Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes react to shock disqualification from United States Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton said he was “disappointed” after his shock disqualification from the United States Grand Prix – while Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admitted “we got it wrong”.
Hamilton finished the race in second, behind race winner Max Verstappen, but was later disqualified alongside Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc for breaching the rules governing the floor of their cars.
Following a plank wear inspection, personnel from both Mercedes and Ferrari were summoned to see the stewards and, just after 7pm local time in Austin and more than three hours after the race finished, their disqualification was confirmed.
Hamilton therefore loses the 18 points earned from his second-place finish, while Leclerc loses eight points for finishing sixth.
In a Mercedes press release, Wolff explained how Mercedes fell foul of the rules. “Turning to the race result and the disqualification, set-up choices on a sprint weekend are always a challenge with just one hour of free practice – and even more so at a bumpy circuit like COTA and running a new package,” he said.
“In the end, all of that doesn’t matter; others got it right where we got it wrong and there’s no wiggle room in the rules.
“We need to take it on the chin, do the learning, and come back stronger next weekend.”
The FIA note reveals that the cars of Verstappen and Lando Norris (who moves up to second from third in the final classification) were also inspected, but passed the checks.
Hamilton said: “It is of course disappointing to be disqualified post-race but that doesn’t take away from the progress we’ve made this weekend.”
The change in race classification means Logan Sargeant earned his first point in F1, becoming the first American to score a point in 30 years.
Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin, meanwhile, admitted the team needed to “go away and learn from this”.
“We are, of course, naturally very disappointed to lose our podium finish,” he said.
“Unfortunately, it is one of the pitfalls of the sprint format where we have a solitary hour of running before parc fermé.
“Without running at a race fuel load in FP1, combined with a circuit as bumpy as this and the parts of the track where the drivers have to put the car during the Grand Prix, have contributed to the higher than expected wear levels.
“We will go away and learn from this but also take the positives from our experience as a whole.”
F1 rolls on to Mexico this weekend for the second race in a triple-header, with the final sprint weekend in Brazil to follow.
Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were both disqualified from Sunday’s race
