McLaren deny cheating at Las Vegas GP over double disqualification

McLaren have issued an official team statement after both of their F1 drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were disqualified from the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

The FIA technical delegate, Jo Bauer, found that both McLaren cars had excessive wear on their skid blocks after the race.

These blocks sit under the car and make contact with the track, but are not allowed to wear beyond a certain point for safety reasons.

Teams naturally want to race their cars as low to the ground as possible for a competitive advantage but cannot go too far to wear away the skid block which will get measured after each race.

Both Piastri and Norris were found to have too much wear in the post-race checks, leading to their disqualification from the race.

Both drivers are involved in a drivers' championship battle with Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who won the race and is now just 24 points behind Norris with two race weekends remaining.

Now, McLaren have issued an official response to the FIA ruling, apologising to their two championship-challenging drivers.

"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," the statement read. "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.

"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. 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," McLaren continued. "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."

Who will win the drivers' championship?

The double disqualification has caused some mischief in the standings, with Verstappen now level on points with Piastri, and both drivers are 24 points behind championship leader Norris.

There are two race weekends to go, but one of those is a sprint race weekend, which means that 33 points will be on offer next week in Qatar.

Norris is still the favourite, but it remains to be seen how much this verdict will impact his confidence, with him having had one hand on the trophy following his second-place finish originally in Las Vegas.

Four-time world champion Verstappen - who Norris lost out on the title to in 2024 - is now within one race result of the championship lead, something that will likely terrify Norris, particularly given the form that Verstappen is in.

However, Norris is in great form himself, and has no need to fear. Before today, he had won the last two grands prix, and he has taken three consecutive pole positions.

McLaren will know that they may just have given Verstappen a scent of blood as we head into the final two race weekends.

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