Charles Leclerc finished in fifth place despite picking up early front-wing damage in the Chinese Grand Prix, having overtaken Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton.
It is the second Grand Prix that Leclerc has finished ahead of Hamilton, after he beat him last time out in Melbourne, although the latter did manage to win Ferrari’s first race this year when he took victory in the Chinese GP Sprint.
Leclerc started from sixth on the grid and made a move on the inside of Hamilton at Turn 2, but the Briton cut across the front of his car and damaged his front wing. It was the second race in a row that the pair had made contact at the start.
With Leclerc missing 20 to 30 points of downforce because of the broken endplate, Ferrari was worried that it would impact his ability to conserve tyres on a high degradation circuit.
It would go on to be less of an issue than they thought, however, Karun Chandhok has revealed what engineers from rival teams were telling him about the front wing on the Ferrari when speaking on Sky Sports.
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What Karun Chandhok was told about Charles Leclerc’s front wing
There has been increased focus on wings heading into the Chinese GP weekend after the FIA announced they were bringing forward checks to the rear wings, following concerns from teams that some were flexing outside of the permitted amount.
Front wings are also checked for flexibility with load tests, although all teams passed these tests heading into the race. Chandhok was told by some engineers by rival teams what they thought about Leclerc’s wing when seeing how it performed with the damage.
“One thing that a few engineers have said to me just walking back to the podium, and caveated by saying ‘Don’t quote me on it’ is they all thought the wing was flexing a bit more,” said Chandhok.
“You could see it was getting closer to the ground and producing a bit more downforce. If you see the left side, it was very close to the ground. Legally you can’t design a car without the endplates, so they can’t just take them off. They were very lucky that Lewis didn’t get a puncture at that first corner.”
Charles Leclerc under threat from disqualification after being found underweight
Leclerc’s fifth place could be under threat after the FIA technical delegate found his car to be 1kg under weight during their post-race scrutineering checks.
The Ferrari driver was already underweight slightly because of the front wing damage, however, the FIA used spare parts of the same specification to make up for the weight deficit.
After Leclerc’s car was drained of fuel, they found that he weighed in a 799kg which is 1kg under the minimum 800kg weight.
Pierre Gasly was also found to be underweight by the same amount, with both drivers being summoned to the stewards for the technical breach.
Technical breaches of the regulations normally result in disqualifications, as what happened with George Russell at the 2024 Belgian GP.
