Hamilton and Leclerc were excluded from the result of last weekend’s race in Austin after scrutineering checks discovered that their underfloor planks had worn away by more than the 1mm that is allowed in the rulebook.
While there was no dispute that both cars were outside of the regulations, the subsequent emergence that the FIA only checked four cars in total prompted some intrigue about whether or not more competitors should have been looked at.
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Hamilton suggested ahead of the Mexico GP that he had been told by sources that “a lot” of other cars were subsequently found to be illegal, but were kept in the result because they were not checked by the FIA.
More details of exactly how events unfolded have now emerged, with the FIA’s technical director Tim Goss revealing that the original intention was to only look at Hamilton and Leclerc’s planks.
The choice of these two cars is understood to have been motivated by the way that the FIA has access to car performance data that indicates when cars are bottoming a lot, which could point to the plank being worn away.
Source: Autosport