Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have been disqualified from Formula 1‘s Las Vegas Grand Prix after failing to pass the FIA’s post-race technical inspections.
Both drivers were summoned by the stewards after an alleged breach of Article 3.5.9 of the F1 Technical Regulations.
The stewards deemed that “The thickness of the plank assembly was below the permitted minimum thickness.”
The Woking-based squad was asked to remeasure its skid blocks in the presence of the FIA, but it failed to pass the inspection once again.
McLaren argued that the interrupted practice sessions and excessive porpoising at the track were enough to mitigate the failure.
That said, the stewards ruled against the team as they “do not consider this sufficient to mitigate the penalty.”
The current technical regulations do not envisage any supplementing penalty other than disqualification. The FIA also noted that McLaren had failed to provide any binding precedent or past incidents to argue against the double disqualifcation.
That said, the stewards did concede that the team had not engineered the plank wear to gain an undue competitive advantage.
“The FIA noted that it strongly held the view that the breach was unintentional and that there was not deliberate attempt to circumvent the regulations,” read the verdict of the stewards.
Therefore, both Norris and Piastri have been disqualified from the race classification, handing Mercedes a double podium in the process.
As things stand, this has come as a decisive blow to Norris’ title ambitions going into the final two rounds of the season.
Pre-disqualification the 26-year-old held a commanding 42 point lead over Max Verstappen.
But with the Dutchman securing 25 points for the race win, he now sits only 24 points behind Norris, tied on points with Piastri.
READ MORE – Max Verstappen sympathises with ‘easy’ Lando Norris start blunder in F1 Las Vegas GP
Discussion about this post