Ferrari explains why Leclerc’s car was underweight in Chinese GP

The Ferrari Formula 1 team says excessive tyre wear from the Chinese Grand Prix’s surprise one-stop race is behind Charles Leclerc’s car being found underweight, while it admitted “misjudging” Lewis Hamilton’s skid wear.

Leclerc and Hamilton finished fifth and sixth at the Shanghai International Circuit on Sunday, but soon after the race the Ferrari pair were disqualified due to failing post-race scrutineering.

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Leclerc’s car was found to be one kilogram underweight, while Hamilton’s rearmost skid block showed excessive wear beyond what is allowed in the FIA’s technical regulations.

The double disqualification meant Ferrari lost 18 constructors’ points in one fell swoop, with the team issuing a statement explaining what it thought had gone wrong.

The team said the Chinese Grand Prix moving from an expected two-stop strategy to a one-stopper meant Leclerc suffered more tyre wear than expected, and it claimed that his worn-down rubber was behind his car being under the weight limit.

However, it made no excuses for Hamilton’s skid wear, admitting it had misjudged its calculations before Saturday qualifying, when cars enter parc ferme conditions.

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Hector Retamal – AFP – Getty Images

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

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“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.”

The team said it had “no intention to gain any advantage” and vowed to investigate what had gone wrong and learn from its errors.

“We will learn from what happened today and make sure we don’t make the same mistakes again,” the statement continued. “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.”

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly could have benefitted from Ferrari’s double exclusion, but he too lost 11th place for being below the weight limit. In his stead, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Williams driver Carlos Sainz moved into the points.

The Haas team was the biggest benefactor from Ferrari’s disqualification as Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman moved up to fifth and eighth respectively, scoring a whopping 14 points in Shanghai.

Photos from Chinese GP – Race