McLaren ride height theory emerges after Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri incident
McLaren was forced to run a “conservative” ride height for the United States Grand Prix after the collision between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in the sprint race left the team with a lack of data.
That is the claim of Ted Kravitz, the Sky F1 reporter, who says McLaren had to compromise the MCL39 car’s performance in order to guard against a potential disqualification threat at the Circuit of the Americas.
Did Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris clash force McLaren into ‘conservative’ US GP setup?Despite clinching a second consecutive constructors’ championship earlier this month, McLaren is without a win since the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August.
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen collected his third win in the last four races in the United States last Sunday, with Mercedes’ George Russell triumphing in Singapore.
Verstappen’s fifth victory of the F1 2025 season has increased his hopes of winning a fifth consecutive title, with the Dutchman trailing championship leader Piastri by just 40 points with five rounds remaining.
Analysis: United States Grand Prix👉 US GP conclusions: Verstappen’s big chance, more Piastri evidence, Ferrari culture clash
👉 US Grand Prix driver ratings: Verstappen shines with Piastri anonymous
McLaren was widely regarded as the favourite entering the United States Grand Prix weekend due to the high temperatures in Austin, with thermal degradation proving a key strength of the MCL39.
However, the team endured a frustrating weekend as Piastri and teammate Lando Norris both retired from Saturday’s sprint race after colliding at the first corner.
Norris ultimately finished a distant second to Verstappen in Sunday’s main event, having slipped behind Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari at the start, with Piastri coming home a disappointing fifth.
Appearing on Sky F1’s coverage of the United States Grand Prix, Kravitz claimed that McLaren’s lack of running in the sprint race left the team with no option but to make a conservative setup choice for the remainder of the weekend, costing Norris and Piastri performance in the process.
He said: “It was all made worse for McLaren in the sprint race.
“Because in Oscar’s ill-judged move with Nico Hulkenberg at the front, that hit him into Lando Norris.
“And because neither McLaren did the sprint race, they didn’t know how the car was going to be on its ride heights.
“They didn’t know how to set the ride height to the perfect position – to be as close to the ground [as possible] and get nice downforce, but not wear away the legality plank.
“So they had to be conservative. McLaren had to raise the car up a little bit and give themselves some margin, so performance just ebbed away.
“And Red Bull? Max won the sprint.
“They knew exactly how to run their car so they’d be as close to the ground as possible, giving maximum downforce and not wearing away the plank.
“They got it spot on. Ferrari got it spot on. Mercedes got it spot on.
“But McLaren had to take some margin.”
More on McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris from PlanetF1.comThe bumpy Circuit of the Americas has offered a tricky technical challenge for teams in the current ground-effect era, in which the car’s underbody generates a significant proportion of its overall downforce.
If the car runs too close to the ground, however, teams risk being disqualified due to excessive wear to the skid blocks underneath the chassis.
Lewis Hamilton, then of Mercedes, and Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc were both famously disqualified from the 2023 United States Grand Prix after their cars failed post-race checks to the skid blocks.
Hamilton was also excluded at the second round of the F1 2025 season in China for the same offence, bringing into sharp focus Ferrari’s fundamental issues with the SF-25 car’s ride height.
The team has been forced to manage the problem in the months since, raising the car’s ride height at the expense of performance to prevent a repeat.
Leclerc and Hamilton have also regularly been instructed to lift and coast on long straights to reduce the aerodynamic load on the car and prevent the car’s underbody from being pushed into the track surface.
Read next: PF1 verdict: Can Max Verstappen pull off McLaren upset and win the F1 2025 title?
planetf1.com
