F1 tech expert claims McLaren left ‘compromised’ after "screw-up"

McLaren will be left “compromised” at the final two races of the 2025 F1 season after their double disqualification at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, it has been claimed.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finished second and fourth in Las Vegas but were thrown out of the race results after the skid blocks on both MCL39 cars were found to be less than the minimum depth allowed in the rules.

The exclusions leave Norris 24 points ahead of both McLaren teammate Piastri and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen going into the penultimate race of the season in Qatar this weekend.

McLaren’s error has been branded “one of the worst mistakes from a team” by former Jordan and Jaguar F1 technical director Gary Anderson.

“McLaren’s double disqualification from the Las Vegas Grand Prix was genuinely one of the worst mistakes from a team that I have seen for a long time,” Anderson wrote in his column for The Telegraph.

“It would be bad enough for a midfield team scrapping for a few points, but for a team in McLaren’s position it is far worse… It can only be described as a screw-up that now leaves them vulnerable instead of comfortable.”

And according to Anderson, McLaren’s blunder will have lasting implications for both the Qatar and Abu Dhabi grands prix.

“McLaren as a team will also need to be cautious,” he explained. “First, with the plank wear and setting their car up to avoid this (which means losing some lap time), but there are also other risks.

“Not under-fuelling the cars too much, for example. This is a way to save lap time by saving weight, but the penalty for not having enough fuel to provide a sample is enormous, as George Russell found out last year in Belgium.

“They also need to make sure their cooling is sufficient to avoid having to back off when they are in traffic. In other words, they are slightly compromised heading into a crucial two races.

“It would have been unthinkable not too long ago that a McLaren driver would not win the title, yet they need to really switch on to avoid one of the worst collapses in F1 history.”

How did McLaren break F1's rules?

Both McLaren drivers were disqualified after post-race inspections discovered the plank assemblies of their cars had worn beneath the minimum legal limit of 9mm.

McLaren argued that the red flags and wet weather during practice limited their dry running and caused unexpected porpoising, but the FIA stewards insisted that the rules are black and white.

"We were found in breach of Article 3.5.9 of the Technical Regulations, which requires a minimum of 9mm skid thickness. 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,” McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said.

"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."

McLaren apologised to Norris and Piastri for their disqualifications.