Following Lewis Hamilton’s retirement from the 2026 Spanish GP, Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur shared his thoughts on what had caused the Brit’s brake failure and his prospects in the F1 Drivers’ Championship this season.
After setting the fourth-fastest time in qualifying, Hamilton started the race on soft tyres and got off the line well. He initially managed to get ahead of Max Verstappen before the Dutchman regained the position by cutting the chicane.
On Lap 3, the Red Bull driver handed the position back to Hamilton, but shortly afterwards he encountered a brake problem which forced him to retire.
Encountering his first DNF of the season, Hamilton now finds himself 101 points adrift of championship leader Kimi Antonelli. Meanwhile, just 5 points now separate the Ferrari driver and Lando Norris—who sits fourth—in the Drivers’ standings.
Vasseur comments on Hamilton’s brake failure and DNF at the 2026 Spanish GP
Speaking in a print media session after the 57-lap F1 race, Fred Vasseur shed more light on whether Hamilton clipping the kerb and bouncing aggressively on the opening lap of the 2026 Spanish GP had triggered his brake issue and subsequent retirement 5 laps later.
Stating that Ferrari were still investigating the cause at the time, the Frenchman noted that Hamilton’s brake pedal had started going long during the first couple of laps. He also revealed how the pedal briefly returning to a normal feel led the team to mistakenly believe that they could manage it by adjusting certain settings from the pit wall.
Vasseur added that letting Hamilton stay on the track with malfunctioning brakes was not a risk they were willing to take.
“Honestly, I don’t know, because they were working on the car when I left.
“The pedal was long at the end of Lap 1, I think. We tried to fix it from the pit wall, and then it happened again a couple of corners later.
“Staying on track made no sense in a crazy race. We didn’t want to take any risk.”
When exactly the brake problem appeared and Hamilton prospects in the Drivers’ Championship
With regard to what exactly was the problem that ended the Ferrari driver’s streak of completing every racing lap in the 2026 F1 season, Fred Vasseur reiterated that Hamilton’s brake pedal had gone to the floor in the early laps of Sunday’s Spanish GP.
The 58-year-old maintained that the Maranello-based squad were reluctant to take any further risks at a tricky wall-lined track like Madring when the issue reappeared and resulted in the seven-time World Champion missing multiple braking points and even having a brush with the wall.
“Yeah, the pedal was long, but we tried to fix it from the pit wall. It came back. And once again, I think in this kind of track, we also don’t want to take any risk. And it was, we are Lap 1, it was still 56 to go.”
Asked to confirm if the brake issue had first materialised on the first lap, Vasseur responded: “Yeah, it was Lap 1 or Lap 2, I think. The first time that happened was Lap 2, and it was too risky to go to the next lap.”
In terms of whether the dream of securing the Drivers’ Championship this season is truly over now that Antonelli’s gap to Hamilton is over 100 points, Vasseur said that Ferrari’s approach hasn’t changed and that they will continue to take each race weekend as it comes.
“Two or three weeks ago, I told you that I will take race by race. I didn’t change.”
