The Chinese Grand Prix is no doubt one that the Scuderia Ferrari family will be keen to forget following the disqualification of both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. The Ferrari drivers had placed fifth and sixth in the race but were disqualified after their cars were found to have breached technical regulations.
The weekend had been looking good for the Ferrari team, with Lewis Hamilton enjoying his maiden Sprint win with an epic drive in his SF-25 on Saturday 22nd March. Leclerc managed a fifth-place finish, adding some important points to the team’s tally in the Constructors’ standings.
The Monegasque driver secured a third-row start in the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai on Sunday 23rd March, sitting alongside teammate Hamilton, who managed a P6 placement.
Both Ferraris got away well, overtaking Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to advance to P4 and P5, but came together in the melee, with Leclerc sustaining damage to his front wing. The engineers in the Ferrari garage must have deemed the damage minor enough to ignore, and Leclerc continued his race without a replacement.
The race was rather uneventful for those at the front. Oscar Piastri of McLaren led from the start, tailed by his teammate Lando Norris, followed by George Russell in the Mercedes in third. Behind them were the two Ferraris and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
After pitting for hard tyres in Lap 15, Leclerc rejoined in 10th, overtook Red Bull’s Liam Lawson for ninth, and slotted in behind Hamilton, who was in eighth. They moved up through the grid to P4 and P5 over the next few laps, then swapped places in Lap 21.
Hamilton’s Lap 37 pit stop saw him move back to sixth, with Verstappen now ahead. The race continued in much the same order until the Dutch driver made his move on Lap 53 to steal fourth from Leclerc. There were no more changes in the race after that.
Out front, Piastri had confidently run his own race—unchallenged and unbothered by the rest of the grid behind him. His lead over his teammate, Lando Norris, extended gradually over the course of the 56 laps due to Norris’ persistent issues with his brakes, and it was ultimately a P1-P2 finish for the British manufacturer at the Chinese Grand Prix, with Russell managing to cling on to third despite Verstappen’s best efforts to get on the podium.
Leclerc took P5, with teammate Hamilton just behind in P6, but post-race checks saw them disqualified from the race. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly suffered similar heartbreak.
A Technical Delegate’s report stated that the rearmost skid on Hamilton’s car was below the minimum 9mm thickness required. For Leclerc, a separate Technical Delegate’s report noted that his SF-25 was below the minimum weight.
A statement released by Scuderia Ferrari after the two decisions reads: “Following the FIA post-race scrutineering, both our cars were found not to conform to the regulations for different reasons. Car 16 [Leclerc’s] was found to be underweight by 1kg and Car 44’s [Hamilton] 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.”
The double disqualification meant that Haas’ Esteban Ocon, Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, Alex Albon of Williams and Haas’ Ollie Bearman were promoted by two positions. Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Williams’ Carlos Sainz also moved into the points thanks to Gasly’s disqualification.
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Photo source: Scuderia Ferrari Media Centre