Red Bull-backed Nikola Tsolov saw his impressive Austria victory go up in smoke as the FIA stewards announced a post-race disqualification.

Starting from pole in the Austria F3 feature race, Tsolov delivered a dominant drive which he thought had boosted his title hopes in a major way, but post-race it was found that the plank on his Campos car had wear which exceeded the maximum permitted, resulting in his disqualification from the race.

Red Bull junior Nikola Tsolov disqualified in Austria

A minimum thickness of 4 millimetres is accepted by the FIA, but with a measurement of 3.7 taken on Tsolov’s car, a post-race disqualification was issued.

The verdict reads: “The stewards received a report from the technical delegate. They summoned the driver and team representative of Car 12 and heard the team representative and technical delegate.

“Having considered the matter extensively, the stewards determined that the rear plank of Car 12 was below the minimum thickness required and is therefore in breach of Article 3.2.2 of the Technical Regulations.

“The team explained that they had measured the plank before the race and that it was compliant, and that the reason for the measurements being outside of the tolerances was due to wear during the race. The team further noted that a section of the plank was missing at the edge on the same side that was found to be noncompliant.

“They offered that whatever impact damaged the edge could have also caused that side of the plank to thereafter ride lower thus causing the nonconformity. The team did not offer any incident that could have caused the damage other than transiting curbs which the stewards consider to be a normal part of racing.

“The technical delegate stated that the plank appeared to be a normal post-race plank.

“The stewards note that regulation requires a thickness of 5mm +/- 0.5mm. Given the tolerance, the minimum plank thickness is 4.5mm. The regulation goes on to further state that, “(a) minimum thickness of 4 mm will be accepted due to ordinary wear and tear.” The base regulation has a tolerance built in and an additional tolerance for wear and tear is already provided.

“Wear and tear having been built into the regulation to cover discrepancies such as those present in this case, it is not appropriate for the stewards to grant further leeway based on wear and tear.

Key stats following the Austrian Grand Prix from PlanetF1.com

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 points all-time rankings: Where do Hamilton, Verstappen and Alonso feature?

“The stewards find that plank wear is a foreseeable consequence of racing and as such it is the responsibility of the team to set up a car in such a way that such deviations do not lead to technical non-conformity.

“The stewards further note that the onus is on the competitor to ensure that the car is in compliance with the regulations at all times during an event (2025 Formula 3 Sporting Regulations Article 3.2) therefore, the standard penalty for a breach of the Technical Regulations is imposed.”

Tsolov’s DQ leaves him P3 in the Formula 3 standings after six rounds, 28 points behind championship leader Rafael Câmara, a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy.

Read next: Yuki Tsunoda blames ‘melting’ RB21 for poor Austrian GP as pressure mounts