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Lando Norris & Oscar Piastri DISQUALIFIED! F1 Drivers Championship blown wide open
Lando Norris & Oscar Piastri DISQUALIFIED! F1 Drivers Championship blown wide open
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About this episode
The disqualification of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri from the Las Vegas Grand Prix due to excessive plank wear has dramatically reshaped the 2024 F1 Drivers' Championship battle. This technical infringement, involving the car's floor plank thickness falling below the mandated limit, has brought Max Verstappen back into contention, closing the gap to Norris and Piastri. The hosts break down the technical reasons behind plank wear, the impact of porpoising, and how limited practice affected McLaren's setup. With just two races left, the championship fight is wide open, creating intense pressure and strategic challenges for McLaren and an exciting finish to the season.
Topics:
lando norris disqualification
oscar piastri disqualification
plank wear regulations
formula 1 championship battle
max verstappen comeback
porpoising effects
mclaren technical issues
race strategy
las vegas grand prix
2024 f1 season finale
ESPN's Nate Saunders and Laurence Edmondson react to the breaking news of McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri being disqualified from the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Both drivers cars were found to have the plank assembly below the permitted minimum thickness. Max Verstappen is now even with Oscar Piastri on points with 366 total, only trailing the championship leader Lando Norris now by 24 points. With one sprint race and 2 races remaining, the drivers championship is wide open!
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Hello, and welcome to a rather peculiar and strange episode of Unlapped.
As you can see, we have the beautiful Las Vegas Grand Prix Media Center behind us.
I'm Nate Saunders, here with Laurence Edmondson.
The reason I'm holding my phone, the reason Laurence's got his phone in his hand, is
we've potentially had the biggest news story of the year break.
It's nearly 2 a.m. here, Laurence, in Las Vegas.
The race finished some four hours ago.
We have actually already recorded one episode of Unlapped with Nicole Briscoe, who no longer
at the circuit anymore.
You'll never see that podcast.
That will never see the light of day, because when we recorded that, it was a pretty routine
thing to talk about.
Max Verstappen had won the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Landon Aris had finished second.
That kept Max Verstappen in it.
That was the headline that we wrote.
It's still being tweaked currently on ESPN.com, because of the news that, in the hours
since then, Landon Aris and Oscar Priastri, who finished fourth in that race, have
been disqualified from the race for excessive plank wear.
Now, we'll get into what that exactly means on a technical level, but on a championship
level, Laurence, the headline news to that is not only is Max Verstappen now mathematically
in the championship.
He's right up there, because without Norris and Priastri finishing this race, he is
now 24 points behind Norris and level on points with Oscar Priastri.
We're going to the final two races of the year remarkably and sensationally
with Verstappen within a stone's throw nearly of the McLaren drivers.
I was going to throw your question of your quick reactions, but yeah, in terms of F1
news, this is pretty much as big as it gets at this stage in a championship fight
with the championship leader being thrown out of a race so dramatically.
Yeah, it's a big deal.
We certainly thought those looking very much like it was going Landon's way.
It had actually been looking like that way for a number of races now.
So for that to have such a dramatic turnaround is big.
I don't know if everyone's sensationalised it too much, because if you think, well,
if Landon can take basically outscore Oscar and Max by a single point
over the course of the Qatar weekend, not something that is unbelievable,
given his performances recently and go into Abu Dhabi with a lead of more
than 25 points, then it would have to be two points over the Qatar weekend.
Then then he's champion.
So, you know, it's become a much harder proposition now for him
than it would have been before, obviously, because he could have finished
within within Max or within Priastri.
But you're right, he can still win the championship.
He still is in the box seats to do that.
But yeah, remarkable stuff that he's he's now nursing a lead that, you know,
he had coming into this weekend over both Piazzar and Vassap.
And I think it's the biggest part.
I guess a lot of people will be wondering what on earth
plank wear and skid wear is.
We've got a very long and lengthy explanation in front of us,
but you've already written one of these pieces this season,
because similar has happened in the Chinese Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton was disqualified for the same thing.
What's the layman's explanation of what happened and it's nine millimetres
that the regulations say the thickness has to be?
What's happened here with McLaren to get them disqualified?
Yeah, so yeah, let's move on to nine millimetres in a bit
and just start with why these regulations exist, basically.
So with the performance of Formula One car, especially this generation,
the closer you run it to the floor,
the more aerodynamic performance you get out of out of the car.
So you are looking to run it as low as possible to maximise performance.
But there are safety implications of running it too low.
And therefore there's this plank on the bottom of the of the car,
which is made of a kind of composite that wears away over the course of the race.
And part of the reason it says to protect the bottom of the car.
Another part of the reason it's there is so that the FIA can basically monitor
how close or how low teams are running and also avoid dangerous
kind of running of the car.
So it's just constantly running along the ground,
which can lead to a sudden loss of downforce and then a big accident.
So they basically have these holes, four holes drilled in the floor
of the of the plank or drilled in the plank
and they have to be 10 millimetres at the start of the race
and no less than nine millimetres at the end.
And so by measuring that,
you kind of see how much the teams are running at low to the ground.
So the McLarens were both found to be below nine millimetres,
I think by a very small amount,
tiny amount we're talking about eight point eight eight on
well, eight point eight eight and eight point nine three.
So yeah, tiny amounts below both cars, nine millimetre.
But, you know, any amount is too much.
And so they're both disqualified.
And that's what's kind of remarkable about this.
I mean, for people listening,
is this a case of McLaren were running this too low anyway?
Or not too low.
They were they were running it on the absolute limit of where
there should be in an in an attempt to try and beat the likes
of Max Verstappen and Red Bull.
Because obviously this is one thing with Formula One.
Often your setup is a case of we're going to push the absolute limits of this.
And if we can just about find that line,
then the performance game will be that we can either beat a team
or we can stay in touch with them.
Is this what's happened here?
Do you think is it too early for us to know that?
Yeah, I mean, we haven't actually heard from McLaren yet.
But I mean, I think it's it's safe to assume every team will run their car
as low as they possibly can in pursuit performance.
But you would never do it in the belief that you're going to run too low
and that you're going to have this way.
And you would probably always leave some margin of error in there.
So, you know, the students have been quite clear
that they don't believe that McLaren was trying to run the car illegally
and trying to get away with this.
And which was if I wouldn't check, which was the same with Ferrari.
It wasn't it wasn't an intentional attempt to to bend the rules.
Yeah. And and what we can tell from the FI statement
before we get a statement from McLaren is that McLaren also said that
the kind of porpoising, which is a word we haven't used a huge
yeah, but still applies to these cars, which is basically the bouncing
of the car as it runs very low to the ground.
All of a sudden hits the ground, you lose a bit of downforce,
bounce back up and then it starts getting into this bouncing motion.
Something that we talked about a lot at the start of this regulation
cycle in 2022, because a lot of teams were struggling with it.
McLaren said they had more of that than they thought,
which will lead to wear because the floor of the car is smashing into
into the ground.
And we saw a number of times sparks fly up from from the rear of the McLaren.
So that's one factor.
And the other factor is that they had limited practice to some extent.
Of course, everyone did because of the two red flags on Thursday
in in second practice and then the wet running in final practice.
And teams, you know, they very much do use those practice sessions
to set a ride height to understand how far they can push it
because they can take the planks off after the practice sessions,
measure them, figure out a calculation of what that would lead
to over the course of a race and and therefore make a very,
a very educated guess on where they should be in terms of legality
and the balance with performance.
And yeah, McLaren just seems simply got it wrong.
But as you mentioned earlier, not the first time that teams done that
even this season.
So we had Ferrari in China.
And then two years ago, we had both Charlotte Clarke in the Ferrari
and Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes back then, Austin.
Yeah, and that was another US race.
I remember us recording a podcast post that one when they'd been kicked out.
So there's a bit of deja vu here.
What was interesting about that
purposing explanation in there was there was one on board
during that race towards the end, on board Oscar Piastri's car.
And somebody right behind us in the media center pointed out
the bouncing you could see his head bouncing up and down.
So there was some.
But you're right, that was the same for every single team.
And that's obviously why that as an extenuating.
So I mean, I think the purpose seems to be perhaps worse for the McLaren.
So that does vary car to car.
But it's also a consideration with right.
I, you know, again, going back to all these conversations
we had in early 2022, well, the way to get around the porpoising
and the bouncing is to change your right.
I used to change your effing cars.
Remember? Well, there was a bit on that from from Kristin Horner
or just change the right.
Yeah, lift it up.
But of course, in doing so, you can lift the car right out
of its aerodynamic sweet spot and give away quite a lot forms
with just a few millimeters of change.
So that's kind of thing
that teams are always trying to balance.
And the other thing that came up trying to read this on my phone.
Yeah, you too, people have never seen an FIA statement.
They're incredibly long, incredibly wordy.
Well, maybe we'll get one of the producers to to share one
you know, on screen, but very, very, very technical.
The other kind of factor that was mentioned was potential
accidental damage that may have led to movement of the floor,
which could have caused additional wear.
So perhaps there was damage to the cars.
Yeah, I don't know.
Maybe is that maybe a ref because Piazza.
I mean, I don't know if Norris had anything,
but Piazza got a big old whack from Lawson, a term one.
Would that have?
Would that have done anything?
Because that's that's quite different.
Yeah, it's kind of impossible to know without talking to someone
at the team, which we haven't been able to do at this stage
because we've literally got this statement through and turned on the camera.
But but it would be strange if it was
in my mind, it seems strange that you have exactly the same damage
on both cars that have had different races.
And such close margins as well, relatively speaking.
So until we, you know, the fact that both cars were found to be illegal,
it does seem like McLaren just got the calculation wrong
and applied it to both cars.
But it, you know, I mean, the other interest, in fact,
during the race was that Landau got that call to lift and coast.
I was about to say, yeah, which is a way you can mitigate
Plankware, something that Ferrari have had to do a lot
since they got that disqualification in Chinese corporate.
As recently as Singapore.
I remember they were they were doing that.
You know, quite that was the lot of stuff.
Charles from the middle of the race was doing like
her and complaining about it.
And the reason for that is that at the end of the straights,
you've got basically the most downforce acting on the car.
And therefore the car has been pushed into into the track surface
as maximum points. So, you know, that leads to where
and therefore if you can mitigate that bit at the end of every straight
and not give away too much lap time overall.
I mean, Landau gave away over three seconds towards the end of the race.
But if you can do that and give away a amount of lap time
that you can live with and Landau did cross the line second still,
then you perhaps lift a little bit of that where that you're going to get
at the end of each straight where it's really hitting the ground hard
because running solo has so much downforce acting upon it.
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It suggests as well that McLaren became aware
of the problem very late.
You know, obviously too late to do anything about it.
But we all thought that was to do with fuel.
That was certainly what the message we heard was about.
We obviously don't hear everything on there.
Yeah, and lifting coasting is more commonly,
I think, in this era of engines
we've kind of associated with fuel savings
really only this year that, you know,
we've heard Ferrari say it so much
and made the parallel to Plankwa.
Yeah, well, so beyond that then,
so we've had the disqualification.
It moves, it keeps Max just happening first,
keeps George Russell up to second,
moves Andrea Kimi-Antonelli up to third position.
So double podium for Mercedes,
very important for them
in the Constructors' Championship.
Fourth position, Charles Leclerc,
which, you know, actually for Ferrari,
not a terrible race result, given how sad they were
coming into the race weekend.
Sorry, Friday, I keep getting the dates mixed up.
Yeah, I've been doing that all week.
The schedule is a bit weird for that.
But it also means that the permutation
is now going into the stretch.
These final two races, we have Qatar next weekend,
sprint race on Saturday,
then the Grand Prix on Sunday, 33 points available.
Obviously, Max just happened now,
remarkably could in theory leave that race,
leading the championship if Landon Norris
wasn't to finish and he was to win.
This now, as you say, Norris still,
the outright favorite to win this year,
is he's got effectively one race victory in his pocket.
It creates quite a difficult situation, I think,
for McLaren, you know, all that talk earlier in the year
about how do you mitigate the challenge of a Stappen,
you know, papaya rules, team orders and stuff.
I don't think they're going to implement that
two races out from the season,
but now they do have to worry about Max,
you know, in a way that they've kind of been saying
they have been all year,
but now it's a legitimate threat.
What do you think, do you think anything changes
for them going into Qatar
and the way they approach that weekend?
I mean, we've been saying all week leading up to this race,
Qatar should be a race that suits them.
That still hasn't changed over, you know,
in the last, in the course of the last two hours,
but does it change the way they approach
that race at all, do you think?
I mean, it certainly puts more pressure on
because Max is closer, so, you know,
I don't think you can get away from that.
It looked like Landon was going into Qatar basically,
assuming he got everything more or less right,
to be crowned world champion.
It doesn't really, I mean, that could happen.
For context on that, just sorry to interrupt your mate,
but that Max needed to outscore him by 17 points
as it stood before the disqualification.
Yeah, I mean, it was even possible for Max
to fall out of contention today.
Yeah, of course, yeah, of course.
He finished more than nine points behind Norris.
So, yeah, I mean, it is a significant swing
in that sense, so that does put extra pressure
on the team, but in terms of how they,
just how they go racing and what they do
and, you know, the talk of,
would they sacrifice Oscar to increase Landon's chances?
Can you imagine the internet?
Yeah, I mean, I think they've been very clear on this
and I think we have to kind of trust what they've said,
which is that until it's mathematically impossible
for one of the two drivers to win the title,
they will continue to do what they believe.
I mean, I know a lot of people disagree with me here,
but they believe to be fair treatment between the two.
So, yeah, I think it is possible, of course,
that Oscar falls out of mathematical contention
after Qatar and Max is very much in mathematical contention.
Oh, yeah.
And then for Abu Dhabi, we won't have a different situation,
but that's in line with what they've been saying, oh, yeah.
What do you think if Verstappen finishes ahead
of Piastri in the sprint,
maybe Piastri finishes a few positions behind
and you've got, maybe it's 19 points for Verstappen,
24 Piastri, and then the race,
Piastri's ahead of Norris,
but they're both behind Verstappen.
Yeah, I mean, do you sort,
well, I mean, you know.
I know it's just sort of ridiculous.
Yeah, I mean, and there's a lot
that has to happen for that to be the case.
I mean, even for them to be able to swap positions,
they need to be running line slum,
which we haven't actually seen a huge amount of recently.
There's been a huge cast between Norris and Piastri.
So, a lot of hypotheticals in there,
but no, I mean, I do believe what they've said,
and I mean, it would be a difficult PR situation anyway
if they hadn't said what they said
to start favoring Norris over Piastri,
but it would be an almost impossible one to deal with now
because of what they've said,
which is essentially until the maths add up,
the one driver is completely out of contention,
they will both be given the opportunity
to race this title.
I can't see them really changing that
going into Qatar, certainly.
No, I agree.
The one thing it has done as well is it's kept alive
this unbelievable season for Max Verstappen.
Since the summer break,
our colleague Chris Medlin pointed this out.
He was 104 points behind the then championship leader,
Oscar Piastri, coming out of the summer break.
He's now level with Piastri
and 24 points behind Max Verstappen.
Sorry, Max Verstappen.
You can tell it's 2 a.m. here in Vegas
and 24 behind Norris.
That is an unreal turnaround when you look at it.
Obviously, both McLaren drivers have had a DNF in that point,
but still, historically, we haven't seen many turnarounds
like that in a second half of the season,
certainly ones that I can remember.
Yeah, it is huge.
I mean, you've got to remember,
since the Dutch Grand Prix, the end of the Dutch Grand Prix,
Max was 104 points off Piastri
and now he's level with Piastri in that time,
and this is a reflection on Piastri and McLaren, of course.
Piastri's had a DNF in Azerbaijan
and he's been disqualified here,
so that's two zeros, you know,
and that's a lot of points given away,
and those are both races at Max-1, so that's, you know,
50 points.
And two zeros in the sprint in Austin at Max-1?
Yes, yeah, so, you know, 50 points swing,
58 points swing.
So you can start to account for it very quickly
when you look at the events, what happened.
It's not like the pure performance has led it that way.
It's what I'm trying to say.
But it's still, it's pretty historic,
is what I'm saying.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course, and also, you know,
it does reflect Piastri as the one
that put it in the barriers in Azerbaijan
and McLaren were the one that were caught
running their car too low, and that's very good.
So, you know, it does all add up,
but I don't think you can extrapolate that
into, you know, the final two races.
I think with those two, obviously,
they literally are starting from zero between each other
and with Lando, it's a slightly different situation
where he's still got those 24 points.
So I mean, it's easy to look at this and be like,
oh, Max is gonna win, but I remember
we were talking about similar stuff after Austin.
Yeah, we were.
And it only took two races of Lando
really finding his form and Max sitting some problems
for it to go the other way.
And like we spoke about in the podcast
you'll never see in Katal.
This is a really good one, by the way.
Yeah, pretty better than this
because we were a little bit more alert at the time.
Yeah, we are expecting, as you said,
that Katal will suit the McLaren.
If you look at the layout of that track,
the type of corners that are there,
the smooth track surface, it does appear
to be a circuit that is tailor-made for a McLaren.
But of course, we've also learned from these races
never to bet against Max, so.
Yeah, 100%.
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And I mean, that's the one thing,
I mean, Landon Harris is probably slightly bemused,
you know, on whatever he's doing right now,
going either to the UK or to Qatar.
But he has been the informed McLaren driver.
I think that, you know, whether it's 30 points back
for Piastro 24 still feels very difficult to back him
over the last two races to turn that around.
Obviously, it could happen, you know,
we don't know what would happen with Landon.
But I think the biggest concern now
if you're Landon is that you've, you know,
you've suddenly lost a big buffer over Max Verstappen.
And like you say, he's been performing so well.
And Verstappen, it's not like he needs an excuse
to be competitive.
He's probably the most competitive driven guy on the grid.
And now he's within, you know,
within, you know, clawing distance of that.
Yeah, I think it's a fascinating dynamic.
I mean, I was going to Qatar very much thinking
I was gonna see a title coronation there.
And I don't know, I don't know if we're gonna get that.
And I might be joining you now in Abu Dhabi,
which brings me onto my next point as a quick wrap up.
I was trying to read our producers note over the camera.
And because it's so late, I could barely see it.
My eyes are starting to shut up.
If you had to bet now who's winning the championship,
is it Norris, is it Verstappen, is it Piastro?
We're in Las Vegas.
If you were putting all your money down on one of those,
who would it be?
It's not easy, which is great.
Which is fantastic.
Ultimately, I know this is a very technical,
and you've explained it incredibly well.
It's incredibly tiny, you know,
a tiny, tiny millimeter of a millimeter,
but it has set up what is a fantastic finish to the season.
How do you think it goes?
So my head says that Landon Norris should close out,
but there's something else inside me
which I think Max Verstappen's gonna do it
because that's kind of what Max Verstappen does, actually.
Now that's not a definitive answer,
so I'll go with my head and say Landon Norris
as a definitive answer, but it's still open enough
that I don't think anyone can say that with certainty,
and that's a great place to be in to your races
from the end.
And one of the things I said
on the podcast you'll never see was that before this,
I said Landon Norris has basically given himself
one duff race in his back pocket he can have.
He can't really have that now
because a race retirement or a collision with another driver
really can hurt his chance to trip.
And that bit of jeopardy now just makes it so unpredictable.
You know, before he could have,
I remember there's been a few times
when you look at Lewis Hamilton
or it's been one or two times where Max
would win the championship by finishing second,
third or fourth.
Love those old days in the 2000s,
especially when drivers seem to just be like,
I need to finish fifth,
I'm gonna finish fifth by the barris of margins.
That now feels less likely for Norris,
he's gotta go out and nail these things.
Of course, true for the other two.
You know, if they have a deal, they're out as well.
But it is the change for Landon from what appeared to be
and what he will feel probably at the end of this weekend
deserve to be as well.
Yeah, well, this is one of his best weekends.
It was very good this weekend, you know,
the pole position nap.
And I think getting second place
was probably the best result for the McLaren
if it had run legally.
They could have hoped for as well
because of the performance that Max showed.
So, yeah, it does change it a lot for Landon,
but will that be enough to film off his stride?
I don't know, I just think he's still confident.
And if he thinks about it the right way,
he won't think about that.
He'll think more about, look,
I'm the one that's been performing consistently
over the last few races.
I've got the most performant car,
likely at the last two races.
Just go and win it.
The way I look at it now,
you've got three great storylines
whoever wins this championship.
If it's Norris, he overcomes this,
he overcomes that horrible blip he had
in the middle of the year.
He kind of has put to rest that suggestion.
He's a bit of a bottler,
which I think he's done down the stretch.
Regardless, obviously,
this wasn't anything to do with him.
This is the team thing.
If Piastri manages to win it from here,
I mean, that's the one I just can't imagine
sitting here right now.
If he does win it,
then something remarkable will happen at the last two races
and he would have done something quite amazing.
If Max wins it,
and this is why you said head and heart,
my head says Norris, my heart says Max,
even though he's won four,
this would be the most incredible championship
we've ever seen because of how far back he was,
because of the fact that we just written Red Bull out.
If he wins this,
he may never win another one,
given 20-26, Red Bull might be off the pace,
we don't know what will happen.
It would just be such an incredible championship
to write about.
All three of those, I think, are pretty compelling
and a lot of people always say,
who do you really want to win a championship?
We genuinely, usually in the media,
want to write about a great story
and I think all three of those right now
as we sit here
are really compelling stories for different reasons.
And if I sound unenthusiastic about that,
it's purely because it's 2 a.m.
in Las Vegas and we've been sitting in this room
and I don't know if you can see the carpet
if you're watching,
but when you've been looking at this carpet
in this media center for four days,
you start going a little bit insane.
If you're listening to it, just imagine the worst carpet
you've ever seen and then double it
and then it's about halfway there.
It's really bad.
I think brown, look at the colors.
Yeah, it's largely brown.
Yeah, it's headache inducing,
but that is something that Formula One is not
and this championship has not been,
maybe slightly when we were reading these statements today.
We're going to wrap it there.
Please do keep it here with us on ESPN.
Lots of reaction to come on this.
Obviously McLaren will respond to this.
We know they're going to be putting out a statement.
I'm not sure if we've missed a statement
while we've been doing this,
but that is what we understand will be coming.
And obviously we're only a few days away
from being in Qatar, talking to the teams,
and this will be a massive talking point going into that.
So please keep it here with us.
I'm Nate Saunders, Lauren Sebbinson
will be covering the last two races as always.
And like we've just said, completely unpredictable.
And Formula One, just when we thought one driver
was inching towards the championship,
a tiny, tiny little infraction,
quite literally has a bonnet quite wide open again.
Right now.
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