Red Bull suffer disqualification from Miami GP Qualifying after floorboard breach

F1 Grand Prix, GP Miami, Miami

Isack Hadjar’s Miami Grand Prix weekend took a dramatic turn on Sunday morning when the Red Bull driver was officially disqualified from qualifying for a breach of Formula 1’s technical regulations.

The Frenchman, who had originally secured ninth on the grid, will now start the race from the pitlane after scrutineering revealed that his RB22 did not comply with Article C3.5.5 of the FIA Technical Regulations.

According to the FIA, both the left‑hand and right‑hand floorboards on Hadjar’s car were found to be protruding 2mm beyond the permitted reference volume (RV‑FLOOR BOARD). The infringement was confirmed during post‑qualifying checks, and Red Bull did not contest the findings.

In its formal ruling, the FIA stated: “The stewards heard from the team representatives of Car 6 (Isack Hadjar). They did not dispute the findings of the technical delegate that portions of the LHS and RHS floor boards were protruding 2mm out of the reference volume RV‑FLOOR BOARD.

"This is a breach of Article C3.5.5 of the FIA F1 Regulations and the usual consequences follow an admitted breach of the technical regulations.”

The governing body also reminded competitors of their right to appeal, noting that “decisions of the stewards are taken independently of the FIA and are based solely on the relevant regulations, guidelines and evidence presented.”

Red Bull confirmed the disqualification in a brief team statement, acknowledging the error and clarifying the nature of the breach: “Isack will start today’s race from the back of the grid, as he was disqualified from qualifying when it was found that a small section of the left and right hand sides floorboard on his car were protruding out of the reference volume.”

Team principal Laurent Mekies expanded on the situation, stressing that the infringement was unintentional and carried no performance benefit: “We made a mistake and we respect the decision of the Stewards. No performance advantage was intended nor gained from this error.

"We will learn from this incident and assess our processes to understand how it occurred and to take steps to ensure it cannot happen again. As a team, we apologise to Isack, and to our fans and partners.

"We learn the hard way today but we will move forward. Now our focus is on converting yesterday’s encouraging showing into a strong race performance this afternoon.”

The disqualification compounds what has already been a challenging Miami weekend for the 21‑year‑old. Hadjar finished outside the points in Saturday’s sprint race despite qualifying ninth for the short-format session, and his Q3 appearance on Saturday had been one of the few bright spots for Red Bull’s junior driver.