Norris and Piastri explain ‘frustrating’ pre-race issues as both McLaren drivers fail to start Chinese Grand Prix

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have explained the separate pre-race issues that affected their cars at the Chinese Grand Prix, resulting in neither McLaren driver starting the race.

After the squad qualified on the third row – with Piastri in fifth ahead of Norris in sixth – there already looked to be problems for Norris when the rest of the field were lining up on the grid ahead of the start of Sunday’s race, the Briton’s car remaining in the garage while the crew worked on a problem.

As questions continued over whether Norris’ machine would be fixed in time to participate in the Grand Prix, Piastri’s car was also returned to the garage prior to the formation lap – and ultimately neither made it out in time for the race.

With this marking Piastri’s second consecutive non-start – having missed his home event in Australia one week earlier following a crash en route to the grid – the 24-year-old admitted that suffering another early exit was “disappointing”.

“It was an electrical problem on the power unit, different to Lando’s,” Piastri said of the issue that had afflicted his car in Shanghai. “Just very unfortunate to both have issues, but we don’t fully know any more than that at this point so, yeah, obviously disappointing.”

In terms of how the team can move forwards from the double DNS, Piastri continued: “I think try and learn what we can by watching the race, then after that just trying to do as much work as we can before Japan.

“I think obviously the problems today have been annoying, but I think besides that we know we’ve got work to do to find more performance, so that’s what we’ll try and focus on.”

Norris also spoke to the media following his early departure from the race and, when asked what he could share about what happened, said: “Not a huge amount, honestly – just an issue that’s not letting us even start the car.

“That’s basically it, that’s all I know for now – I think they’re still trying to investigate what is actually happening or what’s going on and why it’s not working as it should. Of course frustrating to come such a long way, put in a lot of effort – not just me but the whole team – and not even start a race, so [it’s] disappointing.”

The reigning World Champion suggested that McLaren have “just got to take it on the chin”, adding: “We’ve got to learn what the problem was, first of all – two different issues on both of our cars.

“Just unlucky, frustrating, but nothing we can do now. We just have to fix the issue, make sure it doesn’t happen again and focus on the next one.”