Russell suspects Ferrari were concerned the about potentially excessive wear on the legality plank on the underside of Leclerc’s car. He said they may have increased his tyre pressure when he made his final pit stop on lap 41.
Doing so would raise the car and reduce tyre wear but also negatively affect the car’s handling. Afterwards Leclerc said he had a problem with his car’s chassis from around lap 40.
“He’s not going to tell you that they’re close to being illegal,” Russell said.
“The only thing we can think of is they were running the car too low to the ground and they had to increase the tyre pressures for the last stint,” he said. Russell said when he caught Leclerc he noticed Ferrari “were using an engine mode that was making the engine slower at the end of the straight, which is where you have the most amount of plank wear.”
All cars are “close to being illegal” all the time. Most people call it “on the limit”. Precision is part of this sport, and small mistakes can have big consequences. George should know, his car was found to be illegal in Belgium GP2024 and he was stripped from his win because his car was too light.