A weekend that started with such promise ended in a nightmare for Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari. The seven-time world champion took pole position for the sprint race, which he then controlled superbly to win by almost seven seconds from McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.
Hamilton then qualified fifth for the main race, one spot ahead of Leclerc, with Ferrari hoping for a podium. However, that never looked possible as both drivers struggled. There was drama at the first corner as Leclerc damaged his front wing after making contact with the rear of Hamilton’s car. Despite the damage, Leclerc was soon hounding his teammate, with the British driver agreeing to move over.
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While the cars in front of him opted to make one stop, Hamilton gambled on two, which dropped him behind Max Verstappen. However, he couldn’t reel in the world champion, who caught and passed Leclerc for fourth place in the closing stages. Fifth and sixth was a disappointing return for the Scuderia, but it got worse when both cars were disqualified.
Hamilton was kicked out after skid blocks on his car were found to be less than the required thickness. Meanwhile, Leclerc, plus Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, were disqualified for being underweight. Here’s a round-up of the other incidents on another troubled weekend for Ferrari…
Spiky response
While Hamilton initially seemed happy to cede position to Leclerc, the switch was delayed. When race engineer Riccardo Adami advised him where to let Leclerc through, Hamilton appeared to have a change of heart, saying he had refound some pace.
When Adami asked, “Can we swap this lap now?” Hamilton replied: “I’ll tell you when we can swap”. Martin Brundle noticed the spiky nature of Hamilton's response and said: "That was Hamilton's way of saying I'm in charge around here." It was also not the first time Hamilton has bit back at his engineer, having told Amadi on multiple occasions to 'leave' him alone during the Australian Grand Prix.
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The switch was eventually made, with Leclerc’s engineer apologising for the delay. After the race, team principal Frederic Vasseur was nonplussed when Viaplay told the Frenchman that Hamilton wasn’t happy with the order.
The Frenchman pointed out that it was Hamilton who made the suggestion. He said: “The first call came from Lewis. He proposed to swap. You have to listen to the full story. It’s not an issue at all.”
Vasseur walks out
In a more light-hearted exchange with a reporter, a smiling Vasseur walked away when asked to explain the meaning behind a message from Adami to Hamilton after he took sprint pole.
The Italian's choice of words was either "Santiago" or "San Diego", a code word for P1, with Hamilton immediately understanding the meaning and giggling before questioning: "Really?".
Sky Sports reporter Ted Kravitz later questioned Vasseur about the meaning behind the radio message, only for the Ferrari boss to say: "Ciao, ciao" and walk away.
Mercedes perplex Leclerc
George Russell was the biggest threat to the dominant McLarens of Piastri and Lando Norris. As he tried to keep pace with Russell, Leclerc was surprised by the pace and traction of the Mercedes.
He said over the radio: “The Mercedes is a dragster out of turn 12, unbelievable. The traction they have is unbelievable.” That won’t be what Hamilton wants to hear following his seismic decision to leave the Silver Arrows for the Scuderia.
Leclerc later clarified that he felt Mercedes were only quicker in certain parts of the track, including the long turn 12, which leads onto the back straight and best overtaking opportunity.
Hamilton not at fault
The unwritten F1 rule of never colliding with your teammate was broken by the Ferrari drivers. As Hamilton swept across the track to take his line into turn two, he made contact with Leclerc’s front wing, damaging its end plate.
However, Leclerc, who carried on with the damage at a reasonable pace, insisted it was a racing incident. He said: “Honestly, it’s not Lewis’s fault at all. I was around the inside trying to position the car for turn three, Lewis didn’t know I was there - I didn’t think Lewis would come back to the apex. It’s a racing incident, it’s not the first of last time it will happen. Shame it happened between the two red cars.”
Hamilton rues ‘terrible’ changes
Hamilton’s pace and brilliant tyre management in the sprint should have boded well for the main event. However, his Ferrari looked like a different car on Sunday as he struggled home in sixth before being disqualified.
With teams allowed to make minor set-up changes between the sprint race and the grand prix, Hamilton said the team went in the wrong direction. Speaking before his disqualification, he said: “Balance-wise, from the sprint race we made these changes and the car was terrible after that. I really struggled with the car from then on.”
Ferrari hold hands up for double DQ
Having both cars kicked out of the race is a major embarrassment for Ferrari. Explaining how they fell foul of the rules, the team admitted it was their fault in a statement: “Charles was on a one-stop strategy today and this meant his tyre wear was very high, causing the car to be underweight.
“With regard to Lewis' skid wear, we misjudged the consumption by a small margin. There was no intention to gain any advantage. We will learn from what happened today and make sure we don't make the same mistakes again. Clearly, it's not the way we wanted to end our Chinese GP weekend, neither for ourselves, nor for our fans whose support for us is unwavering."