McLaren issue Mercedes twist after confirming blame for Lando Norris failure

McLaren have issued an update on the incident which saw F1 championship contender Lando Norris have to retire from the Dutch Grand Prix last weekend.

On lap 65 while putting pressure on team-mate Oscar Piastri for the race victory, smoke could be seen pouring from the back of Norris' MCL39, and he was forced into his second DNF of the season.

It meant that, through no fault of his own, Norris surrendered a likely second-place finish, and 18 points which could be crucial in his drivers' championship battle with Piastri.

Norris is now 34 points behind Piastri in the standings with just nine races left in the season, with his Australian team-mate going on to take his seventh race victory of the season at Zandvoort.

Now, McLaren have accepted full responsibility for Norris' heartbreaking retirement, with team principal Andrea Stella revealing that it was not an issue with Norris' Mercedes power unit.

"We’ve identified an issue on the chassis side, and we will do a full review before we go racing again in Monza," Stella said.

"This is the first technical problem for the team after a long run of faultless reliability."

Norris hurt by reliability issue

In what will be a bitter blow for Norris, his car's failure at Zandvoort was the first time since the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix that a McLaren car has failed to finish a race due to a failure.

Norris' DNF in Canada earlier this season was down to driver error, but this one certainly was not, with what is understood to have been a minor part failure causing an oil leak which ultimately ended his race.

Piastri scored 37 points across Canada and Zandvoot combined, which is almost exactly the gap between the pair in the drivers' championship.

Norris cannot afford another zero pointer in the rest of 2025 if he's to put serious pressure on Piastri for the title, and he now needs to hope that the incredibly consistent Piastri will start having issues of his own between now and the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

READ MORE: F1 world champions: Full list from Farina to four-time King Verstappen

F1 HEADLINES: Red Bull 'decide' 2026 lineup as team confirm Monza driver change

Related