McLaren’s Vegas joy turns to dust as both cars thrown out over plank wear; Stella apologises and points to porpoising, damage
Neon glare, big pace, and then a brutal post-midnight sting. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were both disqualified from the Las Vegas Grand Prix after FIA checks found excessive plank wear on their McLarens, wiping out a second place for Norris and a hard-earned fourth for Piastri.
Norris had chased Max Verstappen home on the road after a frisky launch where the championship leader ran deep at Turn 1 and handed Verstappen the initiative. Piastri, shuffled back in the opening laps, made his strategy sing and was promoted to P4 when Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli collected a five-second penalty—only for both McLarens to be booted from the results in post-race scrutineering.
The issue? The car’s skid plank must not be thinner than 9mm at specified reference points. The FIA found Norris’ plank too thin by 0.12mm and 0.07mm at two measured locations, with Piastri’s down by 0.04mm and 0.26mm. The margins were tiny, the consequence absolute. In Formula 1’s rulebook, there’s no sliding scale here: it’s legal or it isn’t.
Team principal Andrea Stella said the breach came as an unwelcome surprise after a clean build-up through practice. “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 explained, adding that the team discovered post-race “accidental damage” on both cars that likely increased floor movement. The FIA, he noted, acknowledged there was no intent to bend the rules.
The apology from Woking was swift and unambiguous. “We apologise to Lando and Oscar for the loss of points today, at a critical time in their Championship campaigns,” Stella said, calling the outcome “extremely disappointing” for the drivers, the team’s partners and a fanbase that has roared McLaren through 2025.
Sporting context makes the penalty bite even harder. Norris’ on-track P2 and Piastri’s P4 would’ve been a tidy haul in a title fight that’s gone down to fine margins. Instead, per the revised classification, those points vanish. McLaren says it’s now full throttle on understanding why porpoising reappeared on Saturday night when it hadn’t done so across the warm-up running, and how the floor damage factored into the wear pattern.
This kind of technical bust is hardly glamorous, but the skid plank rule exists for a reason. It’s a simple way to police ride heights and keep teams honest on how low they dare run their cars. Ride too low for too long—or suddenly pick up oscillations over bumps—and the wood gets chewed away. Vegas, with its long straights, big stops and street irregularities, clearly asked different questions in race trim than it did in practice.
The human side of this is rough. Norris had done the hard yards to limit the Lap 1 loss, manage tyres and bring it home behind Verstappen, only to see it evaporate in the pen room. Piastri had authored a smart recovery drive and nicked another spot when Antonelli was pinged, then lost the lot. “As a team, we also apologise to our partners and fans, whose support means so much,” Stella added. The message was contrite, and the intent clear: regroup, fix it, and keep punching.
What does it mean for the bigger picture? The team insists the disqualification was a one-off quirk of the circuit and circumstances rather than a structural misstep. Even so, the loss of points changes the complexion of a tight championship chase with two Grands Prix and one Sprint still to run. According to the updated standings, Norris’ lead remains 24 points, while Verstappen’s Vegas win pulls him level on points with Piastri as the final stretch looms.
McLaren’s car has been quick enough all season to fight at the front. Keeping it legal—especially over punishing street layouts—just became priority one. There’s no appeal to save them here; plank wear cases are as cut-and-dried as F1 gets. The only remedy is to understand the porpoising spike, bulletproof the setup, and make sure the next time Norris and Piastri deliver, it sticks.
