Lando Norris had a frustrating day at the Chinese GP, being prevented from starting for the first time in his Formula 1 career due to technical problems with the McLaren car. Oscar Piastri was also affected, resulting in a double ‘non-start’ for the team.
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“A shame, it was the first time I couldn’t start in F1, which is sad, and even worse that it’s a double ‘non-start’. It wasn’t the best day for us,” he stated.
The Briton explained that he learned of the problem shortly before the start of the race: “I don’t know how long this had been going on, honestly. Sometimes it’s better to let them deal with things, but I found out about twenty minutes before I left the garage. I think they had already been working on it for some time. It was some electrical problem in the power unit, and that’s why we couldn’t even start the car,” he said.
Norris made the frustration of the entire team clear: “I’m disappointed, that’s all. I’m disappointed that I couldn’t do my job today. I’m frustrated for the whole team, it’s not just me. All the mechanics, everyone puts in a lot of effort, and it’s just a complicated part of the car. There are many new things and, of course, new problems that we are still discovering. Everyone in the garage is disappointed that we couldn’t get the car on the track, and they will work hard to try to fix it,” he added.
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McLaren boss Andrea Stella clarified that the two cases of ‘non-start’ were linked to electrical problems in the power unit: “On Lando’s car, the problem arose while the team was preparing for the formation laps on the grid, when the engineers realized they couldn’t communicate with one of the electrical components of the power unit. As a result, the car couldn’t even be started, forcing Lando not to even start the race. In Oscar’s case, the car managed to reach the starting grid, but the engine also didn’t start again. Although the problem was in the same electrical area of the power unit, the nature of the failure was different, but equally terminal for McLaren’s race,” he added.
This Chinese GP highlighted technical challenges for the British team, which is now focusing on identifying and correcting the problems before the next commitment of the season, the Japanese GP in two weeks.
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