{"id":303531,"date":"2025-11-23T13:12:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T13:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/303531\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T13:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T13:12:10","slug":"the-critical-breach-which-triggered-lando-norris-and-oscar-piastri-dsq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/303531\/","title":{"rendered":"The critical breach which triggered Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri\u00a0DSQ"},"content":{"rendered":"

The humble plank, a once actual piece of wood strapped to the bottom of a Formula One car, has helped the FIA to govern the ride height limit of the car since 1994.<\/p>\n

Almost completely overlooked for the last few decades, this generation of car has proved to be much more problematic in terms of compliance, with numerous teams and drivers falling foul of the legality limit, as McLaren and their drivers became the latest of those to be disqualified after a race for excessive wear.<\/p>\n

Why planks play a vital role in Formula 1<\/p>\n

The plank was introduced in an effort to slow down the cars after the tragic events of Imola in 1994, where Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna lost their lives. The idea was that teams would have to raise their cars, having taken to running them as low as possible in order to improve the performance of the floor and diffuser, at the expense of safety.<\/p>\n

The plank therefore not only acts as a direct safety measure, it also offers a means to measure how much the car has come into contact with the track\u2019s surface throughout the course of a session, with a minimum thickness of 9mm required in order that the car be deemed legal.<\/p>\n

The plank, which is now made of permaglass, a glass reinforced composite, rather than Jabroc as it was in the past and still is in other series, must be 10mm (+\/- 0.2mm) and therefore offers just 1mm of tolerance when measurements are taken at the end of a session.<\/p>\n

To measure this wear there are four holes drilled into the plank at specific locations, for which the teams can place titanium skids around in order to help defend against excessive damage to the plank.<\/p>\n

More from the Las Vegas Grand Prix<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Las Vegas GP: Viva Max Verstappen as Lando Norris pays for Lap 1 mistake \u2013 and McLaren blunder<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Updated F1 points standings after Las Vegas Grand Prix<\/a><\/p>\n

In the time that\u2019s passed since 1994 there\u2019s only been two instances of drivers being disqualified for excessive plank wear, up until 2023, with Michael Schumacher and Olivier Panis\u2019 cars being deemed illegal following the Belgian and Estoril Grand Prix respectively.<\/p>\n

In 2023, both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were found to have excessive wear at the United States Grand Prix, whilst the Brit befell the same fate at the Chinese Grand Prix this season.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Nico Hulkenberg has also been disqualified this season, when the plank on his Sauber was deemed to be excessively worn in Bahrain.<\/p>\n

\"McLaren<\/p>\n

The latest disqualifications for the McLaren duo in Las Vegas obviously have some serious ramifications for the Drivers\u2019 Championship and proves how difficult it is to find the right performance balance with this generation of car, especially during a race weekend with changeable conditions.<\/p>\n

The rear skids on Lando Norris\u2019 car were found to be 8.88mm on the right-hand side front and 8.93mm on the right-hand side rear. Meanwhile, the rear skids on Oscar Piastri\u2019s car were measured and found to be 8.96mm on the left-hand side front, 8.74mm on the right-hand side front and 8.90mm on the right-hand side rear.<\/p>\n

In order to ensure compliance, the FIA used a Mitutoyo Micrometre to measure this, which is accurate to within 0.001mm.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also understood that teams, having seen a need to run their cars as low as possible for performance gains, have also taken to installing temperature sensors on the skids, in order to monitor the heat that\u2019s being generated.<\/p>\n

This would allow them to calculate any wear that\u2019s occurring and offer them the opportunity to instruct their drivers to lift and coast in order that the plank\/skids aren\u2019t forced into the track as much at high speeds.<\/p>\n

Commenting after the race, Andrea Stella noted: \u201cBoth cars experienced unexpected, high levels of porpoising not seen in the practice sessions, which led to excessive contact with the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0Lewis Hamilton makes damning Ferrari claim in \u2018worst season ever\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

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