McLaren endured a bitterly frustrating weekend at the Chinese Grand Prix as both of its cars failed to take the start, with team principal Andrea Stella confirming that the source of the problems lay with the Mercedes power units – yet carefully avoiding assigning blame to the engine supplier.
Lando Norris never left the garage, while Oscar Piastri reached the grid only to be pushed back when his car refused to fire.
Stella explained the issues in detail, noting that both were rooted in the same electrical area of the power unit, though of distinct natures.
Electrical gremlins strike both cars
“Obviously a disappointing day, quite frustrating,” Stella admitted. “Because we go racing to be on track, and today we saw two McLarens 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, and we tried to change as many parts as possible without having to change that part specifically, because it would take a long time, and couldn't have made it to the start of the race.
“But there was no way to fix the problem, and Lando's car was simply just not being conditioned to leave the garage.”
Stella revealed that an ECU swap was attempted as a rapid workaround, but to no avail.
“We attempted to change the ECU because while we were having no communication with the battery, changing the ECU takes just a few minutes,” he said.
“We hypothesised that it could have been the ECU, so we went for the ECU change, but it did not make a difference.”
Piastri’s car faced a similar electrical failure once on the grid.
“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.
“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.”
Coincidence or cause for concern?
Stella admitted the simultaneous failures were unusual, if not alarming.
“It's quite exceptional and uncharacteristic that you have two terminal problems pretty much at the same time on the same component, which in this case is on the electrical side of the power unit,” the Italian explained.
“Obviously this is an area of the car which is not under McLaren's control, so we rely entirely on what is reported by HPP, and we trust completely their report. And according to their report at the moment, the two problems are of a different nature.
“So it looks like it's just coincidence that they happened at the same time, at the same grand prix, and they were both of a terminal nature.”
While Stella confirmed that further inspections will be needed, he emphasized the team’s unity and focus on solutions.
“We will review, together with HPP [High Performance Powertrains], the reason for these faults,” he added. 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, and we will make sure that it doesn't happen again in the future.”
Read also: McLaren drivers reveal electrical issues that thwarted Chinese GP
Even without clear answers, Stella remained measured, leaving open the possibility that deeper analysis could uncover whether any McLaren systems played a role.
“Once we go a little bit deeper, we will be able to have a more comprehensive assessment, and see if there's anything that was actually on the McLaren side,” he concluded.
With both cars sidelined in Shanghai, the focus now turns to whether Mercedes and McLaren can pinpoint the root causes – and prevent what was, by Stella’s own words, an “exceptional and uncharacteristic” double blow from repeating.
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