McLaren explains ‘specific cause’ of double Las Vegas DSQ

Recording a double DSQ in Las Vegas, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has announced the “specific cause” of the excessive plank wear was due to “extensive porpoising”.

He, however, isn’t worried that Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri could suffer a repeat situation at this weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix as it wasn’t a case of McLaren chasing “excessive or unreasonable performance”, it was purely track-related.

Double DNF was not because of ‘excessive or unreasonable chase of performance’

Norris and Piastri finished second and fourth under the lights in Sin City, but McLaren’s celebrations was short-lived as the stewards announced that the cars were found to have exceeded the maximum plank wear allowed in race conditions.

The stewards revealed Norris had two measurements that were below the 9mm skid block limit as the front right skid block was 8.88m and his right rear was 8.93mm.

As for Piastri, he had three illegal measurements, as his front left was 8.96mm, the front right was 8.74mm and the right rear was 8.90mm.

McLaren became aware that it was facing a potential problem early in the race when telemetry data revealed unexpected porpoising and the team ordered the drivers to lift-and-coast to try to minimise the wear. However, the cars both failed the post-race checks.

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While McLaren initially suspected porpoising caused the problems, Stella has now confirmed that was the “specific cause”.

“The specific cause that led to the situation was the unexpected occurrence of extensive porpoising, inducing large vertical oscillations of the car,” he explained.

“The level of porpoising was exacerbated by the conditions in which the car operated during the race, and it was not anticipated based on what we had seen in practice and based on the predictions of the car operating window in the race.

“Based on the data we had acquired in practice, we do not believe we took excessive risks in terms of ride height and we also added a safety margin for qualifying and the race, compared to practice, in terms of clearance to the ground. However, the safety margin was negated by the unexpected onset of the large vertical oscillations, which caused the car to touch the ground.

“The porpoising condition that the car developed in the race was also a difficult one to mitigate, as even a reduction in speed – an action that, in theory, should increase clearance to the ground – was only effective in some parts of the track but in others was actually counterproductive.”

Stella refuted the suggestion that McLaren may need to change its approach when chasing performance, again insisting Las Vegas was a one-off issue.

“What happened in Vegas was due to an anomaly in the behaviour of the car, rather than it being the outcome of an excessive or unreasonable chase of performance,” he said.

“Our way of acting and thinking as a team, with a strong focus on performance, has brought us to where we are today, namely winning two consecutive Constructors’ titles and having two drivers at the top of the championship with two races to go.

“We, as a team, constantly learn from experience and we calibrate our approach all the time and we will certainly use any information gained through the situation experienced in Vegas.”

He added: “The conditions we experienced last weekend and which led to the onset of porpoising and excess of grounding, compared to what was expected, are very specific to the operating window of the car in Vegas and the circuit characteristics.

“We have a well-established and consolidated way of setting up the car and we are confident that this will lead us to an optimal plan for the coming races, starting from the Lusail International Circuit.

“Nevertheless, we learn from every lesson and the one in Las Vegas has been able to provide some useful information about the operating window of the car and the porpoising regime.”

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