Ferrari suffered a massive blow in round two of the 2025 season when Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were disqualified from the Chinese GP due to discrepancies with their cars. Hamilton’s skid plank had excessive wear, while Leclerc’s car was a kilo underweight.
Ferrari didn’t contest the decision. Shortly after the FIA handed down its verdict, the team admitted to making mistakes and assured that measures would be taken to prevent a recurrence.
Team Statement pic.twitter.com/BdV24Y3cFV
— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) March 23, 2025
It’s still early in the season, but the errors made in Shanghai could prove costly. Ferrari lost 22 points, dropping them to P5 in the Championship standings—behind Williams—despite Hamilton winning the Sprint on Saturday.
Ferrari has been notorious for such mistakes and often criticized by fans and experts over the years. In 2023, Leclerc suffered a disqualification from the US GP because of excessive plank wear.
And it looks like they’ve not learned from the last. So when former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner appeared on the Red Flags podcast, the first question he was asked was, “Who is getting fired from Ferrari for making this huge blunder?”
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton are now the first Ferrari teammates to be disqualified in the same race. pic.twitter.com/C1rrpG05Ei
— Daniel Valente ️ (@F1GuyDan) March 23, 2025
Steiner replied, “We need to ask Fred who he is going to fire.”
The Italian-American further explained how it is usually the responsibility of the chief race engineer to ensure that a car meets the minimum requirements of the FIA in post-race checks. “They give you the weight, they give you the spectrum,” he added.
Ferrari’s element of misfortune
While Steiner believes the race engineer was responsible for the mistake, he also expressed sympathy. Teams always leave a margin to avoid falling underweight, but they also push the limits. As a result, Ferrari’s engineers cannot be blamed too harshly for their misjudgment, especially since everyone expected the Chinese GP to be a two-stop race.
He then addressed Hamilton’s disqualification despite making two stops, attributing it to excessive plank wear likely caused by the car’s ride height. With only one practice session during the Chinese GP weekend, he suggested Ferrari may not have had enough time to determine the optimal ride height for their cars.
With F1 now on a one-week break before the Japanese GP, Ferrari will aim to analyze their mistakes from China and ensure they don’t repeat them.
