Sauber guilty of ‘genuine error’ in latest FIA DSQ rules breach

The FIA confirmed Sauber made a “genuine error” as excessive plank wear on Nico Hulkenberg’s car led to a disqualification in Bahrain.

Hulkenberg had crossed the line 13th on Sunday, but his car was found to not have the minimum plank width after the race – forcing his race result to be made null and void.

Sauber acknowledge ‘mistake’ as Nico Hulkenberg disqualified in Bahrain

Hulkenberg’s is the second such disqualification for excessive wear to the plank already in 2025, with Lewis Hamilton having been removed from the results of the Chinese Grand Prix for the same issue.

This can be attributed to a car potentially being run with too low a ride height throughout a race distance, with ground effect aerodynamics effectively ‘pulling’ the floor of the car towards the track, which results in sparks flying as the floor scrapes along the track surface at speed.

Sauber’s plank assembly for Hulkenberg was found after the race to be around 0.5mm below the minimum required 9mm thickness to account for race wear, and the FIA verdict on his disqualification found that “the team acknowledged that it was a genuine error by the team.”

For Sauber’s part, team veteran Beat Zehnder explained the team was unsure as to why Hulkenberg’s car measured below the required plank thickness, but acknowledged that, in the team’s current place in the pecking order, such an error could have been even more costly from a points-paying position.

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In confirming such a mistake will not happen again, he admitted the error from the team’s perspective.

“Apparently the skids have been measured lower than 9mm,” Zehnder said, as quoted by Motorsport.com.

“You do FP1, you do FP2, you do FP3, you measure, you have your references and why we’re below 9mm, we really don’t know.

“Maybe it had an impact that Nico only did a couple of laps in FP3, so one reference was missing. But it shouldn’t happen and it shall not happen anymore.

“You have to take it into account whether you have a circuit where your car is bouncing a lot whether you run over curbs with your skid a lot. It is a mistake from our side.

“Obviously, there was never an intention to break the rules, because can you imagine you end up in the points and you lose them?”

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