Ferrari faces FIA scrutiny over Spa tyre breach

Ferrari has been referred to the stewards at Spa-Francorchamps after the FIA reported that the team electronically returned two mandatory FP1 slick tyre sets for both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, but did not physically hand those tyres to Pirelli before FP2, a potential breach of Article B6.4.2.

In his report, FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer said Ferrari correctly logged the return of Leclerc’s dry-weather sets 16-301 and 16-401 and Hamilton’s 44-301 and 44-401 after first practice, in line with Articles B6.4.1 and B6.3.8 a) iii). The issue is that the corresponding tyres were allegedly not delivered to the designated supplier before the second session began.

That matters because the sporting regulations require both steps. Article B6.4.2 states: “Any set of electronically returned tyres must also be physically returned to the Tyre Supplier before the start of the following session.” Teams are required to return those used sets so Pirelli can inspect them and update each driver’s remaining allocation.

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur said after the session that the team had simply missed the deadline. “We were late,” Vasseur said. “It will be a fine.”

Whether the stewards leave it at that is the key question for Ferrari’s weekend. One precedent points to a sporting penalty: at the 2016 German Grand Prix, Force India was punished after a tyre-return error and Nico Hülkenberg received a one-place grid drop. More recent cases have been handled with fines instead, including a €1,000 penalty for Williams in Hungary in 2022 and a €5,000 fine for Haas in Hungary in 2023, doubled to €10,000 because the infraction happened twice.

Bernie Collins, now a Sky F1 pundit and formerly part of the Force India team involved in the 2016 case, said Ferrari’s situation still appears to be a team procedure failure rather than something caused by either driver. “The only problem is that it is neither Charles Leclerc’s nor Lewis Hamilton’s fault,” Collins said. “It’s a procedure error from the team.”

That leaves the stewards to decide whether Ferrari’s mistake stays a financial issue for the team or turns into a sporting sanction that affects Leclerc and Hamilton directly.