Alex Albon demands FIA change as radical McLaren claim rejected

Alex Albon has demanded a major FIA rule change as the Williams driver also flatly rejected a bold claim from McLaren boss Andrea Stella. 

Both McLaren drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, were expunged in Sin City after post-race checks found the skid planks on both MCL39s were worn below the 9mm limit - the third such instance of a driver being disqualified for the offence in 2025 alone, after Lewis Hamilton in China and Nico Hulkenberg in Bahrain.

McLaren has identified that extreme porpoising was behind the skid blocks wearing out too much, with team principal Stella claiming that: "the FIA itself has admitted that this lack of proportionality [between technical infringement and penalty] should be addressed in the future to ensure that minor and accidental technical infringements, with minimal or no performance benefits, do not lead to disproportionate consequences."

However, when Stella's claim was put to Albon, the Williams driver flatly rejected the idea, as he also explained why he felt the FIA should change the way in which post-race scrutineering is undertaken.

"I don't agree with it, we all have to factor in limits, and there is a lot of lap-time in these cars being a millimetre lower, but everyone makes mistakes," Albon told media, including RacingNews365.

"I get that, but these cars are incredible, and we're setting ride-heights down to what wind you're going to get in the race, and if you get a head-wind onto the main straight, it completely transforms your ride-heights, as a few more points of head-wind puts the car a lot lower.

"Then you get porpoising, and you need to make adjustments, and it is a really tough regulation set, especially on Sprint weekends, where we don't have much running, or like Vegas, so you have to take the safe approach. 

"Sometimes you finish on Sunday, kicking yourself because you have hardly any plank wear and feel like you could have optimised the weekend more, but that's just the way the rules are.

"I mean, we could run these things to the deck if we wanted to, and have no legality issues, but then we're all finding illegal performance. 

"The main thing for me is that I don't like that it is random [in post-race scrutineering when the plank is checked]. I'd rather have all 20 cars be checked, and then it'd be fair game, but the random version of it is a bit tricky, but the rules are the rules."