Ferrari plays it safe in Brazil after ‘tough’ Austin DSQ

Ferrari says it has factored in an additional margin regarding the ride height of its cars in Brazil to avoid the tough outcome that befell Charles Leclerc at the US Grand Prix two weeks ago.

The compressed format of the Sprint weekend at the Circuit of the Americas allowed for only 60 minutes of free practice on Friday, after which each car’s settings were frozen for the remainder of the race weekend.

Teams were therefore hard-pressed to optimize their machine’s set-up, including suspension and ride-height settings.

This imperfection coupled with COTA’s bumps led to excessive wear of the floor plank on Leclerc’s SF-23 as determined by a post-race scrutineering check.

The wear tolerance on the Ferrari exceeded the 1mm margin authorized by the rules, which meant Leclerc’s exclusion from the race’s results, a fate also suffered by Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.

• Read also: Russell not dismissing more floor plank woes for Mercedes

As it’s better to be safe than sorry, Ferrari has taken a cautious approach to the set-up of its cars.

“Clearly in Austin, we were caught out,” Ferrari Sporting Director Diego Ioverno said. “We have reviewed all what happened in that weekend and we understood what could we have done differently.

“Obviously we are going to apply that because that feeling, I hope we will not live anymore, because it is really tough to be thrown out.

“But others did a better job, and we have to learn and move forward. I think we did.

“I can guarantee you that we are on the, let’s say, safe side here. It’s always a trade-off because to be a bit safer, you have to give away a bit of performance, but it is worth the effort.”

With the FIA criticized for not checking all cars in Austin after Ferrari and Mercedes' transgressions,  Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso anticipated that all teams would exercise greater caution regarding their car's ride height in Brazil.

“I think a Sprint format this year has been quite difficult for everyone to optimise the car,” the Spaniard said “There are always margins that you need to take.

“In Austin we had a few cars that have been checked, and many other cars that they didn’t check that they were not legal. I think here it will be a little bit more conservative from everyone.“

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