Lewis Hamilton’s disqualification from the Chinese Grand Prix has prompted a call to change the FIA’s rules. The champion was disqualified from Sunday’s race after Hamilton’s plank underneath the car was found to have excessive wear 0.5mm below the minimum thickness of the 9mm mandated by the FIA’s regulations. Hamilton was found to be in breach of Article 3.5.9 of the technical regulations, which earnt the 40-year-old an instant disqualification after Ferrari confirmed it was a genuine error. However, former Ferrari driver Rene Arnoux believes that the punishment was too severe, and called for the FIA to relax the rules when it came to breaches as miniscule as skid block wear.
Should the FIA relax their rules after Hamilton disqualification?
“I exclude that there was any intention to cheat. If Leclerc’s car had been 10 kg underweight, if the irregularity on Hamilton’s had been more obvious, we could talk about it. But like this? We are talking trivial details, evidently accidental,” Arnoux said to La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“Undoubtedly, it cannot be disregarded. particularly considering that weight is a basic component.
It would be wise to establish a range within which inconsistencies result in a first warning; the actual sanction only applies the second time you violate the rule, though, if everything is so complicated, if millimetres are all that is needed to alter performance, and if maintaining control is so challenging.
“A disqualification is too harsh, and it affects not only the team and the driver who receives it, but the entire championship.”
Following the discovery that his Ferrari was 1 kg underweight, Charles Leclerc was also eliminated from the Chinese Grand Prix, and Pierre Gasly of Alpine was also eliminated for the same reason.
