A fresh theory of Ferrari’s double disqualification at the F1 China Grand Prix has emerged.
Ferrari was disqualifying last car in China, proving it was a horror day for the team, representing an early blow to the aspirations of the F1 2025 title.
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton took the distance fifth and sixth place on the Shanghai road, but both drivers were removed from the results as the car failed post-race scrutiny checks.
Leclerc’s Ferrari proved to be 1kg low weight, but Hamilton’s car had skid board wear.
Early theories suggested that Leclerc’s disqualification could have been influenced by Tire and his one-stop strategy, but Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur revealed another, more unusual issue that could be held responsible.
“Tires are just part of the explanation,” Vasseur told the French newspaper L’Equipe.
“We also lost a liter of water because Charles’ drinking (bottle) is leaking. The loss of weight is always an addition of a lot of small factors.”
Strangely enough, Leclerc reported a leak in his cockpit midway through the Australian season opening.
Leclerc’s complaints led to the current “Word of Wisdom” radio exchange with his race engineer Bryan Bozzi.
Ferrari paid the price to take risks
Regarding Hamilton’s exclusion, Baserle admitted that Ferrari made the mistake of not driving the seven-time world champion car in China high enough.
“We need to distinguish between disqualification because someone is cheating and is getting a risk from a disqualification,” Vasser explained.
“The goal of the F1 game is to push yourself to the limits of all parameters everywhere.
“To reach the last gram of weight, you reach the last tenth of the skid and reach the last millimeter of wing deformation.
“So, the more pressure you are under, the stronger the fight, the closer you need to get to these restrictions, and the more risk you get.”
Vasseur’s comments repeated what Leclerc said at a press conference before the event on Thursday, ahead of the Japan Grand Prix.
“Obviously, whenever you make a mistake, you can learn from them, especially when they’re spending so much,” Leclerc said.
“Everyone is playing with the limits and trying to be as close as possible, but putting both cars down (i.e., beyond that) was a huge pain. And we didn’t need it. The first part of the season was very difficult. The first two races were very difficult.
“Losing more points than we’ve already done (through our slow performance in Melbourne) hurts the team a lot.”
Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton has an “absolute faith” in Ferrari
Hamilton, who won the sprint race in Shanghai, claims he has “absolutely 100% faith” in Ferrari despite the difficult start to the new season.
A double disqualification in China cost Ferrari 18 points, only fifth in the constructors’ championship, 61 points behind McLaren just two rounds later.
“I saw someone say something about whether I’m losing faith in the team or not. It’s total waste,” Hamilton said. “I absolutely have 100% faith in this team.
“There was clearly a ton of hype at the beginning of the year. I don’t know if anyone was hoping we would win race one and win the championship in the first year.
“That wasn’t my expectations. I know it’s going to take time to join a new culture, a new team.”