Piastri and Norris lose out after McLaren disqualification decision at US GP

Max Verstappen is gaining on the McLarens in the championship

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Monday 20 October 2025 17:58

McLaren F1 stars Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris both lost out at the United States Grand Prix on Sunday after a disqualification decision made by the team.

The papaya pair were no match for Max Verstappen across the race weekend in Austin, as the champion left COTA with the maximum 33 points on offer.

Meanwhile, Norris and Piastri finished second and fifth in Sunday's race respectively, and Verstappen is now 40 points behind the Aussie who sits at the top of the drivers’ standings.

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The US GP may be deemed a costly weekend in the overarching narrative of the 2025 season, with both McLarens failing to finish the sprint race on Saturday after a lap one collision.

However, McLaren’s double DNF had far reaching consequences beyond the lost points, and informed the fate of their Sunday, according to Sky Sports F1 pundit Ted Kravitz.

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Speaking on Sky Sports F1 during Ted’s Notebook after Sunday’s grand prix, Kravitz said: "It all started at the beginning of the weekend, and then it was made worse for McLaren at the sprint race.

"In Oscar’s ill-judged move with Nico Hulkenberg at the front, that hit him into Lando Norris and because neither McLaren did the sprint race, they didn’t know how the car was going to be on its ride height.

"They didn’t know how to set the ride height, so as to be in the perfect position to be as close to the ground and get perfect downforce but not wear away the legality plank - the piece of wood they have underneath the car to stop the teams running the car too close to the ground."

As shown by Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari at the Chinese GP in March, if an F1 car is ran too close to the ground and the plank receives excessive wear, then the FIA have the right to disqualify a competitor from a grand prix.

It is likely McLaren sacrificed performance in Austin to protect Norris and Piastri from a disqualification, Kravitz said, which in turn caused them to lose out to rivals Red Bull and Ferrari in terms of pace.

"So they had to be conservative. McLaren had to raise the car up a little bit and give themselves some margin, so performance just ebbed away," Kravitz added.

"Of course Red Bull, Max won the sprint, they knew where to suspend their car, where to run their car so they would be as close to the ground as possible, giving maximum downforce and to not wear away the plank. They got it spot on. Ferrari got it spot on. Mercedes got it spot on.

"But McLaren had to take some margin and that was problem number one. Problem number two they didn’t know what the tyres were going to do."

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United States Grand Prix