After finishing second in the United States Grand Prix on Sunday, Lewis Hamilton was later disqualified by the FIA for driving an illegal car, according to a spot-check review.
Lewis Hamilton, who was disqualified from the US Grand Prix on Sunday, thinks more cars ought to be inspected after competitions.
The seven-time world champion placed second in the previous race, putting on one of Mercedes’ best performances since the Constructors’ Championship victory in 2021. However, Hamilton was disqualified and had to return his runners-up trophy.
Hamilton’s car was declared illegal during a post-race review for excessive wear on the underfloor skid blocks. It was a frustrating climax to the Brit’s race weekend after finishing in P2, a result that’s hard to achieve due to the dominance of Red Bull.
Hamilton’s car was only reviewed because of a spot check. The Mercedes icon believes all cars should be reviewed after races to ensure the process is equal. He thinks that “far more” cars would’ve been found illegal if all 20 were checked last Sunday.
What’s crazy is they only test four cars, 50 cent fail,” said Hamilton ahead of this Sunday’s Mexican Grand Prix. “And I’ve had information from many others that were also illegal but they got away with it. That’s messed up.”
He added: “There have been many other scenarios like this where some people have got away with certain things and some people have got unlucky and got tested. There needs to be some form of better structure to make sure it is fair and even across the board.”
Charles Leclerc of Ferrari was also disqualified from the race on Sunday due to the same infraction. Lando Norris saw his McLaren examined but was given the all clear. He has since questioned why Carlos Sainz of Ferrari and George Russell of Mercedes were not also looked into.
“I would love it if they had checked more cars,” stated Norris. It can bite you at any time. First, they examined mine. There are more teams (total). Two cars in a team are probably not that different from one another. There’s a good probability the other car is also illegal if the first one is.”
There isn’t enough time, according to the FIA, to inspect all 20 cars. The body that oversees Formula 1 stated: “The process is in place to guarantee adherence to the rules because the teams are unaware prior to the race of the precise areas of the cars that may be inspected in addition to the routine inspections that are performed on each vehicle every weekend.
Even with extensive inspections, it is not possible to cover every aspect of every car in the limited time allotted. This is particularly true on consecutive race weekends when freight deadlines must also be taken into account.
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