The McLaren radio messages which show how they tried to manage plank wear

McLaren’s radio messages during the Las Vegas Grand Prix show how they tried to contain the problem which led to their double disqualification.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were disqualified after the planks on the underside of their cars were found to be excessively worn. Their best chance of avoiding that during the race was to reduce their pace at points on the track where the most damage would occur. They attempted to do this, but were unsuccessful with both cars.

Neither of the drivers’ race engineers directly referred to concerns with their planks. This was likely in order to avoid tipping off their rivals.

In this, at least, McLaren appeared to be successful. Even when Norris slowed down drastically at the end of the race, giving the first obvious indication something was wrong, Red Bull told Max Verstappen his McLaren rival had “some form of issue.”

But details revealed in the FIA documents explaining their disqualification, combined with the messages both drivers received, indicate McLaren were trying to minimise the damage to their planks at three main points on the circuit.

These were turns 5, 11 and 17. Norris was given instructions about managing his pace in these three corners more often than anywhere else. Piastri also had more messages about turns five and 11. He discussed turn 17 less frequently, but did ask mid-race “do you want me to keep lifting at all into turn 17?” and received an affirmative response, indicating he did so consistently.

Why these three corners? Piastri was reminded of the need to do “li-co” (lift the accelerator and coast into the corner) at turn five for “the bump”. The underside of the McLaren was sparking at this point on the circuit during the race.

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Turns 11 and 17, meanwhile, are the fastest left-hand corners on the track. Left-hand turns lead to greater wear on the right-hand side of the car and this was where the majority of McLaren’s plank wear occured.

Norris’s plank was only illegal on its right-hand side: it was 0.12mm under at the front and 0.07mm at the rear. Piastri’s was also illegal in the same positions by 0.26mm and 0.1mm respectively. His car also failed an inspection at the front-left by a smaller margin of 0.04mm.

Teams routinely instruct their drivers to reduce their pace during races for different reasons, such as to conserve fuel, protect tyres or reduce overheating. However the fact McLaren’s warnings were biased to these two corners in particular indicates a link to the plank problem which ruined their weekend.

McLaren’s statement indicates they did not discover the problem earlier in the weekend because second practice was disrupted by red flags and Friday’s running was affected by rain. The latter causes lower cornering speeds and therefore less plank wear. The picture would also have been complicated by Pirelli’s tyre pressure change after the first day of running. None of this, of course, excuses McLaren making an error which their nine rivals avoided.

Although McLaren said they discovered the problem “during the race”, they likely saw the first indication of it during the pre-race reconnaissance laps, allowing them to notify their drivers before they got into the cars. There is no indication they discovered the problem mid-race and communicated it to their drivers then.

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Norris’s sudden drop-off in pace at the end of the race prompted speculation McLaren had instructed him to back off to save fuel. A single radio message referencing his fuel situation appeared to validate this, but the double disqualification for entirely different reasons reveals this communication was a red herring.

His pace dropped off steeply after he asked the team to tell him how to “do whatever we’ve got to do.” Norris’s late bid to avoid disqualification was to no avail.

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Selected radio messages to Norris and Piastri during the race

Norris lost his lead to Verstappen at the start of the race. As he pursued the Red Bull and George Russell’s Mercedes, Joseph told him to increase the amount of lifting he was doing in turns 11 and six – the latter another quick left-hander.

Norris continued to receive messages about how much he needed to lift off in several corners until Russell pitted on lap 17, when McLaren told him to increase his pace.

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But within just three laps McLaren told Norris he had to reduce his speed at the same key points on the lap again. Norris pointed out this would cost them over the lap. Joseph said backing off at turns 5, 11 and 17 would help with his tyres but the plank was surely at least as much a consideration.

Piastri received messages about managing his pace less often than Norris did, as he spent much of his race stuck in traffic, and therefore was not able to drive close to his maximum pace much of the time.

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Piastri’s race engineer Tom Stallard told him to make sure he lifted earlier in the transition from turns 10 to 11.

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Having changed tyres, Norris gained on Russell. But tellingly he was unsure whether he was better off staying within DRS range of the Mercedes or passing him. Joseph told him to take the position.

Given the amount of pace management he was having to do, Norris was puzzled by McLaren’s instruction to “get Max”. The team was still telling him to lift off at three points on the lap, as Verstappen’s race engineer also pointed out to him.

McLaren responded by trying to help Norris find pace elsewhere on the lap. They had already suggested a change of line at turn three, even at the expense of his tyre performance, and now recommended he alter his approach to turn 14.

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McLaren did not give Norris a message telling him to reduce his pace late in the race: he was the one who instigated his drop in performance over the final laps. He slowed down significantly, by well over three seconds per lap compared to Piastri at times.

It seems that Norris decided his pursuit of Verstappen was futile, knew he had a significant gap over Russell and decided to focus on looking after his plank as much as possible. The fact he was able to do this may explain why his plank was not over-worn to the same extent as Piastri’s, but it was not enough to prevent him joining his team mate in disqualification after the race.

Underlining how concerned McLaren were about the plank situation, Piastri was even reminded on the final lap to lift off again, past the point at which the team would have been worrying about tyre wear.

The only message to Norris regarding fuel came on the final lap, long after he had begun backing off.

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