F1 2025: Lewis Hamilton admits key mistake over Ferrari disqualification

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton admits key mistake over Ferrari disqualification

Lewis Hamilton was disqualified from the Chinese GP

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Tuesday 25 March 2025 11:58

Lewis Hamilton has admitted his team made a highly costly error after he was disqualified from the Chinese Grand Prix for excessive wear on his skid blocks.

Hamilton had initially finished the race in sixth, which was already a disappointing result considering his sprint race victory earlier in the weekend.

The ride height of Hamilton's Ferrari after that sprint race win may have been able to provide clues to the team as to how his skid blocks would wear over a full grand prix distance, but after the main race, Hamilton revealed that the team did not lift his car enough.

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His comments came before the news of his disqualification, but Hamilton revealed to Sky Sports F1: "We made other changes, but we didn't raise the car in a huge way.

"Putting all the things together it was worse, Leclerc tested some things in Bahrain that I hadn't tested and so we both went down that path which didn't go well."

Ferrari's nightmare Chinese GP

Not only was Hamilton disqualified from the race, but his team-mate Charles Leclerc was also disqualified, for a different reason.

Leclerc's car came in underweight once the race had finished, following FIA checks, and he had his fifth-place finish wiped from the record.

It meant that Ferrari's nightmare season start continued, sat down in fifth in the constructors' standings, and only Hamilton's sprint race win adding an air of respectability about their points total from the opening two events of the season.

Hamilton's comments about his ride height following the sprint race suggests that an opportunity was missed by Ferrari to ensure the seven-time champion's car was legal.

Pierre Gasly was also disqualified in the aftermath of Sunday's race due to his car also coming in underweight following routine FIA checks.

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Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Mercedes FIA Charles Leclerc Chinese Grand Prix