Shanghai International Circuit, Sunday, 15 March

Get the thoughts of McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Drivers Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, and Team Principal Andrea Stella.

The McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team suffered a frustrating Sunday, with separate electrical faults on the power unit side, preventing both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri from taking the start of the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix. During routine race preparation, a problem was identified on the electrical side of the power unit for Lando’s car. Despite intense investigations and hard work in collaboration with our colleagues at HPP to fix the issue, there was no way to resolve the fault before the race start, resulting in the first time Lando has missed a Grand Prix start in his eight-year career. In a separate scenario, following Oscar lining up to the grid, a separate issue was discovered on the electrical side of the number 81 car’s power unit. Following significant work and effort by the entire team, alongside HPP, to find a resolution, we were unfortunately left with no option but to bring the car back to the garage prior to the race start. This resulted in an extremely unfortunate scenario with seemingly different terminal power unit electrical faults occurring for both HPP-powered McLaren Mastercard cars at the same time. This forced the two papaya cars to withdraw before the race start for the first time in over 20 years. This concludes a frustrating and unfortunate end to our weekend after a strong build-up across the opening days of running at Shanghai International Circuit. As one team, attention now turns to a joint investigation together with HPP to see what learnings can be made to make sure that this doesn't happen again, as well as preparations before heading to Suzuka for Round 3 of the 2026 season, where McLaren Mastercard will look to bounce back stronger. Sunday in Shanghai also saw Race 2 of the opening round of F1 Academy. Ella Lloyd finished P5 from P10 on the grid, and rookie driver Ella Stevens finished P12 from P11 on the grid.

"A tough day for the team. While I made it to the grid, unfortunately, I had an electrical issue on the power unit side, which was different to Lando's, which we are still investigating. While this is never what we want to happen, this is just sometimes how it goes in racing. Even more frustrating is missing out on another race distance, as we know that time on track is critical in learning how to get the most out of this era of cars. Thank you to the team for all of their efforts this weekend and well done to Kimi Antonelli on his first F1 win – it is a big achievement and something you never forget. Now, we will get our heads down and switch our focus to Japan."

"It's disappointing to come such a long way and put in so much effort, not just me but the whole team, and to not start the race. We had an electrical problem on the power unit side that prevented us from starting the car. The mechanics worked as hard as they could to try and fix it, but unfortunately, we couldn't. What makes it even more frustrating is that Oscar and I seem to have had completely unrelated issues on both cars, so just very unlucky all around. "We just have to take it on the chin, learn what the problem was, and make sure it never happens again. Everyone in the team is frustrated, our engineers, mechanics and HPP teammates. All of us want to go racing and score points. It's a shame I couldn't race in front of the fans here today, especially after all their support. The team are already working hard to find the issue and fix it for next time, and we'll get our heads down now and make sure we're prepared for Suzuka in a few weeks’ time." “Finally, congratulations to Kimi on the win today. You always remember your first victory. I hope he gets the opportunity to soak it all in.”

Andrea Stella

Team Principal

“A Formula 1 race weekend is built from the effort and energy of many team members, both trackside and in Woking at the factory, not to mention our technical and commercial partners alongside the incredible McLaren Mastercard fans who invest in getting up early or staying up late to support us. “We are here to go racing, and today we were not in condition to do so because of separate electrical problems on both power units, which is extremely frustrating and disappointing for the team, the drivers, our technical and commercial partners, and of course our fans. We are sorry for that and will make sure we bounce back as one team in Suzuka. “Nothing had changed between Saturday’s Qualifying and the fire-up in the garage pre-race, but as we prepared Lando’s car to leave the garage, an electrical problem was discovered on the power unit. We tried to fix it alongside our partners at Mercedes HPP, but there was no way to do so, which resulted in the first prevention of a Formula 1 Grand Prix start in his career. “Then on the grid we found another electrical issue on Oscar’s power unit which couldn’t be resolved, resulting in the car being required to return to the garage for further investigation. They look to be separate electrical faults on the power unit occurring at the same time, an extremely unfortunate coincidence which meant there was simply no way to start the race with either car this afternoon. We’ll investigate together alongside our partners at HPP to understand what happened. “We move forward as one team, both trackside and in Woking, with our partners at HPP. We’ll learn from today together and make sure it doesn’t happen again before coming back stronger for the next race in Japan. Finally, we would also like to congratulate Andrea Kimi Antonelli on his first Formula 1 Grand Prix victory, a special achievement he will never forget.”