Ferrari had “no intention to gain any advantage” at the Chinese Grand Prix but has admitted its “mistakes” led to a double post-race disqualification for Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton on Sunday.
After finishing the race fifth and sixth, a disappointing day at the office became a nightmare for Ferrari when Leclerc and Hamilton were expelled from the classification hours after the chequered flag; Leclerc for having an underweight car and Hamilton for excessive skid-plank wear.
The FIA post-race scrutineering checks also led to a disqualification for Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who initially finished 11th.
While the news came after the conclusion of media activities in Shanghai, a statement from Ferrari explained the double disqualification — the first in its 75-year Formula 1 history — and why it will “learn from what happened.”
“Following the FIA post-race scrutineering both our cars were found not to conform to the regulations for different reasons,” the statement read.
“Car 16 was found to be underweight by 1 kg and car 44’s rearward skid wear was found to be 0.5mm below the limit.
“Charles was on a one-stop strategy today and this meant his tyre wear was very high, causing the car to be underweight. 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.”
According to the regulations, cars must weigh 800 kilograms after the race once their remaining fuel has been drained.
While both the Ferrari of Leclerc and the Alpine and Gasly were initially found to be bang on the limit, they were both one kilogram under after the fuel was drained.
Leclerc had lost his car’s front wing end plate in a first-lap collision with Hamilton but that was replaced before the final weighing.
On Hamilton’s car, the wear on the plank — a wood resin strip under the car — was found to be below the 9mm permitted by the regulations.
Plank wear is measured by the FIA to ensure cars are not running too low in the pursuit of aerodynamic performance.
