McLaren has apologised for its Las Vegas double disqualification and says it will investigate the reasons for the excessive plank wear on its Formula 1 cars that caused Lando Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri to be thrown out of the results.
Norris lost second place and Piastri lost fourth after post-race inspections found their cars’ skid blocks to be worn beyond the minimum 9mm thickness set out in F1’s technical regulations.
McLaren pleaded with the FIA that the transgression was “unintentional” and “there was no deliberate attempt to circumvent the regulations”. The FIA accepted this position but had no choice but to exclude both cars, just as it did with Ferrari in April’s Chinese GP for the same reason.
Stella engaged in lengthy conversations with FIA single seater director Nikolas Tombazis in the Las Vegas paddock, after the top 10 finishers' underfloor planks were all inspected and the cars were impounded for an unusually long time.
McLaren also delayed and then cancelled Stella’s regular post-race media debrief, instead releasing a statement afterwards in which he apologised to McLaren’s drivers, fans and sponsors, promising an investigation into the circumstances behind the excessive plank wear.
“During the race, both cars experienced unexpected, high levels of porpoising not seen in the practice sessions, which led to excessive contact with the ground,” Stella said.
“We are investigating the reasons for this behaviour of the car, including the effect of accidental damage sustained by both cars, which we found after the race, and that led to an increase of movement of the floor.
“We apologise to Lando and Oscar for the loss of points today, at a critical time in their championship campaigns.
“As a team, we also apologise to our partners and fans, whose support means so much.
“While this outcome is extremely disappointing, we remain fully focused on the last two races of the season.”
Radio messages were aired during the final stages of the race, asking Norris to manage his pace because of concerns over the McLaren’s fuel use, with Norris himself indicating post-race that his car was marginal on fuel.
But The Race understands the lifting and coasting Norris was asked to do in the final laps, when he dropped back from Max Verstappen’s Red Bull significantly, was purely due to concerns over plank wear, suggesting the fuel references were a ruse to protect Norris from scrutiny.
“We had to do some managing towards the end of the race and now we know it was due to some issues on our car, which have unfortunately resulted in us being disqualified,” Norris said.
“It’s frustrating to lose so many points. As a team, we’re always pushing to find as much performance as we can, and we clearly didn’t get that balance right today.”
Norris mentioned how McLaren had recently improved its qualifying performances after increasingly finding itself under pressure from Mercedes and Red Bull during this final phase of the championship.
Norris’s comments, and the fact his car ran too low in Vegas to stay legal, suggests McLaren has been taking more risks with ride height to gain performance - something Stella has recently suggested Red Bull has also been doing to enable Verstappen to surge back into title contention.
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Under the ground effect rules in place since 2022, running the cars as low to the ground as possible has become a key driver of performance, as well as a huge risk point for skid plank legality.
Several teams have been caught out in this way during this rules era. As well as both Ferraris being thrown out in China this year, Charles Leclerc's Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes were excluded from the 2023 US GP for excessive plank wear.
