Ex-F1 team boss blames ground-effect risk for McLaren’s Vegas disaster

The former Haas F1 team boss, in his analysis of what led to McLaren’s disqualification on the Drive to Wynn podcast, noted that the papaya-coloured team pushed their cars to the maximum in pursuit of performance, which ultimately led to excessive plank wear.

“I think what went wrong is, with these cars, you need to go to the limit to get performance out of them. Everybody knew that McLaren here last year didn't perform as they wanted, and they said, ‘We found out what was wrong,’” he said.

“But maybe a little bit too much, they found out and got it wrong. This can happen; it happened a few times this year with these ground-effect cars. The lower you run, the faster you go, and the more downforce you get, but you expose yourself to the risk of being disqualified because you wear the plank out,” he added.

Steiner also pointed to the wet conditions during free practice and qualifying as a possible factor in McLaren’s ride-height misjudgement.

“It’s very difficult to manage, and here, what was also one of the problems, is that it was raining in free practice. You don’t get any real data because you’re not going at the same speeds as in dry conditions, so you don’t really see the cars,” he concluded.

At the Las Vegas Grand Prix, McLaren saw their double-points finish swiftly turn into a forgettable outing after both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri had their cars disqualified from the race for a plank-wear infringement.

Norris has revealed his focus remains unchanged after the disqualification blow to his title hopes at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver, who still leads the standings by 24 points, stated he remains keen on putting up the best performances in the final two rounds of the campaign.

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