McLaren have revealed their findings from the excessive plank wear that led to their double disqualification at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
According to Crash, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finished second and fourth but were thrown out of the race following post-race investigations for the wear to their skid blocks.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has provided answers to some key questions surrounding the costly technical infringement, and said the team realised plank wear was a concern early in the race.
Stella said, “From the early laps of the race, it was clear from the data that the level of unexpected porpoising would be a concern. We were able to monitor the situation better on Lando’s car using telemetry data, but it was made more difficult on Oscar’s car, after we lost one of the sensors we use to establish the level of grounding.”
“We realised relatively soon that this level of porpoising was causing a high level of skid wear energy and this is the reason why both drivers started to take remedial actions in various parts of the circuit. Unfortunately, we also saw that, because of the car operating window and the circuit characteristics, most of these actions were not effective enough in reducing porpoising,” he added.
McLaren argued that a disrupted practice, due to wet weather and red flags, led to an unexpected level of porpoising, but Stella denied the team took a risky approach to choosing their set-up for the weekend.
