Norris, Piastri reveal cause of McLaren's Chinese GP non-start

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have revealed the cause of their embarrassing double did not start for McLaren at the Chinese Grand Prix.

Neither McLaren driver took part in Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix, with Norris failing even to exit the garage before Piastri was wheeled from the grid just moments before the start of the formation lap.

For both drivers, it was an electrical problem related to the Mercedes power unit that forced them out of the action, but the issues were completely separate, adding to the bemusement.

“I don’t know how long it’s been going on for, honestly,” said Norris when asked by Crash.net about the timeline of events leading up to his retirement.

“Sometimes, it’s better to leave them just to crack on with things, but I found out 20-minutes before I was meant to go out of the garage, but I think they’d been working on things for a little while already.

“Some electrical issue with the power unit and therefore can’t even start it. It’s a shame. My first non-start in F1, which is sad, but even worse that it’s a double did not start with Oscar as well.”

He added: “I’m just disappointed, that’s all. I’m disappointed I didn’t get to go and do my job today. I’m frustrated for the whole team, it’s not just me. The mechanics, everyone puts a lot of work into things and it’s just a complicated bit of kit. There’s a lot of new things, and some new issues that we’re still finding out at times. For everyone in the garage, they’re disappointed we couldn’t get the car out on track today, and they’ll work hard to try and fix.”

Norris had stayed in the car throughout the opening laps, lending hope that he could join the action a couple of laps down, but potentially get back into the mix with a Safety Car intervention.

Explaining this, Norris said: “We stayed in for the first couple of laps, just in case there was a red or something and luck turned our way, but it didn’t. We’d rather be ready to go in case something magically appeared and started working, but not today.”

Piastri’s double DNS F1 season opening

After two grands prix weekends, Piastri is yet to complete a single racing lap in a grand prix. Through Saturday’s sprint race, however, he has three points to his name.

“It was all fine on the way to the grid,” said the Australian. “I think similar – an electrical issue on the power unit, which I think was the same for Lando, but it’s not the same electrical issue. So that is obviously disappointing, but it is what it is.”

Asked if his disastrous season was difficult to compute, especially at a track where he was victorious one year ago, Piastri joked: “Its been a while since I’ve watched two grands prix on TV.

“Obviously, this one is a bit different. Last week was pretty rough to take, but unfortunately, these kind of things happen in racing at times, especially at the beginning of a new regulation set, it’s probably not a huge surprise. It’s just a shame that this has happened to both cars at the same time.”