Jacques Villenueve, a former driver and 1997 Formula 1 champion, thinks it would be a shame if Ferrari lost second place in the constructors’ championship to Mercedes.

After starting the 2022 season with an excellent performance, Ferrari fell behind and was easily overtaken by Red Bull and Max Verstappen, who won the team and driver titles.

Now Ferrari are in danger of finishing third as they have failed to recover, while Mercedes have made significant progress in recent races, including a one-two finish at the São Paulo GP, with Geroge Russell winning and Lewis Hamilton second. .

Even so, Ferrari still managed to finish P3 and P4 with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc respectively, but are now just 19 points clear of Mercedes, with only the Abu Dhabi GP remaining of the season.

“If Ferrari loses second place in the constructors’ championship, it will be a disgrace,” Villeneuve said in his post-race column on Formula1.nl.

“They should have fought Red Bull but there is something not working. The decision making in qualifying in Brazil was also wrong. Leclerc says it’s not raining but the team says it is. It seemed weird. Like there are robots sitting there doing calculations. By the way, let’s not forget that Sainz and Leclerc had a very solid run,” he said.

The Canadian also gave his opinion on Leclerc’s request to be ‘presented’ with third position in the race in Sao Paulo by Sainz, so that he remains ahead of Sergio Perez in the race for P2 among the drivers.

“Leclerc asked the team if Sainz could let him through in the final stages of the race, after all he wants to finish second in the championship. Ferrari didn’t allow that, I understand, because Fernando (Alonso, d ‘Alpine) was a second behind Leclerc, the risk would be too great,” Villeneuve said.