F1 News: No Plank Wear Checks In Mexico Despite Austin GP Controversy

No skid block checks mean no disqualifications.

Just a week after the controversial Austin Grand Prix ending that saw the disqualification of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc by the FIA because their cars had excessive skid block wear, the governing body checked zero cars in Mexico. 

That is because checking skid blocks on the F1 cars is not always a part of the FIA's scrutineering process. If you look at the history, the last time the planks were checked prior to Austin was in Singapore. 

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However, many could find it a surprise that the FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer did not search any of the cars for plank wear after the Mexico GP, considering the 50% fail rate of the entire grid after the United States Grand Prix. 

One could attribute the governing body not checking the plank wear in Mexico to the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit's low downforce nature. On the other hand, tracks like Austin and Singapore, which are regarded as medium to high downforce tracks cause the planks on the F1 cars to deteriorate a lot faster. 

By that logic, the governing body might skip the plank test next weekend as well since the track in Brazil is also known to be a low downforce one. But one may ask why the plank test was omitted in Qatar despite the track being high downforce.

The answer might be found in a report run by Sky F1 which suggested that the vertical oscillating data of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc during the race in Austin pushed Bauer to investigate their cars alongside the cars of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. 

But with Toto Wolff revealing that Mercedes would continue to run a lower car, many assumed the Brackley outfit would be pulled up again for the same reason in Mexico. The Mercedes team principal had told Sky Sports F1:

“I would take the same thing and I would also take the disqualification because we got it wrong.

"I take the disqualification running for a race win and see the performance, against running P3 and ending 25 seconds adrift.

"Every day of the week I would go for the disqualification.”