McLaren Explains Disqualification in Las Vegas and Looks to the Future
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella has defended his team’s car setup at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, despite the disqualification of both cars for excessive plank wear. Lando Norris, who originally finished in second place, and Oscar Piastri, in fourth, lost their points in Las Vegas, reigniting the battle for the championship with Max Verstappen with two races remaining. The rules regarding plank wear aim to prevent teams from running their cars at dangerously low ride heights in search of performance. However, Stella insists that McLaren made a genuine mistake in Las Vegas due to a lack of practice in dry conditions.Stella explained that the specific cause of the excessive wear was the “unexpected appearance of strong ‘porpoising'”. The ‘porpoising’ occurs when the underside of the car gets so close to the track surface that the airflow passing underneath suddenly stops, creating a momentary loss of downforce. This causes the car to bounce on its suspension, which in turn causes contact between the plank and the ground. Stella revealed that the team tried to mitigate the problem during the race by instructing its drivers to lift off the accelerator and coast at the end of the straights, but the problem persisted in both cars.Based on the data we obtained in the training sessions, we do not believe that we took excessive risks regarding the ride height and we also added a safety margin for qualifying and the race, compared to the training sessions, in terms of ground clearance.
Andrea Stella, McLaren Team Principal
During a Grand Prix, the F1 technical regulations allow for a wear of 1 mm on the composite plank placed on the underside of the car. In Las Vegas, Norris’ car exceeded the permitted limit by 0.12 mm on the most worn skid, while Piastri’s did so by 0.26 mm.
