Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc 'disgrace' leaves ex-Ferrari chief 'appalled'

A former boss was left "appalled" by the double disqualification at the . That's according to who recently spoke to one of the Italian squad's former leaders at a social event in the wake of the Shanghai weekend.

For the first time in their history, following the race. finished fifth on the road but his car was overweight, while post-race technical checks also found too much wear to the underside of the car which had raced to a sixth-placed finish.

That outcome meant both Ferrari drivers haven't yet reached double figures in terms of their individual points totals in 2025, while Ferrari are fifth in the standings with the same number of points as minnows .

That is hardly the sort of position Ferrari want to be in considering they came close to winning the title last year. And their former boss Luca di Montezemolo is said to be particularly upset in the aftermath of his former team's embarrassment in Shanghai.

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Ecclestone said as much as he spoke to Swiss newspaper Blick after attending a London party to celebrate rocker Eric Clapton's 80th birthday, to which both he and the former Ferrari chief were invited. "I met former Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo there and he was appalled by Ferrari's two disqualifications in China," he said.

"The Italians had never experienced such a disgrace since the start of the World Championship." Particularly unforgiveable for Di Montezemolo, according to Ecclestone, was the failure to make sure that Leclerc met the minimum weight limit - his car was found to be one full kilogram below the threshold following the race.

Racers are often instructed to "pick up rubber" - drive over the pieces of tyre which have fallen off during the race - on the cool down lap after the race while heading back to the pit lane, in order to add weight to the car to help them to comply with the regulations. Ecclestone hinted at his belief that Ferrari had failed to make sure Leclerc did so.

He added: "There was clearly a lack of a control point to check the cars after qualifying. There's been an age-old rule about being underweight for decades. Drive through the dirt after crossing the finish line and pick up as many stones as possible with your tires in the gravel trap."

Team principal knows that there is plenty more work his team needs to do to help their drivers get the best out of their cars. The Frenchman said ahead of this weekend's : "We must focus on ourselves with the goal of enabling Charles and Lewis to consistently exploit the full potential of the SF-25.

"So far we have only managed to do that on Fridays and during the Sprint in China. is all about the details from race weekend preparation in the factory, to execution on track while adapting to changing conditions during the race. Once we have succeeded in doing that, then we will have a clearer idea of where we stand."