McLaren has shared what the precise causes were of the two retirements in China. Both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri could not start the race in Shanghai. However, the cars of the two McLaren drivers encountered two different problems with the power units. ‘It was all the more painful that we as a team could do nothing about it’, said Norris.
It was a nightmare scenario for McLaren: just before the start of the Chinese GP it turned out that not only Lando Norris, but also Oscar Piastri could not start the race. The reigning world champions thus missed valuable championship points in their bid to retain their titles. An initial investigation pointed to a problem with the electrics of both power units, but further investigation revealed that the two problems with the two cars had nothing to do with each other.
Lando Norris’s car suffered from a software error in the battery. This would make the component unusable for the rest of the season. With Oscar Piastri, however, it was a hardware fault in an auxiliary component connected to the battery. In contrast to Norris’s situation, there is optimism that the Australian’s energy storage can be saved once the defective component is replaced.
Read more Norris keeps his spirits up even after China retirement: ‘We could have the best car this year’
‘Painful for the team’
In Suzuka, Norris looks back once more on the painful retirements for his team “Of course this hurt us as a team. It certainly didn’t look good to the competition that two cars didn’t show up at the start. I think it was even more painful that we couldn’t do anything about it ourselves”, said the reigning world champion. “But together with HPP (Mercedes’ engine department, ed.) we have worked hard to figure out how and why this happened. And of course we will do everything we can to make sure this doesn’t happen again. You learn from your mistakes. It was tough for all of us. None of us want to experience a weekend like that. But I think at the same time it’s a good moment for us to learn.”
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Read everything about the Japanese GP here
