🎰 F1'25 R22: Double Disqualification

🌟 Editor's Note

An intercontinental triple-header at the end of the longest F1 season ever feels especially taxing

🗓️ What’s coming up…

I must confess, being in the UK, I did not watch the Las Vegas Grand Prix live at 4am UK time (it was also my wedding anniversary), but the replay was scheduled for 8am.

As it finished, I finally checked my phone and saw there was an investigation into both Lando Norris’ 2nd place and Oscar Piastri’s fourth.

The offender was the plank, which sounds like I’m sending a very British insult at someone. Instead, it’s the base of the car that is there to ensure cars follow ride height regulations, give or take some strategically placed pieces of metal. If the plank wears down by more than 1mm, then you win a wasted weekend and some hastily composed statements by your PR team that will almost certainly contain the word integrity.

While watching the Grand Prix, I wondered about the radio chatter between Lando Norris and his engineer Will Joseph. What seemed like bravado on lap 33 “Overtake him. Overtake him. We’re going to go get Max” turned to what seemed like desperation a few laps later.

Consider this statement: “Let’s just do whatever we got to do, please, so tell me whatever I got to do.” The reply was “Okay, in which case just do more.” Initially, I thought do more was either an instruction to save fuel, lifting and coasting with no challenge behind, or to throw everything behind a last-ditch challenge to Max Verstappen, but instead, it seemed as though McLaren knew there was going to be an issue and tried to mitigate it. 

I am no body language expert, but those eagle-eyed viewers would tell you that Norris did not celebrate his second, knowing what was about to happen.

Despite their best efforts at mitigation, both on track and with the stewards, it didn’t work for either driver and both were excluded, giving a glimmer of hope to both Piastri and Verstappen. But, no one seems to be talking about Piastri, despite him being 24 points back, same as the Red Bull driver. However, even at 24 back, it feels as though there is an air of inevitability about Lando Norris claiming his first Drivers’ title. If he finishes two points clear of the other contenders he wins the title with a race to spare.

The team have apologised to the drivers, the sponsors and the fans, potentially in that order, and fan reactions have ranged from “it was only a little bit over the rules” to “it’s a fair cop, let’s move on to the next race”. That it affected both drivers helped avoid some of the unhinged conspiracy chatter that a small proportion of each driver’s fanbase had been accusing McLaren of.

You simply can’t avoid the punishment for this, and despite McLaren (rightfully) making every possible argument they could think of, the rules are there for a reason, and are easily measurable. You can compare it to Kimi Antonelli’s false start, for example, where the replay did not make it clear where he jumped the lights, but there was a very slight, not even full revolution of a tyre that got caught.

Mercedes and Antonelli played a blinder after that, with the Italian making his hard Pirellis last almost the full race distance. There are differing opinions about what this means, with either Pirelli failing to provide the proper drama that deliberately degrading tyres offers, or congratulating Antonelli on a driving masterclass to secure an eventual third after the double DSQ ahead of him. In a virtual world utterly devoid of nuance, the truth is more grey (silver?) than black or white here, with both statements probably being true to some degree.

Pirelli are getting their defences in early, avoiding the twilight tyre fire in Lusail by mandating that stint lengths can be no longer than 25 laps in Qatar. George Russell finished fourth here last year after starting on pole and a driver with nothing at stake is a dangerous spoiler for all three contenders. (I’d love to say that Ferrari might be the same, but…) If there is to be a title fight, a repeat of last year’s result (Max 26 points, Lando 9, Oscar 23) would make for a fun battle in Abu Dhabi, but even the most optimistic fan would not count on this happening.

There are 33 points for a maximum in Qatar, so conceivably Norris could clinch the title, or Verstappen/Piastri could head to Abu Dhabi as the championship leader with one race weekend to send off this era of cars before we confuse ourselves with terms like X-mode. Most teams already have more than one eye on 2026, but despite the month between the end of this era and the unveiling of the future, there is still plenty of drama left to come in the final two races.

📖 What you might have missed

Invicta Racing would like to remind you that Formula 2 is back for the last two rounds. There is a small merry-go-round of driver movement.

Speaking of driver movement, Mick Schumacher will join IndyCar, racing for Rahal Letterman Lanigan long name racing

All three F1 Academy champions in one video.

🪦 The headline reference 

All the headlines in 2025 are wrestling references.

Double DSQ is a wonderful way to advance a storyline, normally in a tournament. King of the Ring 1996 became known as the Austin 3:16 speech.

Thanks for reading