A few days after the Las Vegas GP we find ourselves with a huge and colossal doubt. Why did Norris do such slow laps at the end of the race? In the last five passes he maintained an average pace 3 seconds slower than Verstappen. Fifteen of the leader's 20-second gap emerged at this stage. The evidence is known to all, but why did it become necessary?
The futile attempt to save Norris
Initially, a fuel problem was hypothesized. Hypothesis also made by Norris himself, once he got out of the car. However, both McLarens were later disqualified for excessive wear on the skates on the back of the car; Lando commented on the FIA's decision saying: “A frustrating ending. We had to do some’ management towards the end of the race and now we know it was due to some problems we had with the car. Circumstances that unfortunately led to our disqualification”.
It is a pity, however, that these considerations are being toned down on all sides. The wall could not have asked him to proceed slowly for fear of consuming too much of the fund. Cars tend to consume more of the underbody in the early part of the race, with the weight of the fuel tending to lower the ground clearance even further than at the end of the race, when the car is more unloaded.
Ordering Lando to slow down with five laps to go would be a late move and without any real advantage. At that point Norris could no longer be saved.
Which brings us back to where we started. Why brake the pilot's gait like this? Maybe the team realized the problem and pretended to have another one to look for a pseudo-form of misdirection? Fanciful hypothesis forged by the editor's mind.
McLaren had porpoising, but the slowdown is still unexplained
No… We're definitely missing something. What we do know, however, is that, contrary to what Norris reported, it would appear that at least team principal Andrea Stella said something true. Piastri and Norris' cars unexpectedly suffered from porpoise.
Statement confirmed today by ‘Auto Motor und Sport’. According to the well-known German newspaper, television images clearly showed porpoises on Piastri's car, while as for Norris, it was George Russell (the driver who had the opportunity to observe car number 4 up close during the race) who confirmed everything to journalists.
Of course, since the MCL39 was suffering from porpoise, slowing down with five laps to go certainly gave Norris a chance to limit the wear a bit’, but by then the damage was done. Slowing down in the final 5 laps over a race distance of 50 laps in total certainly could not avoid Lando's disqualification. McLaren should have taken precautions in time, once they understood the problem.
A world champion team that ran higher than expected in Austin because they failed to collect accurate enough data during the Sprint should have immediately understood what they were getting into.
Skid thickness measurements carried out on cars (9 mm is the minimum value permitted by the regulations).
Norris: 8.88mm for the right front skid; 8.93mm for the right rear skid;
Piastri: 8.96 mm for the left front skid; 8.74 mm for the right front skid and 8.90 mm for the right rear skid.
Photo: McLaren
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All the news, photos, weather, session times and times from the Las Vegas GP 2025
