Before the Formula One season began Lewis Hamilton had taken his motorhome to Ferrari’s Maranello factory, living alongside his new colleagues in order to bond with them and better learn their methodologies in an effort to make his transition into the Scuderia as seamless as possible. After he and his teammate, Charles Leclerc, were disqualified from the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday, he may have to consider taking up residence again, as a rocked Ferrari deal with a disheartening opening to the season.
Ferrari have never endured a double disqualification before in the 75 years they have participated in F1, an embarrassment for which they held up their hands. They conceded that the skid block on the floor of Hamilton’s car had been worn 0.5mm below the limit, while Leclerc’s ride was 1kg below the minimum weight requirement. The F1 governing body, the FIA, said Ferrari acknowledged a “genuine error” and the team said it was a “mistake” they would endeavour not to repeat.
What made the events even more striking was the extraordinary turnaround they represented; that what had started so well could come clattering down about their ears with such calamity. Hamilton had taken pole and the win in the sprint race on Saturday with absolute elation at his first success with the team. Finally, here was the Ferrari that had been expected this season, a competitive car mixing at the very front.
Twenty-four hours later, the picture had changed drastically. Ferrari made changes to the set-up of the car before the race, which Hamilton said he believed were a mistake. It is hard to argue.
After a strong sprint, Hamilton and Leclerc qualified fifth and sixth and the race did not improve from there. Hamilton struggled for pace almost from the off, to the extent he offered to move over for Leclerc and duly let his teammate through. New tyres made no appreciable difference to Hamilton’s pace and the pair never came within a sniff of the leaders.
The disqualification three hours later brought the curtain down with bleak finality. It cost the team 18 points. They are 61 behind the leaders, McLaren, after only two meetings and, almost unthinkably, equal with Williams. Ferrari called it a misjudgment. It is the sort of misjudgment they can ill afford if they intend on challenging for a title any time soon. Nor should it be one they take easily, not least because we have been here before.
In 2023, Hamilton, driving for Mercedes, and Leclerc, for Ferrari, were disqualified at the US Grand Prix for excessive wear to the skid block, or plank as it is commonly known. The plank – not made of wood but of glass-reinforced plastic – sits beneath the car. Its purpose is simple: to prevent teams from running their cars too low, a limit imposed to maintain some control on the top speeds because the lower they run the quicker they can go. Excessive wear is a straight disqualification, there are no grey areas.
Both teams offered mitigation at the time. That the track was bumpy, that it being a sprint weekend minimised the time they had to set up the car. China, too, was a sprint weekend but no other team suffered excessive wear, while the track, just resurfaced, was praised for its smoothness, making such a miscalculation even more egregious.
It may as much have been the result of a team pushing every margin. “We have to be at the limit on every single item of the car,” the team principal, Fred Vasseur, told the Race last year. “We have to be aggressive and it’s a challenge to be at the limit of the weight, to be at the limit of the plank, to be at the limit of the cooling, to be at the limit of the fuel. It’s a challenge because in the end you are taking more and more risk.”
Vasseur and his team will be under enormous scrutiny between now and the next round in Japan in two weeks. A notable feature of his time in charge is calm, stable management. He has made a point of eliminating blame culture and ensuring the team do not swing from highs to lows, to protect team members and allow them to flourish. Those strengths, Leclerc believes, have made a huge difference.
The reaction to this setback will be key, both understanding why it happened and how to deal with it. Were the team trying too hard, aware they weren’t close enough to McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull? Was pressure applied to find solutions for a car the team admit swings in and out of the performance window according to the vagaries of its tyres? The debrief may be painful.
In the past, similar circumstances have led Ferrari into injurious internal contortions and even bloodletting so this difficult opening to the season is a tremendous test. They will need to refocus and restart but crucially remain unified. Pulling together will surely be Vasseur’s goal and doubtless Hamilton’s too.
