By KAYLYNN BETANCOURT

McLaren has been dominating the Formula 1 races at first place in addition to winning the championship for 2025. With 800 season points, a total of 14 grand prix wins, 32 grand prix podiums, 13 grand prix poles, and 41 grand prix top 10s they have no doubt been sweeping away the competition in the 2025 season. McLaren has been a seemingly unbeatable team, standing strong with Lando Norris in 1st position and Oscar Piastri right behind in 2nd position. The perfection of the team’s streak would be broken during the 2025 Las Vegas grand prix.

During the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix, on Nov 22, 2025, the McLaren team was disqualified from the Grand Prix after a technical violation was not in regulation. This caused both drivers to be unfortunately disqualified from the race. Post-race the rearmost tires on both McLaren MCL39 machines were found to be below the minimum 9mm thickness upon inspection. This was then referred to the stewards who thereafter disqualified both cars from official results, Norris finishing in second and Piastri fourth.

Both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were disqualified. Photo by Bryn Lennon- Formula 1 via Getty Images

The rules regarding the minimum regulation of plank wear exist to stop teams from running their cars at dangerously low heights in pursuit of performance. Team Chief Andrea Stella insisted that McLaren made a genuine error in Las Vegas due to lack of dry-weather practice. Stella insisted that based on practice data, he doesn’t believe McLaren took excessive risks in terms of ride height. Stella also stated that they added a safety margin for qualifying and the race, in comparison to practice in terms of clearance to the ground. Stella had explained that the specific cause for excessive wear was an unexpected occurrence of extensive porpoising. Propoising occurs when the underside of the car gets so close to the track’s surface that airflow rushing underneath stalls and creates a moment of loss of downforce.

Norris and Piastri finished second and fourth in Las Vegas, but would later lose this position and points. Photo by Bryn Lennon- Formula 1 via Getty Images. 

It was attempted to mitigate the issue by telling the drivers to lift and coast at the end of straights when the aerodynamic load of the car is at its most extreme. However, the problem ultimately persisted on both vehicles. The level of porpoising caused a high level of skid wear energy, this is the reason why both McLaren drivers started  to take remedial actions in parts of the circuit. It was also seen that because of the car operating window and circuit characteristics, most of the actions were not effective enough in reducing porpoising. Over the course of a grand prix, Formula 1’s technical regulations allow for 1mm of wear to the composite plank fitted to the underside of the car, with measurements taken at four holes that are protected by titanium. 

Needless to say, other teams have also faced this issue with Lewis Hamilton(Ferrari) and Nico Hulkenberg(Kick Sauber) also facing disqualification for the same issue: in the Chinese and Bahrain Grand Prix respectively. The McLaren drivers had little to no issue recovering despite the complication with technical regulation. Piastri recovered from a drop to P7 on the opening lap, finishing 5th on-the-road but moving up a position after Kimi Antonelli(Mercedes) was given a five-second penalty for false start. The team at McLaren did a wonderful job in getting the race back on track with strategy, with the disqualification being the highlight of the race.