Oscar Piastri of Australia drives the McLaren MCL39 Mercedes during the F1 Grand Prix of Las Vegas at Las Vegas Strip Circuit on 22 November 2025 in Nevada. (Photo: Alex Bierens de Haan / Getty Images) 
Who knew that a wooden plank, more closely associated with a horse-drawn cart from another era, could be what denies Lando Norris the Formula One (F1) world title.
On Sunday, 23 November 2025, McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were disqualified from the Las Vegas Grand Prix, allowing reigning F1 world champion Max Verstappen to stay firmly in his hunt for a fifth world title.
A post-race inspection found that both McLaren cars were in breach of FIA regulations as the rearmost skid wear was below the allotted minimum 9mm thickness — a fractional breach with heavy consequences.
/file/attachments/2985/TL_2456796_674556_d238b62752a7e6bb581089b21b83f5ac.jpg "Lando Norris has been put under undue pressure to claim his Maiden F1 title after a regulations breach on his car. (Photo by Michael Potts/Gallo Images).")
As a result, Verstappen, who won the Las Vegas Grand Prix, is tied with Piastri at 366 points and only 24 points behind Norris, who has 390. With only two rounds to go, in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, and 58 points up for grabs, the championship is suddenly wobbling on a sliver of wood.
Fine margins
On Sunday the news broke of the McLaren drivers’ disqualification after the stewards revealed in a statement that both cars were below the 9mm skid block limit.
Piastri had three illegal measurements as his front right of the plank was 8.74mm, the front left 8.96mm and the right-hand side rear 8.90mm.
Two illegal measurements were found on Norris’ car as the right front was 8.88mm and the right rear 8.93m.
Both infringements are essentially as fine as a grain of sand, which averages between 0.06mm and 0.2mm, meaning McLaren were in breach by the tiniest of margins.
The plank on the underbelly of an F1 car was introduced in 1994, after the San Marino Grand Prix weekend that saw the fatal crashes of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger, to enforce a minimum ride height for F1 cars.
/file/attachments/2985/2248009746_389693_e697e237320c4465d57ecf7fb6bc76a3.jpg "Lando Norris of Great Britain leads Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and the rest of the field at the start of the F1 Grand Prix of Las Vegas at Las Vegas Strip Circuit. (Photo: Mark Thompson / Getty Images)")
The plank assembly acts as a safety measure limiting how low teams can run their cars, therefore reducing cornering speeds and avoiding sudden drops in downforce, which can be dangerous.
However, it also prevents teams from gaining an unfair advantage as the lower the car is to the ground, the more downforce it produces and the faster the car can go.
According to FIA regulations, specifically Article 3.5.9, the thickness of the plank must be 10mm, give or take 0.2mm. A minimum thickness of 9mm is allowed after a session due to wear.
This is not the first time an infringement like this has happened this year. In the Chinese Grand Prix in March, Lewis Hamilton was disqualified after the skid blocks on his car were less than the minimum depth, with the plank wearing down to 8.5mm at its worst spot.
Kick Sauber’s Nico Hülkenberg was disqualified not long after in the Bahrain Grand Prix in April over a skid block breach, with the plank wearing down to 8.4mm at its worst spot.
Mitigating circumstances
In a statement released by McLaren, team principal Andrea Stella apologised to both drivers for the breach in regulations.
“During the race, both cars experienced unexpected, high levels of porpoising not seen in the practice sessions, which led to excessive contact with the ground. We are investigating the reasons for this behaviour of the car, including the effect of accidental damage sustained by both cars, which we found after the race, and that led to an increase of movement of the floor,” said Stella.
McLaren also argued that due to bad weather on the first day and shortened practice sessions, the team was unable to properly test the cars. Additionally, the team submitted that the non-compliance was lower than that of Hamilton’s and Hülkenberg’s infringements earlier this year.
The FIA acknowledged these mitigating factors, but due to the no-grey-area rules the standard penalty of a disqualification had to be applied. This is despite the stewards stating that they “strongly” held the view that the breach was not a malicious and deliberate attempt to evade regulations.
Signs that something was amiss came towards the end of the grand prix when Norris was told to slow down, seemingly to save fuel. Norris was running in second behind Verstappen and his gap dropped from five seconds to 21 seconds, and he marginally stayed ahead of George Russell by three seconds.
However, it was later revealed that the McLaren pit wall was trying to not worsen degradation on the plank.
“We had to do some managing towards the end of the race, and now we know it was due to some issues on our car, which have unfortunately resulted in us being disqualified,” said Norris in a statement.
A battle to the end
The final two meetings of the season are sure to be exciting as the three rivals will most likely battle it out to the end.
The next race in Qatar on 30 November is also a sprint weekend. Norris must outscore both Verstappen and Piastri by at least two points in Doha, and while it may seem like a done deal, this weekend proved that a championship title can even be undone by a seemingly old-school sliver of wood. DM