F1 News: Drivers Call For Detailed Checks After US GP -"Might Have Been Illegal"

Should the FIA have investigated more cars after a 50% fail rate?

With two of the four cars failing to pass the plank test after the Austin Grand Prix, questions are being raised by the F1 drivers whether the FIA should have made further checks on some of the other cars, especially after taking into account a 50% fail rate. 

The saga ensued after Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were disqualified from the US GP because the skid blocks on their cars were found to have excessive wear beyond the permitted limit. Two other cars belonging to Lando Norris and Max Verstappen were also checked but they were given a clean chit.

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Following the disqualifications, many raised questions on whether the FIA should have checked more cars after taking into account the 50% pass-to-fail ratio in their findings. 

On the Mexican Grand Prix media day, many drivers were asked if they would have preferred to see more cars being tested for plank wear as more disqualifications would mean more promotions for the 'legal ones' to higher positions. 

The Drivers Have Their Say

Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg responded by saying:

“I might have been illegal myself.

"You never know. Obviously, these cars are incredibly sensitive to ride height – the lower you get, the more downforce you get, that’s the constant fight we have and we need to find the right balance.

"Austin is a bit specific with the bumpiness and also with a lot of apex and exit kerbs where you can run them quite aggressively but you do use the plank and wear down those shims a lot. So maybe there’s something to be looked at in a different way.”

Championship leader Max Verstappen revealed that Red Bull was running their cars higher to remain in the safe zone. He said:

“Because of the sprint weekend, you only had one session to make sure that you try and be as close to the limit as possible.

"Sometimes it can catch you out. From our side, we did run the car a little bit too high, just to be safe. Definitely, that cost a bit of performance. We know that, when we drop the car, you go faster. If you go below the limits, you go even faster.”

Pierre Gasly revealed that the Sprint setup took away a lot of their time and finding the correct ride height became a challenge. He added:

“There are a couple of things that we could do to improve what’s happened in Austin, I think, starting with the sprint weekend where we only got one FP1 session on such a track.

"You’re doing 15 laps with quite a low amount of fuel in the car. To get a gauge of what you’re gonna get for the next 70 laps with qualifying, a sprint race, compete a full Grand Prix of 59 laps with a lot of fuel – we were going pretty much blind after FP1 with very little information on where to base yourself. I think it’s a tricky thing.

"Probably we can improve that process and give us more time to readjust if needed. I just remember my karting days when all top three cars were always checked. Whenever you finished on the podium, there would be checks every single time and then, on top of that, there would be random checks running down the order.

"I think it’s only in F1 where it’s not a standard to check all top three cars, but it was tricky and I think the sprint format made it even more tricky, considering we have a short amount of time to set the car up.”

McLaren driver Lando Norris agreed more cars should have been checked. He added:

“Yeah, they should have done.

"My car was fine, they checked mine first.

"It’s more teams, I guess. If one team has one car, it’s unlikely that two cars are that different. If one car is illegal, then [there’s] a high chance that the other car is but it’s the way it went. The stewards did their job, which was a good thing.”

Alex Albon sided with Gasly's views, saying that the illegal car's teammate should have been checked. He concluded:

“What the teams have in terms of data and information to set the ride heights for the weekend is very marginal.

"There’s not even really enough time to fill the cars up in FP1 just to get a feel for where they need to be.

"But on the same side, maybe you don’t need to check every car, every race, all the time but if there’s one driver in one team illegal, there’s a very, very high chance that the teammate of that driver is going to be illegal as well.

"I don’t know how much it would take to check a couple more cars, but I don’t think that would be such an issue. But I don’t know, I’m not a scrutineer.”