Five current F1 drivers to be disqualified from an F1 race

Disqualifications in Formula 1 are rare but even the best drivers find themselves on the wrong side of the stewards from time to time.

In total, five of the current grid have faced a disqualification and there are plenty of different reasons behind it. From fuel issues to lying to the stewards, here are the five current F1 drivers to be disqualified from an F1 race:

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Hulkenberg make DQ cut twice

George Russell – 2024 Belgian Grand Prix

Reason: Underweight car

George Russell thought he had pulled off the impossible with his victory at Spa that year, only, it proved to be just that, impossible.

Nobody had believed that the one-stop strategy could be a winner, but jaws dropped when Russell was able to do 34 laps to the finish on his hard tyres, holding off Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton to take an incredible win, or so he thought.

After the race, it emerged that Russell’s Mercedes was 1.5kg below the minimum required weight, leading to a heartbreaking disqualification.

Mercedes took responsibility for what had happened, Russell’s one-stop strategy a potential culprit due to higher tyre wear (and therefore a lower final weight) than initially planned, while a Belgian GP does not afford drivers the usual cooldown lap after a race where tyre marbles can be picked up.

Nico Hulkenberg – 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix

Reason: Marshal assistance

On his 2024 visit to Interlagos, Nico Hulkenberg became the first driver to see the black flag – and thus be disqualified from a race – in 17 years.

After spinning his Haas at Turn 1 on a race weekend impacted by various downpours, Hulkenberg was pushed back onto the circuit by marshals, a big no-no in the world of F1.

Article 53.2 of the F1 Sporting Regulations strictly prohibits outside assistance – that does not take place in the pit lane – leading to Hulkenberg receiving the black flag, disqualifying him from the race and sending him back to the garage.

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Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc – 2023 United States Grand Prix

Reason: Excessive plank wear

That year in Austin, both Charles Leclerc’s and Lewis Hamilton’s cars were found to have worn their plank away too much.

The plank is a composite material attached to the bottom of an F1 car to ensure that the cars are not running too low to the ground and to check this, the FIA measures the board for wear after a race which is where Hamilton and Leclerc came unstuck.

Both drivers were found to have worn their plank away too much, likely a result of the one practice session due to the sprint weekend, and were subsequently disqualified. It was a costly affair for both drivers with Hamilton provisionally finishing second and Leclerc in sixth.

But there was confusion as to why so few cars were tested with just four put under investigation. The other two, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, passed.

Nico Hulkenberg – 2019 Japanese Grand Prix

Reason: Illegal driver aids

This disqualification came long after the event with Renault being put under the spotlight by rivals Racing Point.

The Lawrence Stroll-owned team argued that a brake bias adjustment system used by Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg in Suzuka was illegal and after a meeting of the stewards on the following Wednesday, the sporting body agreed.

As a result, Ricciardo was stripped of his sixth-place finish while Hulkenberg lost out on ninth.

FIA rules state that a driver must drive the car alone and unaided and that a pre-set lap distance-dependent brake bias adjustment system goes against that. To make things spicier, it was rumoured that Racing Point’s protest was raised by an ex-Renault employee.

Esteban Ocon? – 2018 United States Grand Prix

Reason: Fuel breach

Probably the most slam dunk penalty going is fuel.

Since in-race refuelling was banned in 2010, the cars must now carry enough fuel to last the whole race and can carry up to 110kg.

But to ensure that competitors do not use forbidden additives, a car must have at least 1kg of fuel left over after the race which the FIA will withdraw and test.

Kevin Magnussen fell foul of this in 2018 when his Haas car had consumed more than the maximum amount and his ninth place finish was erased from the history books, but for Esteban Ocon, his disqualification was for something a little different as his Force India car was consuming fuel too fast.

As well as the minimum amount of fuel teams must carry, the car must also not exceed a fuel mass flow of 100kg per hour which unfortunately for the Frenchman, his car did.

His eighth was also wiped out and he later tweeted: “Pushing the whole race, getting good points, and getting disqualified in the end for a stupid reason is probably the worst feeling ever. Our mistake…”

Lewis Hamilton – 2009 Australian Grand Prix

Reason: Misleading the stewards

While this race was mainly known for Brawn GP’s first win, it was also notable for the disqualification of reigning champion Hamilton.

The incident came during a safety car period when the safety car came out and Jarno Trulli overtook Hamilton. The stewards decided that the Italian had overtaken under safety car conditions, illegal by the rules, and Trulli was handed a 25-second penalty, moving him down to 12th from third place.

Trulli argued that Hamilton had slowed down and moved to the side which he took as reason to overtake but to the stewards, both McLaren and Hamilton insisted this never took place.

That seemed to be that until April 2 when both McLaren and Hamilton were summoned to the stewards shortly before the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The two parties continued to argue that no such message was sent out but they were then played the audio where Hamilton was given the instruction.

The stewards declared that Hamilton and McLaren had misled them and they were stripped of their points. Trulli meanwhile was reinstated into third place.

Punishment was not done there though. Sporting director Dave Ryan was sacked by the team while McLaren were handed a suspended three-race ban, which would only be applied if a similar offence occurred within a year.

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