A week ago, terrible strategy calls led to Ferrari finishing the first race of the year with their worst result in a long time. The team assured that the race was an outlier and that the SF-25 was capable of much more than it had shown. While the claims seemed to be confirmed when Lewis Hamilton won the sprint race on Saturday, the success was not the end of the team’s troubles.
After Saturday’s qualifying, Hamilton and his teammate, Charles Leclerc, were set to begin the Grand Prix on the third row, behind two McLarens, a Red Bull, and a Mercedes. Their start was good as both Ferrari cars managed to overtake Verstappen and move a step closer to the lead. Leclerc’s race was in slight jeopardy after he made slight contact with Hamilton and suffered damage to his front wing. Despite losing one of his endplates, he was able to continue without pitting for a new nose.
The two Ferraris stayed close together and pitted at a similar time. With new hard tires on, Leclerc moved closer to Hamilton. Since he was clearly the quicker of the two, team orders were issued. Hamilton had to give his position to his teammate so that Leclerc could go on to try and catch George Russell. Despite getting within the Mercedes’ DRS, the Monegasque wasn’t able to overtake him. After a few laps of pushing, he fell away from his opponent.
While most drivers in the front decided only to pit once throughout the race, Hamilton opted for a two-stopper. The decision dropped him behind the Red Bull of Verstappen. Although he was much quicker on his fresher tires, he wasn’t quick enough to catch up to the car in front of him. This also gave Verstappen the chance to get closer to Leclerc, who he managed to overtake on lap 53 out of 56. The Ferraris ended the race 5th and 6th.
After the race ended, standard checks were performed on the cars. This time, discrepancies were found in three cars: the two Ferraris and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly.
For Leclerc and Gasly, the issue was the weight of their cars. After Leclerc returned to the pits, his car weighed exactly 800 kilograms, the minimum required weight. After two liters of fuel were drained from it, it dropped below the threshold. A parallel situation could be seen in the Alpine.
For Hamilton, the issue was different. The rear skid block on his car was under the minimum thickness of 9 millimeters. It was measured to be between 8.5 and 8.6 millimeters at its different points. Ferrari admitted that it was a genuine mistake by the team.
Due to the infringements, the results of all three drivers were taken away. Neither of the two teams involved added any points to their tally.
The double disqualification was a hard blow to the already struggling team. Despite the success in the sprint, Ferrari is quite a few points away from McLaren, Red Bull, and Mercedes. After two full race weekends, the team only has 17 points and is 5th in the standings.
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