Why Charles Leclerc Is Out of Brazilian Grand Prix?: George Russell Precedent That Sees Ferrari Star Out of Sao Paulo GP

Charles Leclerc crashed out of the Sao Paulo GP during the formation lap and stepped out of the car. Just a few moments later, race control brought out a red flag after Kevin Magnussen and Alex Albon made contact. However, Leclerc could not rejoin the race because of the precedent George Russell set last year according to ex-Aston Martin head of strategy, Bernie Collins.

Collins took to her X account to write, “This regulation was added after RUS stopped to help ZHO in Silverstone (last year?) and is the reason LEC is out. #BrazilGP” The regulation she was referring to was Article 26.18 of the FIA’s Sporting Regulations which state that if a car is abandoned on the circuit due to mechanical issues or damage, then the driver cannot resume the race. 

At the British Grand Prix last year, Guanyu Zhou was caught in a nasty lap 1 accident that saw his Alfa Romeo turned upside down and dragged along the Lewis Hamilton straight and into the barriers. Russell, another car that was caught in the mix-up, abandoned his W13 and ran towards Zhou’s stricken Alfa to check up on him and help him get out of the debris. Since Russell got out of his car to help Zhou, he could no longer carry on in the British GP.

Coming back to Leclerc, he would be gutted today. During the formation lap, he supposedly lost the hydraulics which led to the crash. If he could’ve made it to the grid, or even the restart, he had a fantastic opportunity to at least register a podium finish which would’ve helped Ferrari’s cause massively for P2 in the Constructors’ championship.

Charles Leclerc’s retirement hands Mercedes a massive advantage

Since Charles Leclerc was starting from the front row, he was on for a good haul of points given their strategy to keep a set of fresh soft tires for the race. The compound was performing exceedingly well during Saturday’s Sprint race and would’ve given him the best shot at a podium during the main race.

However, Ferrari has now lost their opportunity to close down the gap to Mercedes. Instead, it is the Silver Arrows who now have an outstanding opportunity to wrack up enough points to put more daylight between themselves and Ferrari in the Constructors’ standings. What’s more, Lando Norris seems to have benefitted the most as he jumped three places at the start after Leclerc’s costly shunt.

Despite the loss of hydraulics, Leclerc could have possibly saved his SF-23 to start the race. Now, he has another unfortunate DNS to his name, while Mercedes bask in the glory of Ferrari’s misfortunes.