Sting on Leclerc: this is why the commissioners used a heavy hand

The commissioners’ final decision on the track cuts committed by Charles Leclerc during the last lap of the Miami GP arrived at around 11.30pm (Italian time), after the spin and the slight hit against the wall which caused damage to the suspension and the left side of the car such as to make it difficult for the #16 of Ferrari to be able to turn his SF-26 normally. The stewards used a heavy hand, sanctioning Leclerc by 20 seconds: the Monegasque was given the equivalent of a drive through which dropped him from sixth to eighth in the final standings. In the traditional document explaining the penalty, the stewards reported the version provided by Leclerc, who explained that “the car seemed fine, except for the fact that it was unable to take the right-hand corners correctly”. This problem led Leclerc to cut corners at several points, failing to navigate them correctly; the commissioners, however, did not consider this a mitigating factor and harshly penalized this behavior: “We have established – we read in the note – that the fact of having had to cut the chicanes (i.e. having left the track) gave him a lasting advantage. The fact that he had a mechanical problem of some kind does not constitute a justifiable reason. Consequently, we impose a Drive Through penalty on car no. 16, considering the number of times in which the car left the track and gained an advantage”. Indeed, Leclerc risked receiving an even greater penalty. In the document published by the FIA, in fact, the commissioners wrote that they had evaluated the possibility of giving the Monegasque a further sanction for having completed a lap in potentially unsafe conditions: “We also assessed whether there was a further violation in continuing to drive a car with a clear and perceptible mechanical problem – we read in the note – we established that there was no evidence of the existence of a clear or perceptible mechanical problem. We therefore took no further action in relation to this potential violation”. The sanction attributed to Leclerc is therefore very severe, but overall it can be considered correct, if it were not for an almost similar precedent dating back to the Singapore GP last season which, however, was assessed differently. Even in that case a Ferrari was the protagonist: Lewis Hamilton drove the final laps very slowly due to a brake problem and in the final lap he cut corners at several points, exactly as Leclerc did in Miami. In the case of the Briton, however, his penalty was only 5 seconds. What is perplexing is that the stewards’ document is very similar in the explanation of the penalty: “During the hearing – it was written on that occasion – the driver confirmed that he had gone off the track on several occasions. He was trying to manage a brake problem. That said, following further investigations and in accordance with the list of exemptions provided for in the Guidelines on driving standards, the stewards considered that this was not a justifiable reason and applied the sanction foreseen for this type of infringement. This was not contested either by the team representative or the driver.” The only reason for the greater severity of judgment towards Leclerc can therefore be attributed to the now infamous ‘Guidelines’. In section D, the one dedicated to track limits, we read the following: “It is believed that respecting track limits is important both for the fairness of the race and for safety; therefore, article B1.8.6 will be strictly applied: ‘Drivers must make every reasonable effort to remain on the track at all times and may not leave the track without a justified reason. Drivers will be deemed to have left the track if no part of the car remains in contact with it and, for the avoidance of doubt, the white lines that define the edges of the track are considered part of the track, but the curbs are not…’ In summary, therefore, Leclerc seems to be making a sort of ‘turn of the screw’ on the issue of track limits compared to the way in which the issue was assessed until last year.

Automobile Magazine – F1 English News
2026-05-04 16:32:00