McLaren explained the reason for the disqualification.

      After the Las Vegas race both McLaren drivers were disqualified for breaching the technical regulations — skid plank wear exceeded the permitted limits. Ahead of the round in Qatar, team principal Andrea Stella explained the reasons.

      Andrea Stella: “The immediate cause of the excessive skid plank wear was the unexpected onset of intense porpoising, which produced large vertical oscillations of the car. The problem was exacerbated by the conditions in which the car ran during the race and was unforeseen — after practice we did not expect anything like this in the race.

      Based on the data gathered in practice, we do not believe we took an excessive risk in terms of reducing ride height. On the contrary, we increased it somewhat for qualifying and the race, creating the necessary margin. But that margin was nullified by the unexpected emergence of large vertical oscillations, which caused the car to bottom out.

      During the race it proved difficult to mitigate the porpoising because even reducing speed, which theoretically should have increased ride height, only worked on some parts of the circuit and had a counterproductive effect on others.

      It became clear within the opening laps that the unexpectedly high level of porpoising would be a concern. With the help of telemetry we were better able to monitor Lando’s car, but it became harder with Oscar’s car after we lost the signal from one of the sensors.

      We fairly quickly understood that such a level of porpoising leads to intensive tyre wear; for that reason both drivers began to take measures to rectify the situation on different parts of the track. Unfortunately, due to the characteristics of the car and the circuit, most of those measures proved insufficiently effective.

      The conditions we faced over the weekend, which led to excessive porpoising with contact with the asphalt, are characteristic of the car’s operating window in Las Vegas and of the track’s features.

      We have a well-honed approach to setting up the car, and we are confident it will prevent a similar effect at other circuits, starting with Qatar. Nevertheless, the Las Vegas experience gave us useful information about the car’s operating range and the consequences of porpoising.”