McLaren reveals 'exceptional' reason behind double DNS at the Chinese Grand Prix
Photo: Race Pictures
11:52, 15 Mar
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McLaren team principal Andrea Stella explained the cause of his team's double DNS at the Chinese Grand Prix.
The third row of the grid remained empty at the Shanghai International Circuit, as both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris failed to take part in the race.
What happened to McLaren in China?
Speaking to GPblog, among others, McLaren team principal Stella addressed what happened this Sunday.
He said: "A disappointing day, quite frustrating because we go racing to be on the track, and today we saw two McLaren in the garage while the other cars were racing."
"What happened today is that on Lando's car, in preparation for the laps to the grid, we saw that there were problems with the electrical side of the power unit. We couldn't communicate with this component.
"We tried to rectify the problem, we tried to change as many parts as possible without having to change that part specifically because it would take a long time and we couldn't have made it to the start of the race, we reprogrammed, but there was no way to fix the problem and Lando's car was simply just not in a condition to leave the garage."
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella - Photo: Race Pictures
The Italian boss then continued about Oscar Piastri's situation, who now has failed to start both Grands Prix of the 2026 season after his crash in Australia.
"On Oscar's side, the car was able to go to the grid with no issues at all, but once on the grid, the car wouldn't fire up again, in a similar manner to Lando’s car.
"But actually, on Oscar's side, it was easier to diagnose the problem. And it appears to be a problem with the same power unit component on the electrical side, but a problem of a different nature.
"So it's quite exceptional and uncharacteristic that you have two terminal components, pretty much at the same time on the same component, which in this case is on the electrical side of the power unit.
"We will review together with HPP the reason for these faults, and like I've said to everyone in the team and to HPP we go as a one team, and as a one team we will face this disappointing day. We will make sure that it doesn't happen again in the future."
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