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Charles Leclerc was unfortunately disqualified from the 2023 F1 US GP due to excessive wear of his SF-23's underbody plank. The decision was made after his car was checked by the stewards once the race ended. This was, of course, quite a massive blow for the Monagasque and Ferrari simply because Leclerc was already not having the best of seasons in 2023.
Even though Leclerc did not have the best race in Austin, disqualifying from P6 is still heartbreaking, especially because a driver loses points and all his efforts to drive a full-length Grand Prix go to waste.
As soon as the news broke, several F1 and Charles Leclerc fans reacted on social media platforms. Since Leclerc has been struggling to reach the top steps in Formula 1 for quite some time now, his fans were even more dejected and expressed their sorrows. Some talked about how situations for the Monagasque keep getting worse and worse.
Here are some of the reactions from fans:
"As a Charles Leclerc fan, you can never think 'it can't get worse' because, believe me, it absolutely can. From pole position to disqualification," one fan wrote.
"You have let Charles down this weekend in every way possible. Always with you Charles," another fan wrote.
FIA explains Charles Leclerc's and Lewis Hamilton's disqualification from the 2023 F1 US GP
The FIA recently published a statement announcing that both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton have been disqualified from the 2023 F1 US GP due to excessive wear on their car's planks.
They explained that a bumpy track and a different sprint race schedule did not offer teams sufficient time to check the planks. Since the amount of wear on their cars' planks was greater than what FIA regulations allow, the Ferrari and Mercedes drivers were disqualified from the race.
"During the hearing, the team acknowledged that the measurement performed by the FIA Technical Team was correct and stated that the high wear on the skid pads was probably a result of the unique combination of the bumpy track and the Sprint race schedule that minimized the time to set up and check the car before the race," the statement read.
"The Stewards note that the onus is on the competitor to ensure that the car is in compliance with the regulations at all times during an event. In this particular case, the rear skid in the area defined in the Technical Delegate’s report was outside of the thresholds outlined in Article 3.5.9 e) of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations, which includes a tolerance for wear. Therefore, the standard penalty for a breach of the Technical Regulations is imposed," the statement added.
After his disqualification, Charles Leclerc is now in seventh place in the drivers' championship table and has been overtaken by Lando Norris, who bagged P2 in the 2023 F1 US GP.
The Ferrari driver is now chased by George Russell in eighth.
