Sports
Lewis Hamilton Calls for Increased Car Checks in Formula 1 After Disqualification
Lewis Hamilton calls for increased car checks after his disqualification from the United States Grand Prix due to excessive wear on skid blocks. He believes more cars should be tested.
2 min read
Originally published by barbadostoday.bb (opens in new tab)
Lewis Hamilton says more cars should be checked after races following his disqualification from the United States Grand Prix.
The seven-time world champion lost second place in Austin, Texas because of excessive wear on his car’s skid blocks.
He believes other cars would have been caught if they had been checked.
“What’s crazy is they only test four cars, 50 per cent fail,” said the 38-year-old Mercedes driver.
“And I’ve had information from many others that were also illegal but they got away with it. That’s messed up.”
Only the cars of Hamilton, race winner Max Verstappen of Red Bull, McLaren’s Lando Norris and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc were checked for floor legality in Austin last Sunday.
Hamilton and Leclerc were both disqualified for the same technical infringement.
A number of different tests were carried out on other cars.
Norris said that if one car from a team was illegal in such a manner, then there was a high chance the other one was, too.
The floors of Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari and George Russell’s Mercedes were not checked in Austin. They were promoted to third and fifth places from fourth and seventh by the disqualifications.
Norris said: “I would love if they had checked more cars. It can always bite you. They checked mine first. It’s more [across] teams. It’s unlikely two [cars in one team] are that different. If one car is illegal then there’s a high chance the other car is.”
Hamilton, speaking on media day before this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix, said that he knew of other situations in his time in F1 where similar things had happened.
“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,” he said.
“There needs to be some form of better structure to make sure it is fair and even across the board.”
Governing body the FIA has long had a policy of carrying out random checks on cars during a race weekend and after a grand prix.
It said in a statement on Thursday that there was not time to check all cars for every possible rule infringement in the time available. (BBC)
