After the qualifying session, both drivers from the Haas team were found to have rear wings that didn’t meet the rules. The FIA’s technical delegate, Jo Bauer, noticed this during inspection. He wrote that the outer parts of the rear wings were too big, going over the allowed limit of 85mm.
Bauer sent a report to the stewards, asking them to look into the matter. The stewards then called a meeting with the Haas team to discuss it.
Because of this rule breach, it’s likely that both drivers, Hulkenberg and Magnussen, will be disqualified from their qualifying positions on Saturday.
This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Last year, Lewis Hamilton had a similar issue during a qualifying session in Brazil. He lost his pole position and had to start from the back of the grid.
During Saturday’s qualifying, Magnussen ended up in 15th place in Q2, but he was frustrated because he had to stop his last lap. Hulkenberg did a bit better, finishing in 12th place, but he had to talk to the stewards earlier because he got in the way of another driver, Esteban Ocon. Hulkenberg explained that he had a problem with his radio and didn’t know Ocon was approaching.
The stewards decided not to punish Hulkenberg further because they heard about similar radio issues from other teams. Ocon also said he had radio problems and wasn’t greatly affected by Hulkenberg’s incident, so the stewards didn’t give him a grid penalty.
