Charles Leclerc breaks silence after his disqualification from the F1 Chinese GP

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc acknowledged that the Chinese Grand Prix weekend was "really tough" for him as he and his teammate Lewis Hamilton were disqualified at the end of the race. The Italian team showed some promise at the Shanghai International Circuit when Hamilton dominated the Sprint part of the weekend after taking pole position in Sprint qualifying and racing to his first Sprint win.

Leclerc, on the other hand, was just a tad bit slower than his teammate and finished the event in P5. In qualifying as well, it was the seven-time F1 world champion who was ahead of Leclerc as they locked out the third row for the main race.

However in the main race despite his front wing endplate damage, it was the eight-time F1 race winner who had the pace advantage on Hamilton. Charles Leclerc was let past by Lewis Hamilton in his bid to chase Mercedes driver George Russell for P3. But the Monegasque was unable to do so and ultimately finished in P5 after getting overtaken by Max Verstappen late in the race.

On his social media platform, Leclerc reflected on his difficult Chinese GP weekend and said:

"Last weekend was really tough. We’ve got to reset and work hard to turn the situation around in Japan and I’m sure we will. A big thank you though to the amount of support you gave me during the weekend, it always surprises me to have such support in China and it means a lot."

At the end of the race, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were disqualified from the main race as their respective cars failed post-race FIA checks.

Ferrari issues statement on Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton's DSQ in China

Ferrari stated that Charles Leclerc was found guilty of running an underweight car while his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, had excessive plank wear, which led to their DSQs from the Chinese GP.

In its statement to F1.com, the Prancing Horses said:

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

"With regard to Lewis’ skid wear, we misjudged the consumption by a small margin. There was no intention to gain any advantage. We will learn from what happened today and make sure we don’t make the same mistakes again," the statement added.

Leclerc currently lies P10 in the drivers' standings with eight points, one point behind Hamilton after two races and one Sprint in the 2025 season.