The FIA has announced Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly have been disqualified from the F1 Chinese GP.
Following standard FIA scrutineering checks, the governing body submitted anomalies found on the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc to the stewards.
Cars are subjected to multiple checks after sessions to ensure compliance with the technical regulations mandated by the FIA.
One area that is closely monitored is fuel irregularities as these can give a sizeable advantage to rivals if a car is underweight.
In the case of Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly, both were deemed to have breached the regulations, resulting in a disqualification for both cars.
Charles Leclerc
Leclerc’s issue stemmed from his first lap collision with team-mate Lewis Hamilton. He ran the entirety of the F1 Chinese GP with a broken front wing, but still managed to maintain strong pace during the race. Although passed by Max Verstappen in the closing stages, he still finished in sixth place.
The car was weighed as per standard procedure, but with the front wing damaged, the FIA weighed it again with a spare Ferrari front wing attached.
The car was then drained of fuel, and with the new front wing on the SF-25, the car weighed 0.2kg heavier than the damaged one.
This put Leclerc’s Ferrari 1.0kg below the weight limit, resulting in an immediate referral to the stewards.
At the steward’s hearing, Ferrari and Leclerc did not contest the findings from the FIA, and accepted the car was underweight.
He was disqualified shortly afterwards.
Full statement from the stewards
Pierre Gasly
Pierre Gasly also had fuel irregularities upon scrutineering checks. Upon his car being weighed, the FIA carried out a mass fuel check.
1.1. litres of fuel was removed, and the car re-weighed again. The car came in at 799.0 kg, one kg below the minimum weight limit, resulting in an underweight car.
Like Ferrari, Gasly and Alpine did not contest the findings, resulting in him being immediatley disqualified.
Full statement from the stewards
