Fred Vasseur and Co. Avoid US GP Repeat After Random Check on Charles Leclerc’s Car Found It Compliant of Regulations

On 23rd October 2023, Lewis Hamilton posted a collaborative picture with Charles Leclerc captioned “Mood”. In the said picture, the future teammates are seen sitting in the US GP press conference in a rather glum mood. While the picture was taken before the ‘disaster’, it was posted later. What was the disaster? Leclerc and Hamilton were stripped off of their podium finishes because their cars failed the post-race plank check test. However, Ferrari has seemingly pulled up its socks to avoid it this year.

The wooden plank, also known as a skid block, is a long piece of wood that is attached to the bottom of an F1 car. FIA mandated these wooden planks as it would help the governing body during the post-race inspection. The skid block helps impose a minimum ground clearance for the F1 cars, to make sure that teams do not run their car too low. If they do, then the cars are in violation. This was the violation for which Leclerc and Hamilton were punished. But Ferrari has avoided this completely this season.

According to Formula Passion, Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari SF-24 number #16 was subjected to more in-depth technical checks in addition to the usual ones. The checks concerned the suspensions, the power unit air intake, and the cooling system. On Leclerc’s Ferrari, however, attention was focused on the flexibility of the car floor, on the assembly and thickness of the skid block (the skid block), and on all the components of the rear wing whose flexibility was verified. All the components in question were found to comply with the technical sporting regulations (otherwise the disqualification could have been triggered).

Even if Leclerc has escaped this problem, another might crop up because of Ferrari signing Lewis Hamilton.

“This will be make or break for Charles,” Ex-F1 champ sends out a chilling warning for Ferrari’s future

Lewis Hamilton shocked the whole world, including his team Mercedes, when he decided to embrace red from the next season. He said that just like every driver, being a Ferrari driver was his childhood dream as well. Now that the most shocking move of our generation has sunk in, one is bound to wonder how this will pan out for Charles Leclerc, who is still fighting for wins and one day a championship win with and for Ferrari. Former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve answers that for us.

“He still has to prove it,” 1997 F1 world champion Villeneuve told GPFans. “He’s shown a lot of speed, he’s shown that he’s super fast, but he’s not the one who won the race for Ferrari last year. So it will be interesting to see how that balances out inside Ferrari. This will be make or break for Charles, not for Lewis.”

What are your predictions for this new pairing?