Oscar Piastri's Nurburgring F1 test cut short after McLaren run into technical issues

Oscar Piastri and McLaren suffered a setback when a technical problem cut short their track time during a Pirelli Formula 1 tyre test at the Nurburgring.

F1 returned to the iconic German venue for the first time since 2020 for the next round of Pirelli tyre testing, with reigning champions McLaren and current world championship leaders Mercedes in action.

George Russell and Piastri took part on the opening day of running, before handing over to team-mates Kimi Antonelli and Lando Norris on Wednesday.

But after running in damp conditions throughout the morning, a problem struck Piastri’s MCL40 that left him garage-bound for most of the afternoon when the track dried up.

The exact issue is not known but Pirelli referenced it in their end of day press release.

“The solutions considered most promising were then evaluated over longer distances late in the afternoon by the British driver, specifically to validate their behaviour over a more representative mileage,” Pirelli said.

“A technical issue, however, kept Piastri’s car in the garage from the lunch break until almost the end of the session.”

Piastri managed a personal best of 1m35.096s on the first day, with Russell setting the pace with a 1m33.899s.

Speaking about the usefulness of the test, Piastri told Sky Germany: “It’s useful, yes. I think in a race weekend it’s always going to be more useful and obviously here is a circuit we don’t race at.

“With the new regulations there’s a lot of preparation that’s specific to each circuit, so there’s definitely some things we can learn here. But unfortunately, it’s not quite the same as doing a race weekend. It’s better than nothing.”

The Australian added: “It’s more just about getting laps in the car and checking how systems work. We obviously can’t change things on these test days with Pirelli, but even just systems and small things like the comfort of the seat and making sure all these things are as good as you can make it, because you never really want to change those things on a race weekend.

“It’s still useful. Even for me, just to get a feeling for the car. We’ve only down three race weekends and in my case only one full race, so getting any laps at this point in these cars is useful.”