McLaren reveal Lando Norris battery failure fix after Chinese GP chaos

McLaren has revealed that it has had to replace the battery that caused Lando Norris to miss the Chinese Grand Prix.

Norris and Oscar Piastri both suffered battery issues in the moments prior to the start in Shanghai that meant there was no McLaren on the grid for the first time in more than 40 years.

McLaren outline Lando Norris’ Chinese GP DNS fall out

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Issues for Norris prevented him from exiting the pit lane in China, while Piastri was pushed off the grid due to a different battery issue.

Work by both McLaren and its engine partner, Mercedes HPP, has since identified the problems.

For Norris, that resulted in the loss of one of his batteries.

“China was definitely a challenging and frustrating event,” said McLaren team boss Andrea Stella.

“We understand the source of the problem. In both cases, it was related to the electrical side of the power unit.

“We had faults on the battery, but different faults, pretty much at the same time of the weekend.

“On Oscar’s side, we were in condition to reuse the same battery because we could apply some repairs.

“On Lando’s side, we needed to go on to a new battery pack.”

Both Norris and Piastri had used just one example of each of the components which constitute the power unit under the regulations head into the Suzuka weekend.

Under the regulations, drivers are allowed three energy stores per season.

Reliability has been a key issue in 2026, with the all-new power units proving particularly temperamental and all power unit manufacturers encountering issues at some point.

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“We trust 100 percent that HPP put in place remedials,” Stella said of the prospect of a repeat issue.

“We are exposed as a team. Likewise, all other teams may be exposed.

“There’s no team dependency in the kind of problem that we had,” he pointed out, ruling out any element of McLaren contributing to the Chinese GP fault.

“HPP have very high standards. When they have information to process from a fault, for sure they will execute and put in place all the necessary learnings, adaptations, and actions to avoid a repeat.

“So we are definitely looking forward here to having, I would say, a regular weekend.”

However, Friday practice had other ideas, with Norris stuck in the garage for part of Free Practice 2.

A hydraulic leak was identified in his MCL40, though the team admits it was unable to locate it easily.

“Having replaced what could be changed and through careful management during running, Lando was eventually able to spend important time on track,” the squad noted in its end-of-day wrap.

Nonetheless, it was a promising day for the papaya operation as it saw Piastri fastest in Free Practice 2, pipping the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, with Norris fourth best.

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