McLaren boss Andrea Stella has revealed the reasons behind its shock double disqualification for a technical infringement at the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
In a title battle that has been blown wide open in recent races by Max Verstappen, a double disqualification is a gift to the Dutchman and a nightmare for McLaren.
The Las Vegas GP was already a challenging race for McLaren prior to its exclusion; Lando Norris having to ease up to allow Verstappen to take a comfortable win.
Norris is now 24 points ahead of Verstappen, while the Dutchman has clawed back a 106-point gap to Piastri to be level on points with two rounds now remaining.
Stella confirmed that excessive rear-skid-block wear on the plank was the cause of the team’s exclusion, with a substantial error identified in post-race scrutineering.
“Following the Las Vegas Grand Prix, we were found in breach of Article 3.5.9 of the Technical Regulations, which requires a minimum of 9mm skid thickness,” he said.
“Car 4 was found in breach by a maximum of 0.12mm of the rearmost skid and Car 81 by a maximum of 0.26mm of the rearmost skid.”
How McLaren was caught out in Las Vegas
Stella disclosed that both Norris and Piastri experienced severe porpoising, an issue that the team was unable to detect during practice due to numerous disruptions.
The Italian highlighted that the FIA believed this was a genuine mistake, and not an attempt to break the technical regulations to gain a lasting competitive advantage.
“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,” he added.
“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.
“As the FIA noted, the breach was unintentional, there was no deliberate attempt to circumvent the regulations, and mitigating circumstances also existed.
“We apologise to Lando and Oscar for the loss of points today, at a critical time in their Championship campaigns after two strong performances from them all weekend.
“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.”
McLaren duo react to setback in F1 title hunt
Both drivers spoke about their disappointment at being excluded, with Norris not hiding his frustration at losing 18 valuable championship points to Verstappen.
“A frustrating end to today,” he rued.
“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.
“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.
“Nothing I can do will change that now, instead full focus switches to Qatar, where we’ll aim to go out and deliver the best possible performance in every session.”
Piastri, who lost fourth, now faces an uphill task to even secure the runner-up spot in the championship. He insisted that his mindset has already shifted to Qatar next week.
“Disappointing to come away from this weekend with no points after an unfortunate disqualification due to skid wear,” he bemoaned.
“With how close the grid is, we’re always looking at where we can gain performance, and we didn’t get it right this time.
“We now need to reset, refocus and push to get the best points possible in the final two rounds, both tracks that we’ve been strong at previously.”
READ MORE – Oscar Piastri makes concession over F1 title prospects amid latest blow at Las Vegas GP
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