Poll: Official 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix Race Thread - Las Vegas Strip Circuit - Race 22/24

[Scam]

Lewis done the same for Brazil '21 and trounced the field from the back.

The engine will make a minute difference in the grand scheme of things

Two completely opposite statements surely?
Add the fact Max’s performance last weekend with the new engine then it is clear to see that has a major (if not the biggest ) effect on the car’s performance. Compare that to the fact that apparently “rules are rules” and riding the car too low is punishable by disqualification — how does that figure that taking an additional engine over the allocation only gives you a pit lane start. It doesn’t add up.

And we haven’t even got into the cost cap ramifications of that new engine which is what McLaren were querying. More sandwiches for RB again?

 

[decto]

People talking about Max's engine replacement, was he not penalised then? I think I've missed this somewhere. When was it replaced and what penalty was or should have been given ?

The plank wear thing.... Can they not just let them all run it as low as they want and if the car breaks or catches fire or the driver gets arse rash, we just go "meh" and carry on?

The plank rule is for driver safety, when a car bottoms out it doesn't brake or steer as effectively which may not work out well for the driver, or anyone in front of them when they arrive at a corner. (Senna?)
It was also tweaked in 2022 to prevent drivers getting spinal injury when the bottom of the car is continually hitting the ground.

The existing setup allows for occasional ground contact, there is always a limit
There is already a 0.2mm tolerance on the starting thickness of 10mm so you can almost guarantee the teams start at 10.249 mm

Other cars could have been faster if they ran lower... but they didn't so McLaren get DSQ just the same as if the car was 0.1kg underweight at the end.

 

[Jono8]

If this was an intentional decision to run the car on such a fine margin, McLaren are stupid. Norris still would have likely to ished 3rd or 4th even if he was a bit slower .

Not sure how it could be worth the risk at this stage in the season.

 

[Personality+]

If this was an intentional decision to run the car on such a fine margin, McLaren are stupid. Norris still would have likely to ished 3rd or 4th even if he was a bit slower .

Not sure how it could be worth the risk at this stage in the season.

Pure idiocy indeed.

 

[Mesai]

Was Oscar lifting and coasting? Anyway I thought the LIcO was for fuel, not wear.

It also causes the car to spend less time at top speed where downforce is higher. Going off throttle earlier was to limit plank wear.

 

[Alibaba99]

Fundamental question is, why in 2025, and in the premier racing sport, they need to use wood planks.

They don't use a wood plank these days, is a glass reinforced composite. But what ever they use, it needs to be something that has a consistent wear rate so that, hopefully, the teams can set the ride height correctly for the race.

 

[cuke2u]

They don't use a wood plank these days, is a glass reinforced composite. But what ever they use, it needs to be something that has a consistent wear rate so that, hopefully, the teams can set the ride height correctly for the race.

Actually it can be either fiberglass or a wood compis constructed from layers of beechwood and resin. Neither is it really a safety device to protect the drivers, it is there to set a ride height so as to limit cornering speeds.

Skid block - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Mesai]

Actually it can be either fiberglass or a wood compis constructed from layers of beechwood and resin. Neither is it really a safety device to protect the drivers, it is there to set a ride height so as to limit cornering speeds.

Skid block - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Part of reducing cornering speeds is for driver safety. It’s also there to reduce impact risk if the car bottoms out. If robots drove the cars then they probably wouldn’t bother with those measures.

 

[cuke2u]

Part of reducing cornering speeds is for driver safety. It’s also there to reduce impact risk if the car bottoms out. If robots drove the cars then they probably wouldn’t bother with those measures.

Yes but not in the manner that was aforementioned. I found more details here https://f1mix.com/why-do-f1-cars-have-a-wooden-plank.
Unfortunately porpoising even with the plank fitted still resulted in drivers spines receiving severe jolts.

 

[Scam]

Going off throttle earlier was to limit plank wear.

Source? There’s no way the teams can measure plank wear whilst driving around the circuit. LICO was for fuel saving.

 

[Mesai]

Source? There’s no way the teams can measure plank wear whilst driving around the circuit. LICO was for fuel saving.

Obviously, hence the disqualification, but there are a load of media photos with the McLarens sparking, plus the team likely already considered it given their uncertainties with the setup.

If they were out of fuel too, that makes them an even bigger joke, but Ferrari and Merc have used lico over plank wear concerns in the past.

 

[cuke2u]

The drivers had fed back to the pit wall that their cars were experiencing unusually high levels of porpoising. I'm sure, with the visual excessive sparking, this would have raised their concerns. Same has occurred with the Ferrari's this season where both their drivers were told to lift and coast because of plank wear concerns.

 

[BuffetSlayer]

Oh dear. It is McLaren's WDC to lose and they seem intent on making victory as difficult as possible for themselves. This DSQ will test Lando's mettle.

I have a feeling starting to emerge that this could well go Max's way after all! And fair play if it does, his performance this season has been outstanding.

Roll on the next race weekend.

*Grabs popcorn*

 

[alchal]

Really?

Nico in Bahrain this year.
Lewis in China this year.
Lewis and Charles at Austin in 2023.

Those are the recent ones I can remember.

I ment championships..

 

[Jono8]

I did think Piastri's car was broken or that he'd picked up debris at one point in the race due to the amount of sparks...

 

[Jono8]

Oh dear. It is McLaren's WDC to lose and they seem intent on making victory as difficult as possible for themselves. This DSQ will test Lando's mettle.

I have a feeling starting to emerge that this could well go Max's way after all! And fair play if it does, his performance this season has been outstanding.

Roll on the next race weekend.

*Grabs popcorn*

I hope Lando doesn't face more bad luck/things out of his control which cause him to lose it though.

Max has been very good this season, but if he does win it, I'd like to see him win it on merit/due to mistakes from Lando himself.

If Lando's car blows up again in the last two races or something, and it costs him the championship it will be annoying.

 

[GravyMonster]

Especially as Max got to take an engine in Brazil for free given the RB's **** poor qualifying.

 

[Alibaba99]

Source? There’s no way the teams can measure plank wear whilst driving around the circuit. LICO was for fuel saving.

The cars are fitted with ride height sensors, so the teams do know that they are running lower than they should.

 

[Dr Jack]

Hard to think how this could have gone worse for Norris really. His start vulnerability was back, giving Max an easy pass at the start, not coming close to his pace during the race, and then he gets DSQ'd throwing things from looking he was comfortable going into the last race, just needing one decent result to mathematically secure the WDC, to having Max within a race win.

Still think this is Norris' to lose and if the last two tracks swing back to favouring McLaren is could easily be a comfortable win for either McLaren. Piastri could still take this if he recovers his mid-season pace but only if Norris drops points behind him. Sprint-win-win doesn't give him enough points if Norris takes 2-2-2 in the same events, he needs Norris to drop another 9 points somewhere. Same for Max.

Also, nice to see Kimi take consecutive podiums. He wasn't up there with Russell today, but it was a confident and mature drive from him. Managing a massively long stint to the end, and pulling the gap he needed to lose just one place from his penalty.

 

[jonneymendoza]

Hard to think how this could have gone worse for Norris really. His start vulnerability was back, giving Max an easy pass at the start, not coming close to his pace during the race, and then he gets DSQ'd throwing things from looking he was comfortable going into the last race, just needing one decent result to mathematically secure the WDC, to having Max within a race win.

Still think this is Norris' to lose and if the last two tracks swing back to favouring McLaren is could easily be a comfortable win for either McLaren. Piastri could still take this if he recovers his mid-season pace but only if Norris drops points behind him. Sprint-win-win doesn't give him enough points if Norris takes 2-2-2 in the same events, he needs Norris to drop another 9 points somewhere. Same for Max.

Also, nice to see Kimi take consecutive podiums. He wasn't up there with Russell today, but it was a confident and mature drive from him. Managing a massively long stint to the end, and pulling the gap he needed to lose just one place from his penalty.

I just saw the race last night on catchup tv and avoided all social media stuff . After i checked out the race my mate said I should go check social median straight after…. And i did, what a farce. FIA are doing there best to make Max win the title.