Former Red Bull man reacts to Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc's double disqualification in the F1 Chinese GP

Former Red Bull mechanic Calum Nicholas believes that FIA has zero tolerance for issues such as plank wear and cars being underweight which led to Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc getting disqualified from the Chinese GP on the weekend. It was a tough race for the Italian team as both Hamilton and Leclerc lacked the pace that they displayed in the Sprint race when they finished P1 and P4 respectively.

The Monegasque had to deal with the dirty air from George Russell's car after swapping his position with Hamilton along with his front wing endplate damage. The seven-time F1 world champion had balancing issues which resulted in him stopping for an extra pit stop due to high tire degradation.

The multiple issues resulted in Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finishing in P5 and P6 respectively at the end of the race. However, both drivers were disqualified after failing FIA's post-race checks as the governing body found Leclerc guilty of having an underweight car by 1 kg and Hamilton of excessive plank wear by a couple of millimeters.

The margins for disqualifications were minute but Nicholas, who previously worked as a Senior Power Unit Assembly Technician at Red Bull for almost a decade, on his social media platform X gave his take on the FIA's decisions, saying:

"The margins on plank wear are tiny. But they’re also one of the things, like weight, that the FIA are zero tolerance for. Scrutineers will find loads of odd bits and bobs that aren’t perfect over the course of the season and give teams fair opportunity to sort them out. But some things, there’s really no wiggle room."

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc had scored a combined 18 points in the race for their efforts but were stripped of them following the DSQ.

---

Lewis Hamilton reflects on his overall positive weekend in China

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton admitted that it was a "tough" race for him on Sunday but believed he had a "positive weekend" owing to his pole in Sprint Qualifying and Sprint win with the Italian team.

As per F1.com, the 40-year-old reflected on his weekend and said:

"Tough day but a positive weekend overall and we’ve made some good progress since Melbourne. We tried some new setup changes for qualifying and the race that didn’t work out, but that’s a learning we can take with us moving forward."

"I got a good start off the line but started to struggle with pace as the race continued, so suggested swapping with Charles to try and maximize our opportunities as a team. The two-stop strategy helped find some good pace towards the final few laps but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to gain places," he added.

Following the DSQ, Lewis Hamilton sits in P9 in the driver's championship with nine points a point ahead of his teammate Charles Leclerc, who is in P10.