The United States Grand Prix ended with the disqualification of Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) – who had finished second and sixth, respectively. All because of irregularities in their respective cars, with the skid plate too worn out compared to the regulatory parameters.
Commentator Martin Brundle revealed on Sky Sports F1 that these were two of the cars checked for this aspect – which means that half of them were not compliant: ‘After the race, four cars were checked, including the Red Bull of [Max] Verstappen and the McLaren of [Lando] Norris. Both Hamilton’s Mercedes and Leclerc’s Ferrari were found to have excessive wear, which led to their disqualification, although the indiscretion was minimal. There can’t be a gray area in this.’
The former British driver argues that more cars should have been checked after the Austin race: ‘However, the next big question in this is, if 50 percent of the tested cars failed, shouldn’t all the ones that finished be checked? The answer has to be “yes”. It must be said that the FIA checks before and after the race are thorough. The published list includes over 50 separate and detailed checks on all the classified cars, and some on randomly selected cars.’
