Constructors’ leaders McLaren had a disappointing end to the weekend in the streets of Sin City. Drivers’ Vice-Champion Lando Norris has lost out as the Drivers’ title has gone Dutch once again this season.
Qualifying woes
As the Las Vegas street circuit required a low downforce setup, McLaren brought along only a front wing upgrade to suit the cold environment of the track.
Drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri safely made it through both Q1 and Q2. The third phase came in a delay, however, due to the time needed for the marshals to clean up the track surface and barrier inspection by officials. This came as a result of Williams’ Franco Colapinto’s unfortunate heavy collision with the barrier.
Norris qualified a decent sixth and Piastri eighth, echoing their respective race finishes in the previous round in Interlagos.
Adaptability appeared to be the main issue for the Papaya team. Team principal Andrea Stella attributed their struggling qualifying performance to the interaction of their car with this particular circuit.
While their only upgrade this time was a low-drag component, he believed that the link between the car, track and tyre was an important point to do well on this track.
“In these conditions, it does very much have to do with the characteristics of your car and how it interacts with the tyres, because the grip is so low that as soon as you can generate a little bit more temperature, or a little bit more grip, it’s one of those in which you have confidence, therefore you can push more, therefore you can generate more grip, and you start a virtuous cycle.” – Andrea Stella, after the Las Vegas qualifying session.
He also believed that the drivers would need proper adjustments with the grip, according to the track and the cold weather conditions.
A regrettable round
Their struggles continued until race day. Oscar Piastri had a blunder as he placed his MCL38 slightly too forward in his grid slot at the end of the formation lap. As a result, he was provided a five-second time penalty for a false start.
In the first few laps of the race, McLaren found it difficult to catch up to Ferrari and Mercedes. Although equipped with hard tyres just like the other drivers, poor management of their tyres prevented them from overtaking as many cars as possible.
There were occasions of brilliance throughout the race. Piastri and Lewis Hamilton were caught in a short overtaking battle. The Australian successfully ended up in front of the Brit for a couple of laps.
Unfortunately, after serving his penalty ahead of his first pit stop, Piastri had to settle for 18th place when he returned to the track.
However, keeping up with the pure pace shown by Mercedes was still challenging. Piastri and Norris were found outside the top ten as they approached the halfway point of the race.
Towards the end, the Papaya team were on their way to securing points outside the top five. Norris pitted in the penultimate lap, aiming for the fastest lap point.
They finished their Las Vegas Grand Prix with Norris in P6, where he started. Piastri followed behind his teammate as he crossed the line in P7, only a place gained from the qualifying session.
For a team that has had the fastest car on track for the majority of the season, this was rather a disappointing result.
End of the title fight
From a statistical perspective, Norris was the only driver besides Max Verstappen to have been in contention for the Drivers’ title earlier for most of the season. However, everyone in the community, including Norris, seemed to have resigned to the fact that the championship crown did not belong to him this year.
While praising his title rival, the final stages of the season eventually led him to believe that he would be much more ready for the battle in the future.
Now losing the Drivers’ Championship battle to Max Verstappen with two race weekends remaining, Norris alongside the team will remain focused on winning the Constructors’ title.
Narrowing down to a 24-point margin to Ferrari, McLaren will once again be on the hunt for more points in the final two races. Their quest to maintain their lead in the Constructors’ standings continues.
