Ferrari issue statement after Leclerc and Hamilton are disqualified in China

Ferrari have issued a statement after news had broken that both their drivers had been disqualified from Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix.

Charles Leclerc’s car was found to be below the minimum weight, while Lewis Hamilton’s car was found to be in breach of the technical regulations relating to the rearward skid.

Leclerc was the first of the two team mates to have his result scratched off the record books, having initially finished fifth. His car was found to be 1kg underweight, despite being weighed with a replacement front wing, after the Monegasque had damaged his on the first lap of the race, and he completed the Grand Prix without his endplate. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was also disqualified for the same rule breach.

Hamilton was then called to the stewards after his car was examined post-race, and it was found that his rearward skid was below the minimum thickness required. He too was disqualified, having originally finished sixth behind his team mate.

SHANGHAI, CHINA - MARCH 23: Charles Leclerc of Monaco driving the (16) Scuderia Ferrari SF-25 — Leclerc’s car was found to be underweight after the conclusion of the Chinese Grand Prix

“Following the FIA post-race scrutineering both our cars were found not to conform to the regulations for different reasons,” Ferrari said following the confirmation of both disqualifications.

“Car 16 was found to be underweight by 1kg and car 44’s rearward skid wear was found to be 0.5mm below the limit.

«Charles [Leclerc] was on a one-stop strategy today and this meant his tyre wear was very high, causing the car to be underweight.”

Pirelli had initially predicted a two-stop race in China, with many of the field following that strategy. But tyre degradation was lower than expected on Sunday, leading to many of the front runners pitting just the once.

This has happened in F1 before, such as when George Russell was disqualified from the Belgian Grand Prix last season after changing to a one-stop strategy during the race. He took the chequered flag as the winner, but subsequently his Mercedes was found to be underweight.

Hamilton and Leclerc were also both disqualified from the US Grand Prix back in 2023 – for Mercedes and Ferrari respectively – when their cars were found to be in breach after a plank wear inspection was conducted.

SHANGHAI, CHINA - MARCH 23: Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain driving the (44) Scuderia Ferrari SF-25 — Hamilton’s car was also disqualified for a technical infringement

“With regard to Lewis’ skid wear, we misjudged the consumption by a small margin,” Ferrari added.

“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.”

The double disqualification has cost Leclerc 10 points and Hamilton eight, while the team lost 18 in total. In a year where the margins between Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes are expected to be tight, those points differences could be vitally important.

While the team did collect 12 points in Saturday’s Sprint in Shanghai, they find themselves 61 points adrift of McLaren in the Teams’ Championship, and 40 points behind Mercedes.