The possible outcomes of Hamilton and Leclerc's Austin F1 DSQ

OPINION: Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were both disqualified from the US Grand Prix for an infraction that had not been penalised in almost 30 years. But there were extenuating factors at play, which both Formula 1 and the FIA could and should learn from moving forward

Updated Oct 24, 2023, 2:57 PM

Explaining why Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were disqualified from the United States Grand Prix to a non-Formula 1 fan makes the entire concept of having a skid block seem almost arcane.

To us dyed-in-the-wool addicts of watching fast cars go around a circuit, it makes perfect sense: there's a hard-and-fast limit of how low the car can go, and something that can be measured so that a) nobody derives an unfair advantage and b) safety remains uncompromised. "Why not just have a sensor or something?" comes the riposte; after all, F1 is both entertainment and a high-tech industry, akin to an Eastenders special set in the Large Hadron Collider (a world where Alfie Muon runs the Queen Vic).

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Author Jake Boxall-Legge

Jake studied engineering at university, as his original ambition was to design racing cars. He was bad at that, and thus decided to write about them instead with an equally limited skillset. The above article is a demonstration of that. In his spare time, Jake enjoys people, places, and things.