Regarding errors of judgment, McLaren's error in calculations which led to to the disqualification of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri Sunday's Las Vegas Grand Prix could hardly have been more disastrous and ill-timed. How they got it wrong when they wanted to close out the drivers' championship with as little fuss as possible requires a lot of explanation.
Norris and Piastri, who finished second and fourth respectively after Max Verstappen's victory in Nevada, were performing reasonably well until the FIA ​​discovered that the runners on their cars were worn by more than 9mm. In one fell swoop, Verstappen was back in contention alongside Piastri, 24 points behind Norris.
This is exactly the kind of closeness that unnecessarily strains the nerves, because there are still two matches left and you can score 58 points. Norris is still holding the cards, but one slip, mistake, unwanted contact, mechanical failure or even other technical failure and Verstappen could be breathing down his neck in the all-or-nothing season finale in Abu Dhabi.
Such a prospect was unthinkable when he was 104 points behind Piastri. after the Dutch Grand Prix on the last day of August. But for the miscalculation, Norris would have gone into the next round in Qatar with a 30-point lead over Piastri and 42 over Verstappen.
There were mitigating circumstances, the team argued, although there was nothing that would have changed the decision. Teams want their cars to be as close to the ground as possible for aerodynamic efficiency and are looking to push the boundaries of what's possible. How they set up their car for this depends on the type of track, its speed, its surface, whether it is bumpy and how the car subsequently performs on it. This training process continues over the weekend until the pre-qualifying setup is completed.
At Las Vegas, during the second practice, vital time was lost due to two stops and the usual race simulations were not completed, affecting information invaluable for setting ride height. The final practice session took place on a wet road, where the cars behaved aerodynamically differently than on a dry road, not least because they did not generate nearly as much downforce.
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During the race, the team also unexpectedly experienced the car's floor bouncing and lowering, which is a feature of the current anti-ground impact regulations. All this added up to excessive wear and tear and a double disqualification.
Apparently, they realized how close they were to the edge. Late in the race, Norris was instructed to use a climb-and-coast approach to driving, meaning he would ease off the throttle before the end of the straights. At the time the assumption was that fuel was to be conserved, but this appears to have been done to minimize skid wear, which the team knew was at its limit. Norris mentioned this in his statement. McLaren released, saying the race control in the final stages of the race was due to “issues with our car which unfortunately resulted in our disqualification.”
All of this raises awkward questions about why McLaren got it wrong when no other team in the same circumstances did so. That's doubly true considering they have such a strong car and are still in such a strong position in the Drivers' Championship. If this had happened at the beginning of the season, we would have had enough time to correct the situation. The timing was terrible as they needed to increase their margin of error much less acutely than, say, Verstappen and Red Bull, given the Dutchman was trying to make up a 49-point deficit.
Norris can still solve this problem. Leading both his rivals by two points in Doha, where 33 points are on offer in Saturday's sprint race and Sunday's Grand Prix, would secure him there. How safe he and his team feel after this abject failure in Las Vegas is another matter entirely.
