly clip, and another date with the stewards’ office that left him shaking his head and Ferrari packing up early. The only upside? There’s always another weekend — and he sounds ready to talk less and let the lap times do the arguing.
