Lewis Hamilton drove a mega race at the Circuit of the Americas. Yes, the 2023 United States Grand Prix certainly gave fans a lot of hope – that Max Verstappen’s Red Bull might well be challenged in the near future.
However, several hours post-race (when most fans were asleep!) the FIA deemed that Hamilton’s Mercedes was illegal – as it had excessive plank wear than permitted in the regulations. As a result, Hamilton was disqualified and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc joined him on this list.
In this episode of the Inside Line F1 Podcast, Soumil Arora, @f1statsguru and Kunal Shah discuss the 2023 United States GP. The Sprint weekend did make it tough for the teams to fine tune their setup – in fact, four out of ten teams had setup issues.
Haas & Aston Martin chose to start from the pit lane while Mercedes and Ferrari were too low and faced disqualification.
But why does the FIA conduct post-race checks? How do they choose what cars to check and what do they eventually check? This topic is fairly technical but Soumil-@f1statsguru do well to explain the situation.
Finally, the disqualifications saw a significant change in the final race result and the drivers who ended up scoring points. After 18 races in his debut season, Logan Sargeant finally scored his first race point!
We are probably Lance Stroll’s biggest critics, but credit where it’s due – from the pit lane to the points is always a super result, especially when there are no mid-race interruptions.
There’s a lot packed into this show, enjoy it!
(Season 2023, Episode 56)
Follow our hosts on Twitter: Soumil Arora, @f1statsguru and Kunal Shah
Image courtesy: Mercedes
