Charles Leclerc Gives Verdict On His Disqualification At United States Grand Prix

Saturday, 28 October 2023 at 05:30

Scuderia Ferrari F1 driver Charles Leclerc reflected on his United States Grand Prix "completely fair" disqualification.

It was a decent weekend for Charles Leclerc in Austin until he, along with Lewis Hamilton, got disqualified a few hours after the race and lost all the points.

The reason for their disqualification was the planks located on the bottom of their cars had been worn down more than the strict FIA regulations allow.

Rumors say the plank on the bottom of Leclerc's car has been only a few hundreds of a millimeter outside of regulations. The Ferrari team blamed the scratched plank on the bumpy surface of the Circuit of the Americas.

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Leclerc reacted to his disqualification during a press conference ahead of the 2023 Mexico City Grand Prix. When asked what Ferrari plans to change going forward to prevent similar mistakes, the Monegasque responded:

"It’s a very difficult question to answer, especially on a Sprint weekend, because at the end we only have one session to actually set up the ride height of the car, and once we’ve finished FP1 we are nowhere."

The unique thing about sprint weekends is drivers, and their teams have only one session to adjust and prepare their cars for the sprint weekend.

Martin Brundle recently wrote it is neither ideal nor necessary to have only one practice session ahead of the sprint weekend. Leclerc mentioned there were no signs of the car being too low following the practice session.

"The car was not touching at all, then obviously with high fuel, etc. then you get to the race, and you get disqualified for the smallest margin possible."

On the other hand, the 26-year-old admits it was fair to get disqualified after the inspection as the rules are clearly defined, and all teams know about them.