Russell's illegal Ferrari theory confirmed? Here's what Palmer's deep dive shows

“What could it possibly be for Leclerc, who said afterwards it was a chassis issue?” Palmer said on F1’s official channel during his habitual post-race debrief.

Palmer noted that Mercedes quickly suspected the latter, pointing to the risk of excessive plank wear.

“To me, that seems the most plausible, and the data is here,” he said.

Comparing Leclerc with George Russell, Palmer showed the Ferrari driver was quicker in the first two stints but “[the] final stint, it suddenly got horrific… he’s actually not miles away from being caught by Fernando Alonso.”

“On Lap 48, the final stint, Russell is now catching Leclerc. Ferrari is not using full energy deployment on the straight… and now he’s got no pace through the corners either,” Palmer explained.

He believes the likely scenario is that Ferrari increased tyre pressures to raise ride height, sacrificing grip to protect legality.

“I’m sure Ferrari will know the answer to this already,” Palmer concluded.

“But I can see the logic for Ferrari… however, the pace was just too slow, and for poor Leclerc, he was defenceless and couldn’t even stand on the podium.”