Lewis Hamilton disqualification sparked major Ferrari fears at Hungarian GP

Ferrari’s loss of pace towards the end of the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday could have been sparked by fears relating to Lewis Hamilton’s disqualification earlier this year in China.

The seven-time world champion was disqualified from the grand prix in Shanghai when the skid block underneath his Ferrari was found to be below the minimum 9mm thickness required.

Throughout the 2025 season, Ferrari have been unable to run their SF-25 low to the ground, in a bid to avoid excessive wear on this plank underneath the car and prevent a disqualification.

Originally at the Hungarian GP, Leclerc demonstrated impressive pace, where he claimed pole position and managed to fend off Oscar Piastri for most of the race distance.

However, from lap 40 Leclerc reported pace problems with his Ferrari and eventually succumbed to George Russell from behind, who claimed the final spot on the podium.

Speaking to the media after the Hungarian GP, Russell hinted that the Ferrari slowed down during the race to prevent wear to the underneath of Leclerc’s car, based on what he could deduce from behind.

"He's not going to tell you that they're close to being illegal,” Russell said.

“That's the only thing we can think of based upon the lap times and the engine mode they were running and stuff like that, but nevertheless, really pleased with the result.”

Russell comments spark Ferrari disqualification fears

In his own post-race interview, Leclerc blamed the chassis for Ferrari’s lack of pace towards the end of grand prix, and did not mention any fears in regards to the excessive wear underneath the car.

“From around Lap 40 we had a problem with the chassis, so now I’ve had more details about it,” Leclerc said.

“In the car obviously I had no idea what was going on. I mean I had an idea, but it was a wrong idea because I thought it was something that was in our control.

“Unfortunately we had an issue on the chassis, so I don’t have much to add on that. It’s just extremely frustrating when you are fighting for a win and when we had the pace that we had at the beginning of the race, and we lose absolutely everything later on, it’s very frustrating.”

In the end, Leclerc had to settle for fourth in a disappointing weekend for the pole-sitter, who also served a five-second time penalty for driving erratically in his battle with Russell.

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