© Wolfgang Wilhelm for Mercedes-Benz AG
FIA Technical Director Tim Goss explains what led to the disqualification of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc after the United States Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton finished the United States Grand Prix in P2, however he was later disqualified from the race because his car failed the post-race inspection.
The cause was excessive wear on his car’s floor plank, the same issue that was also found on Charles Leclerc’s car, who was also disqualified.
This caused many fans and observers, and even some pundits, to question the FIA’s decision-making process, especially the fact that they didn’t check all of the cars for wear, after two of the four they inspected were found to be illegal.
The FIA already issued a statement explaining their post-race scrutineering process, and now the governing organization’s Technical Director Tim Gloss explains what led to the disqualification of Hamilton and Leclerc.
“We selected two cars for our post-race check and inspected those,” Gloss told Sky Sports F1.
“The check takes a while. We found they were the wrong side of the regulations and that caused us some concern.
If you like SilverArrows.Net, consider supporting us by buying us a coffee!
“What we wanted to do was try to understand whether the problem was systematic and something to do with the conditions of that race, so we decided to then select another two teams, another two cars, which happened to be Verstappen and Norris, and check those.
“After we checked those two cars and found that those two were the right side of the limit and all fine.”
Gloss also explained why the FIA believes it doesn’t make sense to check all of the cars.
“It is beyond just sticking a ruler or depth gauge into a hole and measuring a skid thickness. We actually have to disassemble part of the car and the check takes about half an hour to do.
“If we had two crews doing that, then what we are looking at is about five hours of work to check all the cars, after which you are reporting cars to the stewards.
“So then maybe the race result comes out six, seven or eight hours after the race has finished and I don’t think that is acceptable for the sport,” he concluded.
