Start, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, 2004

Stats: Chinese Grand Prix saw most disqualifications in an F1 race for 21 years

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Three drivers were disqualified following last weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix – the most to have been thrown out of a race in more than two decades.

Both Ferrari drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly lost their finishes after the stewards ruled their cars did not comply with the technical regulations at the end of the race.

You have to go back to the 2004 Canadian Grand Prix for the last time as many drivers were disqualified from the same race. On that occasion a total of four drivers – two from two different teams – lost their finishes.

Williams drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher, plus Toyota duo Olivier Panis and Cristiano da Matta, were all thrown out of the race for the same reason: The dimension of their cars’ front brake cooling ducts breached the rules.

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Shanghai International Circuit, 2025
Hamilton and Leclerc’s efforts were in vain
When both drivers in the same team are disqualified it is often for the same reason, as a technical infringement on one car is likely to be present on its twin. This happened with both Haas cars after qualifying in Monaco last year. However this was not the case for Ferrari last weekend: Leclerc’s car was found to be underweight while Hamilton’s failed an inspection of its plank.

The last team to have two cars disqualified for different reasons at the same race was Arrows at the 2002 Australian Grand Prix. Heinz-Harald Frentzen left the pit exit under red lights and Enrique Bernoldi changed cars after the start of the race.

The double disqualification was a huge blow for Ferrari after they started the weekend strongly. Lewis Hamilton scored his and the team’s first ever victory in a sprint race, and it’s a good thing for him that he did, otherwise he’d be on one point instead of nine at this stage.

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Oscar Piastri won the main event from pole position, taking the third grand prix win of his career. That puts him level with 10 drivers including George Russell, who lost a win to a disqualification at Spa last year.

Giancarlo Fisichella, Jordan, Interlagos, 2003
Fisichella scored Jordan’s final win in 2003
The other drivers on three wins include Mike Hawthorn, Peter Collins, Phil Hill, Didier Pironi and Thierry Boutsen, plus three more names who are particularly noteworthy following the sad passing of former F1 team principal Eddie Jordan last week. Johnny Herbert won the British F3 championship for him in 1987, Heinz-Harald Frentzen enjoyed his strongest championship run with the team in 1999, winning twice, and Giancarlo Fisichella scored his first and the team’s last win at Interlagos in 2003.

Piastri has already had two pole positions for sprint races but claimed his first grand prix pole position last year. That makes him the 106th different driver to take pole (F1 officially counts 107, including Kevin Magnussen who took pole position for the 2022 sprint race at Interlagos but not the grand prix).

Hadjar ended Tsunoda's nine-race run of out-qualifying his team mate
Qualifying data: Hadjar ends Tsunoda’s nine-race run of out-qualifying his team mate
The McLaren driver took pole position with the fastest ever lap of Shanghai, at 1’30.641. This was only the second time the course record has fallen since it was established in 2004: Sebastian Vettel previously broke it in 2018.

Michael Schumacher’s race lap record of 1’32.238, set at the inaugural race, still stands. Lewis Hamilton originally set the fastest lap last weekend, moving one closer to Schumacher’s record tally, but lost it to Lando Norris when he was disqualified.

Piastri led McLaren’s 50th one-two finish. The only teams with more are Ferrari (87) and Mercedes (60). He led both of the one-twos featuring himself and Norris. No prizes for guessing which McLaren driver pairing scored the most: It was of course Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost with 14 over two years. Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard managed 13 between them, albeit over a six-year spell as team mates.

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The trio of disqualifications handed Haas their second-best result in a grand prix. Esteban Ocon moved up to fifth, their highest individual finish since Kevin Magnussen in the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix, while Oliver Bearman took eighth. Haas’s sole better finish than this was fourth for Romain Grosjean and fifth for Magnussen in the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix.

Romain Grosjean, Kevin Magnussen, Haas, Red Bull Ring, 2018
Haas only has one result better than last weekend’s
Haas and Racing Bulls scored their first points of the season, and the latter their first points under their latest identity. That leaves Alpine as the only team on zero after the first two rounds.

The post-race changes to the order also promoted Carlos Sainz Jnr to 10th place, meaning he picked up his first point as a Williams driver. There is a parallel here: Logan Sargeant scored his first (and only) point for Williams after two of the same drivers, Leclerc and Hamilton, were disqualified after the 2023 United States Grand Prix.

Even before the disqualifications, Alexander Albon had already matched his 2024 points total in just two races. He is now on 16 points.

Two drivers saw noteworthy streaks of out-qualifying their team mates come to an end. Yuki Tsunoda’s nine-race run was halted by Isack Hadjar, while Piastri beat Norris for the first time in eight rounds.

Fernando Alonso out-qualified Lance Stroll for the 14th grand prix in a row, which is the longest ongoing streak of any driver. However Stroll beat him in qualifying for the sprint race.

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Alonso is also the only driver yet to finish a grand prix. But there’s one driver whose season appears to be going worse than his.

Liam Lawson posted his first finish as a Red Bull driver, though a poor 12th was flattered by a total of four penalties ahead of him (in addition to the trio who were disqualified, Jack Doohan picked up a 10-second time penalty). But he can take heart from the fact he is not yet Red Bull’s worst debutant in terms of grand prix results: neither Sebastian Vettel nor Daniel Ricciardo were classified in their first two starts for the team, the latter following a disqualification at Melbourne.

Over to you

Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Chinese Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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31 comments on “Stats: Chinese Grand Prix saw most disqualifications in an F1 race for 21 years”

  1. Both Arrows drivers were disqualified from the 2002 Australian Grand Prix, for different reasons. Heinz-Harald Frentzen drove through a red light at the end of the pit lane, and Enrique Bernoldi switched to his spare car too late.

    1. Thanks for the pointer on that – no idea how I overlooked that one but you’re right. I’ve updated it accordingly.

    2. Stephen Taylor
      25th March 2025, 14:23

      They were DSQ’d as the the race was still going on though not after the race. I thiink the article means post-race DSQ’s

    3. El Pollo Loco
      28th March 2025, 5:20

      Sweet call. If cited from memory, very impressive.

  2. Another record breaking season where Ferrari is one of the main contributors. Surely they are proud of themselves

    Forza Ferrari!

    1. A curious bit regarding Ferrari: Leclerc took the record for most points scored with Ferrari (not corrected for scoring systems). He went to 1409 and overtook Vettel’s 1400.

      …and lost it in the afternoon. My favorite spin on the story is that Vettel “took” the record and got no screentime at all during the race.

      1. Lol that is actually cruelly funny. Hope they get their $h1t together. Now

        redbull is also joining the cruelly funny club

  3. Lewis Hamilton is surely the first driver to both win and be disqualified in the same race weekend.

    Antonelli and Bearman both scored points, which I believe is the first time two teenagers finished in the points together since Stroll/Verstappen in 2017 or 2018.

    This is the earliest Chinese Grand Prix ever held, and the first one held in March.

    By not winning this race, this is the first season for Max Verstappen without a win in the first two races since 2020 (where his first win came in the fifth race). He won at least one of the first two in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

    With Alpine not scoring a single point, they find themselves last in the standings. Last year, Alpine had to wait until race 6 before they scored a single point. They have many races to go before breaking that streak.

  4. When was the last time that both cars from the same team were disqualified for different technical violations? If it ever happened before.

    1. Did you read the article?

      It’s almost three decades since a team last saw both its drivers disqualified for different reasons. It happened to Tyrrell at the 1996 European Grand Prix, held at the Nuerburgring. Mika Salo’s car was found to be underweight but his team mate Ukyo Katayama was disqualified for receiving outside assistance in the form of a push start during the race.

      1. Jonathan Parkin
        25th March 2025, 18:09

        Actually Ukyo was dq for a push start during the formation lap iirc. Why it took all race to exclude him though is rather strange

    2. See post 1:

      Both Arrows drivers were disqualified from the 2002 Australian Grand Prix, for different reasons. Heinz-Harald Frentzen drove through a red light at the end of the pit lane, and Enrique Bernoldi switched to his spare car too late.

      1. I mean the car itself being illegal, not a violation of the sporting regulations.

  5. Heinz-Harald Frentzen drove through a red light at the end of the pit lane

    BTW, is this a reason for DSQ anymore?

    1. Yes. Instant black flag.

      1. Black flag the entire grid of the Brazilian GP. Justice for all!

        1. What I liked about that incident is that it was a window into the drivers thinking on the grid. Obviously it’s a very busy time in the cockpit, are they looking at the lights or the car in front? I think most of us would instinctively move if the car ahead did. That Bottas, Max, Zhou and (Hulk?) didn’t, I think is interesting.

          They were at the back which maybe helped, and we’re not sure of what radio communications they had just prior. That they stayed still with their foot on the brake whilst the grid moved away from them must have felt a bit odd.

          Lando should probably be grateful so many decided to follow him, if everyone else just sat there whilst he pootled away he’d probably have been in for a heck of a penalty.

    2. @mg1982 It can be, but isn’t usually because the red light is so rarely on at the end of the pitlane during races any more. In 2007, the pit lane exit light was red from the start of Safety Cars to the first time the Safety Car passed the pits, so there was more time where the light was on red compared to now (when it’s only when the Safety Car is passing).

      1. (Crossing the red light in practise is more likely to be a fine or grid drop, since disqualifying someone from practise is only a thing in certain series, such as Indycars).

  6. Jeez… 2004. I remember that monday at high school, my best friend said both Williams had been DSQ and we spent the morning working out how the finishing order had changed.

    Old times when you had to remember what had happened without instantly finding out on your phone. Yes, my hair is grey.

    1. @fer-no65 Congrats on having hair.

      1. It’s been a struggle, actually!

      2. El Pollo Loco
        28th March 2025, 5:26

        He’s not that old at all.

        BTW, I’ll do a quick brag and “admit” my head of hair is fuller than Lance’s eyebrows and still jet black. My beard though has some gray in it. If he OP was a senior in HS, I’m roughly three years older. However, only a small minority of my friends still have full hair coverage.

        Look on the bright side, you’re all like coursing with testosterone if you’ve lost a lot of hair. Quite manly.

    2. The 2004 grid was so colourful! Good stuff.

      Michael Schumacher’s race lap record of 1’32.238, set at the inaugural race, still stands.

      This is just disappointing. I know people will argue ‘but fast doesn’t mean good racing’, but the current cars are so slow in the races that it has all kinds of knock-on effects, from fewer mistakes by the drivers to less stress on the cars. A handful of seconds slower for these guys is almost like they’re cruising.

      1. Oops, didn’t mean for this to be a reply to @fer-no65 specifically.

        But it’s about 2004 still, kinda. So yeah.

      2. Was Schumacher on a low fuel load? He made several stops in the race. I wonder what lap times we’d get with these cars with refuelling. Perhaps some strategy, too, as they wouldn’t have to manage until the fuel burns off.

        In a sim, the F2004 is much more fun to drive than these behemoths. Almost anything else is. I tried cars from 1979, 1986, 1990 and 2004. They were all a lot of fun, although only the 2004 one was as fast.

        1. Yeah, though I don’t advocate the return of V10’s. Those cars were just so nervous, fun and quick. These cars by comparison look more like a regatta.

          1. El Pollo Loco
            28th March 2025, 5:29

            They’re absolutely awful to watch aren’t they?

            2005 -2016 IMO was the best decade of racing ever. Tons and tons of passing and/or great title fights. I think 2001-2004 was pretty fun too, but a lot lighter on passing. There would have been nearly none had Montoya not been a berserker. It’s also what made him so frustrating. In 2003, he sort of threw away a golden opportunity for a WDC.

  7. Oscar Piastri surpassed 400 points scored in F1.

    For the second consecutive season, drivers have been disqualified for a failure to meet the minimum car+driver weight requirement.

    Mercedes scored their 300th podium finish.

  8. Hamilton is the first driver since Mansell in 1994 to win a F1 race (GP or sprint) aged 40+.

    (thanks to Channel 4 for that one)

    1. Although, had sprints always been there, it’d have likely happened to other drivers, you get more opportunities nowadays and a sprint is also a lot less heavy than an actual race, making it easier for an old driver to win.

Comments are closed.