Two separate mechanical issues forced McLaren to pull Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris from the Chinese Grand Prix before it even began.
Neither car from the reigning constructors champions finished for the first time since their controversial DQ from last year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix.
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Piastri is yet to start a grand prix in 2026, crashing on the reconnaissance lap at Albert Park, and now being wheeled off the starting grid just before the formation lap in Shanghai.
It’s a brutal run of bad luck after his third-place finish in the championship last season, though his McLaren doesn’t currently look like a race-winner anyway – the team having qualified fifth (Piastri) and sixth (Norris) behind the two Mercedes cars and two Ferraris on Saturday.
“Unfortunately we identified separate issues on both cars which prevented them from starting the Chinese GP, with Oscar’s being removed from the grid shortly before the formation lap,” the team said on social media.
“We will now work to identify each issue.”
Norris, the reigning champion, was already in the pits due to an undetermined car issue when Piastri was pulled.
The Aussie was able to diagnose the problem by the time he spoke to the media, with the grand prix ongoing.
“It was an electrical issue on the power unit. Different to Lando’s, so just very unfortunate to both have issues. We don’t fully know any more than that at this point. Obviously disappointing,” Piastri said.
“(We will) try and learn what we can by watching the race, after that just trying to do as much work as we can before Japan.
“Obviously the problems today have been annoying but I think besides that, we know we’ve got work to do to find more performance, so that’s what we’ll try and focus on.”
Piastri will only have one more chance to race, in Japan in a fortnight, before an unexpected month-long break with April’s Bahrain and Saudi Arabia events cancelled due to the war in the Middle East.
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