McLaren team boss Andrea Stella says there is a bump that needs to be removed from the circuit at the site where Lando Norris had his crash during the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The Briton span and slammed into the wall on lap three of the Las Vegas GP at Turn 11, and needed to have precautionary medical checks undertaken at a local hospital in the aftermath.
“There’s a bump in that place, you can see all the cars spark when they go through this bump,” Stella said to the press.
“I think the combination of the bump and cold tyres might have surprised him, but otherwise we didn’t see any issues with the car or a different nature.
“I think that bump, if we carry on racing at night time, it should be fixed because the tyres will always be cold, low grip and it becomes a very tricky corner.
“Already during the weekend we saw cases in which there was oversteer in that place, so independently of the timetable, we would strongly recommend that this bump is smoothed out.
“In fairness, it’s the same bump for everyone, so it just depends on your speed, the condition of your tyres, potentially just how your car is positioned there, how close you are to the car ahead.
“So there’s multiple factors, just maybe Lando made the kind of assumption that there was enough grip, but it’s a very tricky place, I’m sure all drivers will comment that it’s something that needs to be fixed.”
A tough weekend for McLaren
Luck just was not with McLaren in Vegas at the weekend, so let’s hope they avoided going into any of the casinos. Both drivers were eliminated in Q1 and Norris‘ race was over before it had really begun.
Oscar Piastri was driving very well during the Grand Prix, meanwhile, but could not finish higher than tenth after having to make a late stop under green flag conditions to satisfy the multiple tyre compound usage rule – when others around had stopped during an earlier Safety Car period to make their own changes.
Their fight for fourth in the constructors’ standings with Aston Martin goes to the final race in Abu Dhabi, then, with just eleven points between the pair.
