Zak Brown shuts down Las Vegas conspiracy talk

Both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri lost their second and fourth places respectively when post‑race checks revealed that the rear skid wear on their cars was below the minimum 9 mm thickness required by the rules.

Brown acknowledged that the timing of the decision, in the middle of a tight championship battle, inevitably fuelled suspicions among fans but made clear he does not believe the FIA tried to manipulate the title fight. He stressed that McLaren accepts responsibility for the infringement and will not use conspiracy narratives as an excuse for losing a major haul of points in Las Vegas.

What caused McLaren’s disqualification?

Both McLaren MCL39s were excluded from the final Las Vegas classification after FIA technical delegates measured excessive wear on the rearmost part of the skid block. The skid block – mounted under the car’s floor – is tightly regulated to prevent teams from running their cars too low and gaining an aerodynamic advantage from increased ground effect.

McLaren’s internal analysis attributed the problem to unexpected levels of porpoising over the bumpy Las Vegas street circuit. According to team principal Andrea Stella, the severity of the bouncing in race conditions had not been predicted from practice data, especially as earlier sessions were affected by rain and did not reflect the final grip and fuel loads.

Brown: harsh penalty, but rules are rules

Brown has been clear that, while McLaren views the punishment as disproportionate, the stewards applied the regulations correctly given the clear technical breach. He described the infringement as “very minor” in physical terms – reportedly on the order of the thickness of a sheet of paper.

Brown revealed that the FIA itself is reviewing how penalties are handled in marginal cases and considers the automatic disqualification triggered by this kind of minimal infringement to be “draconian”.

The McLaren CEO also pointed out that other leading teams, including Ferrari and Mercedes, have been disqualified in recent seasons for similar skid‑wear issues, reinforcing his argument that such infractions can occur without any deliberate attempt to cheat.

Why conspiracy theories emerged

The decision to disqualify both McLarens dramatically reshaped the 2025 title picture, turning a strong weekend for Norris and Piastri into a zero‑point catastrophe and giving a major boost to Max Verstappen’s championship hopes. Before the penalty, Norris was poised to leave Las Vegas with a sizeable advantage; after the exclusion, that margin shrank significantly.

Because of this swing, some fans speculated that the FIA had targeted McLaren to artificially spice up the championship fight, especially as the plank irregularity was small and affected both cars in the same way.

Brown’s clear rejection of claims

Brown admitted that many people around him raised the possibility of an orchestrated move against McLaren, but he has publicly distanced himself from that view. He underlined that, as someone who regularly calls for strict enforcement of regulations when rivals are under scrutiny, he cannot demand leniency when the same rulebook is applied to McLaren.

For Brown, the focus now is on learning from the error, ensuring the plank‑wear margins are more conservative at future events, and trying to recover the lost ground in the remaining rounds of the 2025 season rather than fuelling narratives that question the integrity of the FIA.