Why the cost of Ferrari’s Chinese GP disqualification still lingers

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur says the Scuderia is still leaving a “margin of safety” more than half a season after Lewis Hamilton’s Chinese Grand Prix disqualification.

New Ferrari signing Hamilton had a weekend of contrasting halves at the Shanghai International Circuit where he raced from lights to flag to claim the Sprint win only to be disqualified from the grand prix.

Ferrari team boss: There is no magic

Hamilton took the chequered flag in sixth place but was disqualified when his SF-25 failed post-race scrutiny due to excessive plank wear.

“The plank assembly of Car 44 was measured and found to be 8.6mm (LHS), 8.6mm (car centerline), and 8.5mm (RHS). This is below the minimum thickness of 9mm specified under Article 3.5.9 of the Technical Regulations,” read the stewards’ ruling.

In a double blow for Ferrari, the sister SF-25 was also disqualified as Charles Leclerc’s car was disqualified for being underweight.

Ferrari took action with Hamilton confirming in Japan, where he was seventh at the line, that it had a “knock-on effect” and Ferrari was “running higher than we would like”.

But while Vasseur downplayed it at the time, saying all teams struggled with ride height with the ground-effect aerodynamic cars, he recently admitted to Auto Motor und Sport that it has continued to be an issue for Ferrari.

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“The disqualification threw us off track a bit,” he told the publication. “We had to leave ourselves a margin of safety in terms of ground clearance.

“As we all know, these car are extremely sensitive to ground clearance. Every millimetre is a position on the grid. If you don’t have full control over the height of the car, it will affect the competitiveness of the car.

“Everything revolves around the stability of the aerodynamic platform. For two years now, we have been looking much more at good drivability and predictability than at pure downforce.

“You want to bring out the fluctuations in downforce that occur when the wheels turn, the car rolls or nods off.”

The Frenchman concedes the Chinese Grand Prix DSQs upset Ferrari’s development plan for the season.

“At the beginning of the season, we had a lot of problems with the handling at the racetrack. There were quality problems, then the disqualifications,” he said. “We lost the thread a bit.

“So much depends on details. If you focus on the wrong things, you’ll immediately and massively lose ground.”

Six races remaining before the end of the championship, Ferrari is in a fight between Mercedes and Red Bull to feature on the season’s podium along with 2025 Constructors’ Champions, McLaren.

Ferrari has 298 points on the board, 27 less than Mercedes and eight ahead of Red Bull.

“If I ever believed we had reached our goal, it would be the beginning of the end,” Vasseur declared of Ferrari’s progress. “McLaren is doing a fantastic job. But it’s not like they have some secret weapon that gives them three-tenths. Rather ten ranges, each of which brings 20 milliseconds.

“We have to maintain our approach that we have to get better in all disciplines. It would be naïve to believe that any person will suddenly bring us a miracle. There is no magic.

“We are on the right track.”

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