Norris retirement a repeat of Sainz Spa problem

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl has confirmed the cause of Lando Norris' retirement from the Eifel Grand Prix was a repeat of the issue that prevented Carlos Sainz from starting in Belgium.

Norris ran fourth in the early stages at the Nürburgring and was closing on Daniel Ricciardo to potentially score a second career podium.

On lap 42, however, after reporting a loss of power and managing the problem for a handful of laps, the Briton pulled the side of the track as his power unit shut off.

Confirming the nature of the problem, Seidl said: “It looks like we experienced a similar issue to what Carlos experienced on his lap to the grid in Spa which means an issue on the ignition side causing misfires which then in the end caused major damage to the car again.

“In the end, together with our colleagues from Renault, we tried to get out of this protection mode the engine goes into then when having such an issue, but unfortunately that wasn’t possible because the problem was constantly there."

This was not the first problem Norris had experienced across the weekend, with the team replacing the ICE [internal combustion engine], MGUH [motor generator unit heat], MGUK [motor generator unit kinetic] and TC [turbocharger] on Sunday morning after 'detecting an issue' in qualifying.

“It’s obviously very disappointing because we were, with Lando, in a very promising position in the race," continued Seidl.

"He was running P4 and with a different strategy we had chosen. Compared to Daniel he was actually catching him and it would have been interesting how that would have played out the different tyre age towards the end of the race.

“So very disappointed for that but it was good to see we had good pace in the race to fight with our main competitors."

As Norris came to a halt, cameras showed a burnt area of bodywork and the McLaren boss explained, "What happens then is there is an issue in the ignition side which is causing unburnt fuel going through the exhaust and then is goes kaput.”

Before you go...

Ricciardo conducts private 'shoey' after revelling in "shock happiness"

Bottas 'needing a miracle' in Formula 1 title fight with Hamilton

Related

More F1 news

Latest F1 news

Ferrari F1 boss 'annoyed' with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc as Maranello crisis deepens

• 8 minutes ago

Max Verstappen's 'GP' replacement confirmed as new race engineer to take over at Red Bull

• 49 minutes ago

F1 News Today: Hamilton 'wants Ferrari changes' as golden opportunity beckons for Horner

• 1 hour ago

British wonderkid tipped for F1 stardom handed golden opportunity

• Yesterday 22:27

F1 star issues Zak Brown apology after getting it badly wrong about Oscar Piastri

• Yesterday 21:45

Horner hailed as 'Hamilton wants changes' - Italian media's behind-the-scenes Ferrari exposé

• Yesterday 20:57