Ferrari suffered a nightmare at the Chinese Grand Prix as Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were disqualified after issues found with both of their cars, with the failure in Shanghai seen as a “sensational flop”
Ferrari chiefs have been left fuming over Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton‘s poor displays at the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix to open the season, according to reports. The new partnership came eighth and tenth respectively in Melbourne before both were disqualified in a baffling turn of events in Shanghai.
Leclerc’s car was found to be in breach of F1 regulations after being below the minimum weight of 800kg that is required at the end of the race, with the vehicle being reweighed following damage from early contact with team-mate Hamilton. After the car was drained of fuel, it was found to weigh a total of 799kg, just below the minimum threshold and found in breach of Article 4.1 of F1’s technical regulations.
Hamilton, meanwhile, was disqualified after it was found that the plank under his Ferrari car was too worn. The British seven-time world champion did manage to win the sprint race in Shanghai – which was his first win with Ferrari.
Leclerc and Hamilton had finished fifth and sixth in the race respectively, but their DSQ result has been seen as a “sensational flop” by Ferrari chiefs, according to Italian F1 journalist Leo Turrini.
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“At Ferrari, everyone, absolutely everyone, from the company’s top management to Leclerc and Hamilton, including Vasseur, consider the results in Australia and China to be discouraging,” he said. “[Aside from] the Shanghai Sprint Race, the flop was sensational – a double disqualification unprecedented in the history of the Prancing Horse.”
Ferrari took full responsibility for the double disqualification and said the team would learn from the crucial mistakes which curtailed both drivers’ races.
“Following the FIA post-race scrutineering, both our cars were found not to conform to the regulations for different reasons. Car 16 [Leclerc] was found to be underweight by one kilogram, and car 44 [Hamilton]’s rearward skid wear was found to be 0.5mm below the limit.
“With regard to Lewis’ skid wear, we misjudged the consumption by a small margin. There was no intention to gain any advantage. We will learn from what happened today and make sure we don’t make the same mistakes again. Clearly, it’s not the way we wanted to end our Chinese GP weekend, neither for ourselves, nor for our fans whose support for us is unwavering.”
Even before learning of his disqualification, Hamilton was critical of the car he drove in Shanghai, calling it “terrible” following changes made from the sprint win.
“I just didn’t have the pace of the cars up ahead. Just balance wise from the sprint race we made these changes and the car was terrible after that,” he said before awkwardly chuckling and adding: “I really struggled with the car from then on. It’s a good learning curve and hopefully we won’t do that again.”
