McLaren hit by double DNS in China: what happened to Norris and Piastri?

McLaren’s Chinese Grand Prix unravelled before the race had even started, with both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri failing to make the grid due to separate pre-race technical issues.

As uncertainty grew over whether the Briton would make the start, Piastri’s car was also wheeled back into the garage ahead of the formation lap. Ultimately, neither McLaren driver returned in time to begin the race, sealing a frustrating double DNS for the team.

Piastri: "obviously disappointing"

The 24-year-old revealed that his issue in Shanghai was unrelated to his team-mate’s.

“It was an electrical problem on the power unit, different to Lando’s,” Piastri explained. “Just very unfortunate to both have issues, but we don’t fully know any more than that at this point so, yeah, obviously disappointing.”

Looking ahead, Piastri stressed the importance of regrouping quickly.

“I think try and learn what we can by watching the race, then after that just trying to do as much work as we can before Japan,” he said. “I think 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.”

Norris: "not letting us even start the car"

Norris faced a separate issue that prevented his car from firing up at all. Speaking after the disappointment, he admitted that clarity was still lacking.

“Not a huge amount, honestly – just an issue that’s not letting us even start the car,” Norris said. “That’s basically it, that’s all I know for now – I think they’re still trying to investigate what is actually happening or what’s going on and why it’s not working as it should.”

The reigning World Champion acknowledged the collective frustration within the team.

“Of course frustrating to come such a long way, put in a lot of effort – not just me but the whole team – and not even start a race, so [it’s] disappointing.”

Despite the setback, Norris was clear about the approach required.

“We’ve just got to take it on the chin,” he said. *“We’ve got to learn what the problem was, first of all – two different issues on both of our cars.

“Just unlucky, frustrating, but nothing we can do now. We just have to fix the issue, make sure it doesn’t happen again and focus on the next one.”

A weekend to reset

With two distinct technical failures halting their race before lights out, McLaren leave Shanghai without a start to their name. The priority now is straightforward: understand what went wrong, eliminate the root causes, and ensure the same scenario does not repeat at the next round in Japan.