The problem came to a head a week later in China, where Leclerc\u2019s team-mate Lewis Hamilton was disqualified for excessive skid-block wear just 24 hours after dominating the sprint race in Shanghai. Leclerc himself was also disqualified after his car was found to be underweight.<\/p>\n
Fred Vasseur, the Ferrari team principal, admitted for the first time earlier this week<\/a> that the Scuderia has been forced to leave a \u201csafety margin\u201d with the car\u2019s ride height in the months since the Chinese Grand Prix in a bid to avoid a repeat.<\/p>\n George Russell closing in on new Mercedes contract for F1 2026 and beyond<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49\u00a0George Russell set to sign multi-year contract extension with Mercedes<\/a><\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49\u00a0F1 driver contracts: What is the contract status of every driver on the F1 2025 grid?<\/a><\/p>\n It emerged after the Austrian Grand Prix that Ferrari has been instructing Leclerc and Hamilton to lift and coast<\/a> at the end of straights to stop the floor being dragged along the track surface at maximum load.<\/p>\n It was hoped that a major rear-suspension upgrade<\/a> introduced at last month\u2019s Belgian Grand Prix (below) would go some way to rectifying the SF-25\u2019s ride-height issues.<\/p>\n Yet after claiming the team\u2019s first pole position of the season and dominating the first half of the race, Leclerc suffered a mysterious loss of pace in the final stint in Hungary, ultimately finishing a distant fourth.<\/p>\n Russell claimed after the race in Budapest<\/a> that Ferrari may have been forced to increase Leclerc\u2019s tyre pressures and turn to a more conservative engine setting for the last stint in order to protect the skid blocks.<\/p>\n The Mercedes driver added that Leclerc\u2019s car was \u201cclose to being illegal\u201d before the desperate measures were introduced for the final stint of the race.<\/p>\n Writing in a column for the Telegraph<\/a>, former Jordan technical boss Anderson has dismissed Russell\u2019s claims, pointing out that there are more efficient methods for teams to manage plank-wear concerns.<\/p>\n Anderson said: \u201cWhat Russell suggested is a bit wacky and far-fetched in my opinion.<\/p>\n \u201cA team would not reduce performance in this way just to stop plank wear. There are numerous other, better and less dramatic solutions.<\/p>\n \u201cFirstly, you would change the setup of the car, running the rear of the car stiffer or raising the ride height slightly to reduce plank wear.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, there will be a performance loss but not to the extent we saw after his last stop.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it comes to tyre pressures, again, it seems unlikely.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you put the rear tyre pressures up you are guaranteed to lose performance from the rear tyres overheating.<\/p>\n \u201cDoing this on a track where traction is absolutely critical is crazy.<\/p>\n \u201cAs we have seen in the past, Ferrari make some strange decisions but I do not for one second think that Russell is on to anything here.<\/p>\n \u201cThese changes are too much of a compromise.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cSomething obviously happened with the car and it is not about engine mode or tyre pressure.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is clearly a bit borderline and it might be the same thing that has been hurting Hamilton.<\/p>\n \u201cLeclerc said it was an unspecified chassis problem after the race. Something can break or stop working correctly on a car, yes, but that happens once in a blue moon.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s impossible to know what this was without further information from Ferrari.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Ferrari](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Ferrari-SF-25-rear-suspension-comparison-410x424.jpg\")
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