24 October 2023 , 07:05
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Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc posted the same cryptic message on Instagram after they were both disqualified from the United States Grand Prix.
Hamilton lost his second-place finish when his Mercedes car failed a physical floor and plank wear inspection after Sunday's race. Meanwhile, Ferrari driver Leclerc was found guilty of the same offence, having finished sixth in Austin.
The skids on the bottom of each of their cars had worn away, meaning that they were no longer within Formula 1 regulations. McLaren star Lando Norris therefore took second spot on the podium behind winner Max Verstappen, while Ferrari's other driver, Carlos Sainz, moved onto the podium in third.
Reacting to the FIA's statement with a shared Instagram post, seven-time world champion Hamilton and rival Leclerc posted an image of themselves sat a press conference looking glum. The caption simply read: "Mood."
In Mercedes' press release following the announcement from the FIA, Hamilton added: "It is of course disappointing to be disqualified post-race but that doesn't take away from the progress we've made this weekend."
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Team principal Toto Wolff explained: "Set-up choices on a sprint weekend are always a challenge with just one hour of free practice - and even more so at a bumpy circuit like COTA and running a new package.
"In the end, all of that doesn't matter; others got it right where we got it wrong and there's no wiggle room in the rules. We need to take it on the chin, do the learning, and come back stronger next weekend."
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Mercedes' trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin, also went on to admit: "We are, of course, naturally very disappointed to lose our podium finish. Unfortunately, it is one of the pitfalls of the sprint format where we have a solitary hour of running before parc ferme.
"Without running at a race fuel load in FP1, combined with a circuit as bumpy as this and the parts of the track where the drivers have to put the car during the Grand Prix, have contributed to the higher than expected wear levels. We will go away and learn from this but also take the positives from our experience as a whole."
F1 next heads down to Mexico City for the Mexican Grand Prix this Sunday. The teams will then travel to Brazil for the final sprint weekend, and after that back to the United States for the Las Vegas night race before ending the 2023 campaign in Abu Dhabi.