McLaren has reacted to the “extremely disappointing” double disqualification of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri from the Las Vegas Grand Prix, with Team Principal Andrea Stella apologising to the pair.
Norris and Piastri were disqualified from second and fourth respectively several hours after the 50-lap race on the streets of Las Vegas, as the skid block wear on both cars was found to be below the minimum 9mm thickness.
The stewards therefore were left with no alternative but to exclude both cars from the final classification.
“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,” said Stella in a statement released by McLaren after the decision.
“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.”
Norris remains 24 points ahead of Piastri in the Drivers’ Championship, but is now the same margin ahead of Max Verstappen after the Red Bull driver’s victory in Las Vegas.
There remain 58 points on offer across the Qatar Grand Prix and Sprint next weekend, before the final round of the season at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Norris had been told to back off by McLaren in the final laps with a reported fuel issue, but confirmed that this was in fact due to managing the skid block wear.
“A frustrating end to today,” Norris said. “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.”
