In fact, there have been remarkably few times in F1’s history that planks have been found to have worn down too much – with the most famous still being Michael Schumacher’s disqualification from the 1994 Belgian Grand Prix. This makes it even more intriguing that, in an area of the car that teams are very mindful of there being no squeeze room for error, two of the top squads tripped up on the same race weekend.
Any ride height calculations being made during this FP1 session must account for the additional competitive running that is added into the weekend’s schedule as there are extra competitive sessions taking place once cars settings are locked in. Photo by: Giorgio Piola McLaren MCL36 plank Furthermore, teams are not able to check the plank wear as freely as they normally are once the cars are in parc ferme, so there is a certain element of guesswork going on.