Bombshell team radio claim as McLaren ‘red herring’ exposed
Messages shared between Oscar Piastri and his race engineer have emerged as the Australian’s team battles its biggest crisis in years.
McLaren officials appear to have been well aware the team had an issue with its plank long before the team was summoned to appear before race stewards following Sunday’s Las Vegas Grand Prix.
In one of the biggest bombshells of the year, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were disqualified and stripped of points following a review of the team’s cars after the race.
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It wasn’t until after midnight local time that the FIA confirmed the constructors’ world champion-outfit had breached technical regulations.
Stewards confirmed both McLarens were investigated over extreme degradation to the cars’ planks.
Under F1 rules, any more than a 1mm wear from the 1cm plank results in a disqualification.
In layman’s terms, cars aren’t allowed to run that low to the ground under technical regulations.
F1 cars are designed to run low to the ground to improve downforce that allows for superior performance and grip through corners.
McLaren on Sunday ran too close to the Sin City street circuit track with the car bottoming out significantly enough to scratch away the planks on both cars beyond the acceptable amount.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella suggested in a statement the team only became aware of the issue during the race.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
Those mitigating circumstances included the wet and wild opening practice sessions and yellow flags during qualifying. This gave teams less data to inform the set-ups used in Sunday’s race.
Piastri’s right rear side was the most significant breach at 0.126mm of wear, while Norris’ front right also showed wear of 1.12mm.
FIA stewards measured the planks of the other eight cars that finished in the top 10. None exceeded regulations.
Radio messages exchanged between the McLaren drivers and their race engineers suggest the drivers were told to take measures to limit potential further damage to the planks of their car.
As reported by racefans.net, instructions sent over team radio showed Piastri and Norris were told to reduce speed at particular corners where there was a higher likelihood of the car floor making contact with the track.
However, the team did not directly say during the race that the instructions were related to a plank issue.
The messages, as reported by Race Fans, showed both drivers were told to lift off the accelerator before coasting into Turns 5, 11 and 17.
The vague instructions on team radio — mixed with Norris’ sudden lap time drop-off — raised the eyebrows of commentators with Sky Sports pundits assuming the drastic performance decline was a deliberate strategy to conserve fuel.
Norris was driving a lonely race in the closing laps, positioned comfortably ahead of George Russell, while also looking no chance of catching race-winner Max Verstappen.
Norris was on Lap 45 just 5.5 seconds behind the Red Bull star, but he crossed the finish line on Lap 50 more than 20 seconds behind the reigning world champ.
Seeing Norris’ lap times falling off a cliff, Sky F1 analyst Ted Kravitz said: “Could there be a sting in this? We don’t know what Lando Norris’ problem is. McLaren do.”
Sky F1 commentator David Croft responded immediately be declaring it a fuel issue.
One of the last messages given to Norris on team radio was “the fuel looks OK now”.
However, F1 commentators have now gone public with suggestions the team’s hints about having a fuel issue were a “red herring”.
Fuel has been poured on the burning conspiracy theories since Norris publicly complained of “porpoising” following an earlier practice session.
Porpoising is an issue which sees the front of the car lift up before being quickly sucked down again when too low to the track.
Radio messages show the two McLaren drivers were not informed of any plank issues via team radio throughout the race. This has led many F1 pundits to speculate that Piastri and Norris must have been made aware of the potential problem before the start of the race.
Even more inflammatory are suggestions from some F1 fans that the team deliberately attempted to deflect attention from its plank problem.
Race Fans writer Keith Collantine said the team’s failure to mention the plank problem on team radio was “likely in order to avoid tipping off their rivals”.
He reported McLaren would likely have been made aware of the plank issue during the pre-race reconnaissance laps. This would have given team officials an opportunity to mention it to their drivers without a microphone or camera in sight.
The Race’s Scott Mitchell-Malm wrote Norris’ initial responses to questions about his car’s performance were “cagey at best”.
“The lift-and-coast messages and fuel implications turned out to be a red herring,” he wrote for the-race.com.
“It seems McLaren’s messages were essentially coded and that Norris was having to lift and coast but not to manage fuel — to try to protect the plank.”
On Lap 20 McLaren race engineer Will Joseph told Norris: “Lando, we need to start doing those lifts in 17, 5 and 12, again, please”.
He came back and told Norris after the British driver moved past George Russell on Lap 34: “Terrific mate. Right, let’s go get Max, but continue with 17, 5 and 11”.
That message immediately got the attention of Red Bull officials, who communicated it to Verstappen during the following lap.
“Lando has been told to come and get you,” engineer Gianpiero Lambiase told Verstappen.
“He is saving in turns 17, 5 and 11.”
Norris was told on the last lap: “Lando you can reduce what you’re doing a small amount. The fuel looks okay now”.
Piastri was also told on the last lap to “bring back the lift in five and 11”.
The Australian’s radio was much quieter than his teammate’s, but he was told by race engineer Tom Stallard on Lap 35: “More li-co (lift and coast) turn five when possible”.
On Lap 28, Piastri was told to take measures on four separate corners.
Piastri asked: “Do you want me to keep lifting at all into turn 17 or not?”
Stallard responded: “Into 17, yes, 11 yes, 10 only if you want it. Also li-co into five”.
It was all to no avail.
Piastri said it had been “disappointing” to leave Vegas empty-handed.
“We’re always looking at where we can gain performance, and we didn’t get it right this time,” he said in the late night statement released by the team.
“We now need to reset, refocus and push to get the best points possible in the final two rounds.”
Norris, 26, responded to the disqualification by saying: “It’s frustrating to lose so many points.
“As a team, we’re always pushing to find as much performance as we can, and we clearly didn’t get that balance right today.
“Nothing I can do will change that now, instead full focus switches to Qatar, where we’ll aim to go out and deliver the best possible performance in every session.”
Norris had one hand on the championship trophy before the bombshell dropped as he cruised to finish in second position without putting race-winner Verstappen under any pressure.
With Piastri finishing P4, Norris had a 30-point lead heading into the final two race weekends of the season.
Verstappen and Piastri are now equal on points, 24 behind the British driver.
A maximum 58 championship points are available in the final two race weekends of the season.
Norris can win the title at the Qatar Grand Prix, beginning Friday, if he earns two more points than both Verstappen and Piastri over the course of the weekend, which includes a sprint race.
Originally published as Bombshell team radio claim as McLaren ‘red herring’ exposed
Move aside Oscar: McLaren confirms worst-kept secret
