F1 News: Former Manager Suspects Three More Cars Failed The Plank Test After The US GP

Cars that did first long stints were major suspects.

After Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc lost P2 and P6 as a result of disqualifications arising out of a failed plank test on their F1 cars, speculations suggest that there could have been more cars to join the disqualified list, had the FIA pulled up more cars to scrutinize after the United States Grand Prix.

The stewards carried out underside inspections on four of the cars in the top six positions in the race at the Circuit of the Americas. 

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With Leclerc and Hamilton facing the brunt for being in the top six and losing all points, former team manager Peter Windsor looked closely at the scenario and noticed that both the Ferrari and Mercedes driver's did long first stints- when they were the heaviest, which might have played a role in the excessive wear rates. 

Expressing his analytical views with examples that make a lot of sense on his post-race YouTube stream, Windsor said:

“Everybody makes mistakes, for a start.

"It’s the same for everybody – the complexity of the sprint weekend, the bumps, the wind, everything else, the same for everybody. So no excuse in that area.

"But I would like to point out one thing that I think is significant in all of this, and that is the length of the stints – particularly the first – when the cars are full of fuel and at their heaviest, and at their most prone to do damage to the skid pads.

"So stint one is a really important phase of the race if you’re going to be right on the edge of legality with the skid pads.

"Charles Leclerc did 23 laps on his first set of tyres with that off the line, with a heavy load of fuel. Daniel Ricardo, also on a one-stop strategy (originally), 22 laps.

"Lewis Hamilton, they kept him out for a long time, 20 laps, even though he was on a two-stop strategy and that was to try to get his offset when he’d be in good shape at the end of the race on the medium. So that’s why they had him do 20 laps.

"Lance Stroll, 20 laps. Nico Hulkenberg, 19 laps. Fernando Alonso, interesting, 19 laps, and he retired with a collapsed floor! Pierre Gasly, 18. Lando Norris, 17, so now you’re getting into acceptable. Carlos Sainz, 17.”

What Put Red Bull In The Safe Zone?

Windsor said that is it highly likely Red Bull did their homework properly to be aware of the plank wear problem beforehand. Hence, they pitted way earlier- Max Verstappen on lap 16 and Sergio Perez on lap 17. He continued:

“Is that homework by Red Bull that they were very aware of the problems you can have with the wear rate on the skid pads, on full tanks?

"So you run that stint as short as you can possibly run it, without obviously compromising your overall race. I think that’s what they were doing. They knew there was a potential issue and to run that stint as long as possible because, towards the end of that stint, the tyres inevitably going to be going off.

"When the tyres are going off and you’ve still got a relatively heavy load of fuel, that is when you’re going to do the most damage to the skid pads on the back of the car because the car is going to be moving a bit more. You’re still going to have very high-speed changes in direction, the car is going to be moving more, and it’s going to be doing more damage, potentially.

"So that is the time you want to eliminate. So, is it any surprise that of the cars measured – Charles Leclerc, 23, Lewis Hamilton, 20 – only Daniel Ricardo did more laps on his first stint than Hamilton?

"So, to me, you know that’s not a coincidence. That is reality and look at Verstappen with 16 laps – I think that just comes under the heading of a great preparation by Red Bull. To me, those numbers are pretty stark in terms of how short Max’s first stint was.”

High Chance Of 3 Other Cars Failing The Plank Test 

The big question remains that after a 50% fail rate, should the FIA have tested more cars for plank were? Windsor says that while the governing body acted as per the rules, the results of a larger sample size would have been intriguing. Especially on three of the cars in particular that he suspects to be in the red zone. He added:

“How many other cars were probably illegal as well?

"It’d be really interesting to see what the results would be if they’d measured Daniel Ricciardo’s. I would suspect he would have been out as well. We know Fernando Alonso’s floor completely collapsed. Lance Stroll, was not measured, but he was quite quick at the end of the race so maybe he was running pretty low!

"Pierre Gasly, who knows? Maybe or maybe not that that car would have passed, I don’t know.

"This rule testing one car from the top four has been in F1 for many, many years. It’s because they want to save time and it’d take forever to do every car. I suppose they could do a slightly larger sample [size], I guess. But that’s the rule. And that’s what they did. In my opinion, if you want to look at who else would have been in trouble, look at the length of the first stints. I suspect Daniel Ricciardo would also have had trouble, as would Nico Hulkenberg, and we know Fernando Alonso did have trouble with his floor collapse."

Another reason Windsor thinks caused high plank wear on the Mercedes car was the fact that Hamilton was much faster through the weekend, which probably hints that he was running way lower than the usual ride height. Could that have changed the equation? Windsor concluded:

“Mercedes had a quick car all weekend and was quick in both the sprint and the race.

"[Was it] because they were running lower than they should have been? And that’s why they had the grip? If you’re McLaren, you’re probably thinking poetic justice. The big question is, how much difference did all of this make?"