For a few millimeters, the Formula 1 season relaunches in full this Sunday in Las Vegas. In the American West, Max Verstappen won fearlessly ahead of Lando Norris, George Russell and Oscar Piastri. But the hottest moment in this Grand Prix paradoxically occurred after the race.
While we were moving towards a status quo that favored Norris in the driver rankings, the first press release issued by the FIA at around 08:30 (French time) sowed discord in the paddock: an investigation was opened around Norris and Piastri’s McLaren for technical violations.
About two hours later, after an inspection by the commissioner, a decision was made. Without appeal, it led to the disqualification of two single-seater players from the England team. Enough to completely disrupt the existing order two races before the end of the season.
Why was McLaren disqualified?
If Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are excluded from the rankings in Las Vegas, it will be because the stewards detected excessive wear on the boards located under the two McLaren single-seaters.
At the starting line, the floor of the car, which is also called “slip”, measures 10 mm. It cannot be trimmed by more than one millimeter during racing according to FIA regulations. However, according to the analysis carried out on Norris’ car during the technical inspection at the end of the Grand Prix, the thickness was 8.88 mm on the right front side and 8.93 mm on the right rear side.
A small overrun, even more microscopic for Piastri (8.96 and 8.90 mm) but enough to qualify as a technical error. Failure to comply with the regulations is considered a violation by the body because the part is used to control the ride height and prevent aerodynamic advantages from being gained by a car that is too low.
In fact, the board is placed under the driver’s single seat to prevent them from benefiting from ground effect, which would allow them to gain significant speed when turning.
Is there a precedent?
While McLaren’s most loyal supporters are already calling for a plan orchestrated by the FIA to reignite tensions in the drivers’ standings towards the end of the season, it is worth remembering that this is not an isolated case in Formula 1.
Just this year, Nico Hülkenberg (Sauber) and especially Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) were cited for violations for excessive pad wear, at the Bahrain Grand Prix (13 April) and the Chinese GP (23 March), respectively.
Big names were not spared because in October 2023, Hamilton was disqualified for the same reason after the United States Grand Prix in Austin. At that time, Charles Leclerc received the same sanction.
How will McLaren react?
A priori, the 2025 constructors’ world champion candidate cannot appeal the decision taken by the FIA. In a press release published on its website, the Woking team still claims there are “extenuating circumstances”, as stated by Team Principal Andrea Stella.
“As noted by the FIA, the breach was not intentional and there was no deliberate attempt to circumvent the regulations,” he added, highlighting the “significant and unexpected porpoising” suffered during the race, which led to “excessive contact with the ground”.
Just a reminder, porpoising is an aerodynamic phenomenon caused by certain racing conditions (speed, headwind, etc.). This causes the car to bounce on straight roads and sometimes damages equipment. This was not enough to sway the commissioners, who pointed out there was no intermediate sanction for the breach.
However, McLaren went all out to avoid disqualification, as seen by the two-hour long wait between the start of the investigation and the announcement of the sanctions. According to an FIA press release, measurements of both boards were carried out in the presence of representatives of the accused teams.
The “Mitutoyo Micrometre”, a machine that allows precise measurements of up to 0.001 mm according to the manufacturer, was used but this did not help McLaren’s affairs, on the contrary, because “the new measurements were even lower than those carried out by the technical delegation”, we can read in the press release.
Can the title escape McLaren?
Sounds crazy, yeah. Although he had 48 points more than Max Verstappen on November 9 after his victory at the Brazilian GP, Lando Norris saw his lead melt like snow in the sun this weekend.
If he still occupies first place, he is only 24 points ahead of the four-time defending champion. The latter, tied with Oscar Piastri (366 points each) is still third in the drivers’ standings as he has one less win than the Australian in 2025, but he has never been so close to taking over the championship this year.
To do this, he will have to appear at the final two rounds of the season, in Qatar on November 8 (where a sprint race is also planned) and then in Abu Dhabi on December 7. In total, a maximum of 58 points will be collected for the racers. Enough to dream of a truly crazy season finale!
