F1 Chinese Grand Prix: McLaren launch investigation over 'faulty' F1 parts

Norris and Piastri looking gloomy with a black and orange edited square background — Photo: © IMAGO

McLaren

McLaren launch investigation over 'faulty' F1 parts in Chinese Grand Prix disaster

Neither Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri started the race in Shanghai

Chris Deeley

Sunday 15 March 2026 22:24

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has confirmed the team will be conducting a thorough investigation into what caused possibly the most humiliating race in the team's 60-year history.

Both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were forced to watch on from the garage as 18 other cars started the Chinese Grand Prix after the papaya pair suffered separate electrical issues shortly before the start.

Piastri even made it as far as getting onto the grid before his car's fault was discovered about 10 minutes before the lights were set to go out, with the team having to frantically wheel him back into the pits.

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Sunday marks only the third race in the team's history that both of their cars failed to make the start – but the first where that was the direct result of the cars' lack of reliability.

Notably, Niki Lauda and John Watson failed to qualify for the 1983 Monaco Grand Prix (not due to any reliability issues), and 14 of 20 cars pulled out of the 2005 US Grand Prix because Michelin had failed to provide tyres which could safely run more than ten laps – at a time when in-race tyre changing was banned.

Stella: Seems to be an extremely unfortunate coincidence

Speaking to Ted Kravitz on Sky Sports after a chastening afternoon in Shanghai, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said: “We came here to go racing and today we were not in condition to do so because of technical problems.

“This is very frustrating and disappointing for the team, for the drivers, for our technical and commercial partners and obviously for our fans, we are sorry for that, we will understand these technical problems and we will go again in Japan.”

He continued: “Once we were preparing Lando’s car to leave the garage, we found a problem on the electrical side of the power unit. We tried to fix it but actually there was no way to fix it and then once we were on the grid we found another problem on the electrical side of the power unit on Oscar’s side.

"They seem to be different problems, occurring for some reason at the same time and they were basically meaning that there was no way to start the race.

“It seems to be [an] extremely unfortunate coincidence of two different problems on the electrical side of the power unit appearing at the same time, but that’s what it is, we go as one team, we will investigate together with HPP and we will see what’s the learning and we will make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”

Asked whether the cars would be sent to the next race in Japan or whether some parts would be sent back to HQ for testing, Stella replied: “This will depend on the findings, certainly the parts that were at fault will go back, in this case, not to McLaren, they will go back to HPP [High Performance Powertrains] they will be investigated.

“Like I said, we approach this as a team, as one team, we will take the learning, we will fix it and we will go again.”

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McLaren Chinese Grand Prix Andrea Stella