Ferrari issue statement after Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton are disqualified in China

“Following the FIA post-race scrutineering both our cars were found not to conform to the regulations for different reasons,” Ferrari said following the confirmation of both disqualifications.

“Car 16 was found to be underweight by 1kg and car 44’s rearward skid wear was found to be 0.5mm below the limit.

“Charles [Leclerc] was on a one-stop strategy today and this meant his tyre wear was very high, causing the car to be underweight.”

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Pirelli had initially predicted a two-stop race in China, with many of the field following that strategy. But tyre degradation was lower than expected on Sunday, leading to many of the front runners pitting just the once.

This has happened in F1 before, such as when George Russell was disqualified from the Belgian Grand Prix last season after changing to a one-stop strategy during the race. He took the chequered flag as the winner, but subsequently his Mercedes was found to be underweight.

Hamilton and Leclerc were also both disqualified from the US Grand Prix back in 2023 – for Mercedes and Ferrari respectively – when their cars were found to be in breach after a plank wear inspection was conducted.