Ferrari betrayed by what Fred Vasseur called “a few millimeters” | 2025 F1 Chinese GP. Lewis Hamilton was disqualified in China due to excessive floor wear on his Ferrari.

Dark times for Maranello. And no, this is not a reference to the timing of the Chinese Grand Prix weekend, which forced Ferrari fans to wake up in the middle of the night to watch free practice, but rather to the results achieved in Shanghai. Ferrari leaves China with zero points after Lewis Hamilton, like Charles Leclerc, was disqualified for excessive floor wear, despite Fred Vasseur stating that the car had been raised “only by a few millimeters.”

The issue of ride height had already been a topic during the Melbourne weekend. In Australia, Ferrari’s engineers were forced to raise the car on Saturday after a Friday in which the SF-25 had shone on the streets of Albert Park. The result was a dramatic drop in performance, with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc leaving the first race of the year with only five points combined.

The situation after China is even more serious. Both Ferrari drivers were disqualified by the FIA—Charles Leclerc’s car was underweight, while Lewis Hamilton’s floor was excessively worn. These were the reasons that led the Federation to exclude both SF-25s from the Shanghai Grand Prix.

But for Fred Vasseur, it was just a few millimeters
A common theme in Ferrari’s first two races of the season has been the shift in performance between Friday and Saturday. Even in Shanghai, after a Sprint Race in which a dominant Lewis Hamilton emerged victorious, the SF-25 struggled significantly in qualifying.

The reason lay in the need to once again raise the car off the ground, given the higher fuel load that could have affected floor wear. This was one of the topics addressed by Fred Vasseur in his post-race interview.

Responding to a question from Matteo Bobbi, Ferrari’s Team Principal stated that performance had not been lost for that reason and that, in the end, it was just a few millimeters, something that would not affect the car. However, those few millimeters made the difference and led to Lewis Hamilton’s disqualification.

The plank on car number 44 was approximately 0.4 millimeters thinner than the minimum limit set by the regulations. A minimal difference, but one that further worsened an already disappointing weekend for Ferrari, which now finds itself facing a significant gap to the teams that were expected to be its main rivals.