Both cars were disqualifiedHow McLaren got caught up in the Las Vegas disaster
A problem long thought to address rocked McLaren in Las Vegas. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were disqualified after crossing the finish line, Max Verstappen was the big winner. Team boss Andrea Stella gave an initial explanation.
In the McLaren pits they clearly suspected Lando Norris was not just racing towards the checkered flag at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, but was also headed for big trouble. There is almost no other explanation for the fact that Norris was no longer trying to catch championship leader Max Verstappen in the final lap, but instead took his foot off the gas pedal. As a result, his speed was reduced to 40 km/h on the longest straight on the high-speed street circuit, and within a few laps his gap to the speeding Red Bull increased from five to more than 20 seconds. But it might be too late.
A subsequent inspection of the McLaren revealed what at least the dominant racing team had feared this Formula 1 season: excessive wear on the floor plate. Problems also occurred with teammate Oscar Piastri. Places two (Norris) and four (Piastri) were canceled and a disqualification was announced instead. The world motorsport association FIA determined “that the violation was unintentional and there was no intentional breach of the rules,” but that did not change the consequences.
Before the final two races of the season, the World Drivers’ Championship was more open than ever this season. Norris leads with 390 points, followed by Piastri and Verstappen with 366 points each. The defending champions were the big winners this weekend. Instead of having to say goodbye to the dream of winning a fifth World Cup in a row, the Red Bull superstar was able to overtake the Papaya duo, who had long eluded him, in Qatar.
The world association FIA showed no mercy to McLaren
When the double disqualification was finally confirmed hours after crossing the finish line, McLaren team boss Andrea Stella tried to make an initial statement in his press release. “During the race, unexpected strong porpoising occurred in both vehicles, which did not occur during practice.” Therefore, the Italian driver and his team were surprised by a problem that Formula 1 had long believed could be overcome: porpoising, the “jumping” of cars.
For the 2022 season, “ground effect” returns to the premier motorsport class, and since then cars have generated most of the contact pressure through the underbody. However, when the car lands, the air flow stops, the rear suddenly lifts off the ground, and in the worst case, this process repeats itself over and over again. “We are investigating the cause of the car’s behavior,” continued Stella, which “caused excessive contact with the ground.”
McLaren hopes to ease the situation with the FIA, but the world association remains firm, “as the regulations and previous cases do not provide for other penalties (…)”. Lewis Hamilton was already crashed at the Chinese Grand Prix in the spring. The floor panels on his Ferrari are 0.5 millimeters smaller than the specified minimum thickness of 9 millimeters, and in Las Vegas it is now much stricter. Norris’s McLaren was 0.12 millimeters short and Piastri’s was 0.26 millimeters short. For comparison: One page of standard copy paper is about 0.1 millimeter thick.
Norris had it himself in Qatar
The McLaren MCL39’s own advantage could be its downfall on the street circuit. This car is known to be able to travel at low speeds, generates a lot of downforce through the underbody and is relatively unsusceptible to impacts. This allowed for an aggressive setup – which, however, could hardly be tested in race conditions at Las Vegas due to interruptions in practice on Friday and rain on Saturday.
Apparently, McLaren chose a set-up that was not suitable for racing. At least to keep wear on the base plate within permissible limits. Also because there are no sensors measuring this – instead, direct evaluation of telemetry data may show at some point that critical wear has been reached. This may have given instructions to Norris and Piastri to protect the car.
“We apologize to Lando and Oscar for the loss of points today, at a critical moment in their championship, after they put in a strong performance throughout the weekend,” team boss Stella was quoted in a press release: “While this result is very disappointing, we remain fully focused on the final two races of the season.”
Because, after all: McLaren still has everything in its own hands. Norris can still claim his first world title in Qatar and the first for a traditional racing team since Lewis Hamilton in 2007. To do this, he will need to be at least 26 points clear of Piastri and Verstappen after the sprints and the Grand Prix in Lusail to avoid a game of calculations to level the points. Things continue this Friday, with the final three races of the season taking place on three consecutive weekends. So Norris doesn’t have much time to forget the “frustrating end of the day.”
