Lando Norris Monaco stoppage explained following McLaren curfew breach
Lando Norris jumps from his McLaren following a stoppage on track during FP2 in Monaco.
McLaren has revealed the cause of Lando Norris’ Monaco stoppage after breaking curfew to investigate the issue overnight.
The 2025 world champion climbed from his car barely 10 minutes into the second hour of track action in Monte Carlo, with McLaren later handed a €30,000 fine by the FIA for the incident.
Lando Norris Monaco stoppage explained as McLaren confirms electrical fault
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Investigations into the issue saw McLaren break curfew on Friday evening as it worked to identify and resolve the fault.
It was the first time the Woking-based operation has broken curfew in F1 2026; each team is allowed four exceptions during the course of the championship.
McLaren took the opportunity to work late, replacing the wiring harness and change the ESME pack in Norris’ car.
On Friday, Norris rolled to a halt with an apparent electrical issue as he exited the tunnel, stopping in the run off area at the Nouvelle Chicane.
As his car was cleared, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown suggested to Sky Sports that it appeared to be a battery issue, but that a full investigation was necessary.
That looks to have confirmed Brown’s suspicion, marking the second such issue with the component in recent weeks.
In Canada, Mercedes’ George Russell suffered a similar fate while leading the grand prix.
Mercedes, which supplies power units to McLaren, revealed while it had identified the issue, it may take some time to complete a full investigation.
“It was a sudden kill of the ERS system on the car as he came into Turn 8 and then that did a reasonable amount of damage afterwards as well,” said Mercedes’ deputy team principal, Bradley Lord, of Russell’s Canadian GP retirement.
“We got the car back and were able to get the module out of it. It had to undergo some unusual safety procedures and then has to be shipped back actually to the UK.
“It will therefore be several months before the hardware gets back and we need to really dig through the data to understand exactly what went wrong and then work out how we try and prevent a repeat on any of the other modules in the future.”
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Adding insult to injury for McLaren, along with Norris losing track time, the squad was fined when the CDS (clutch disengagement system) had tape placed over it and could not be pressed by trackside officials.
“The team admitted that for aerodynamic purposes it had placed transparent tape over the button that is required to be pressed to activate the CDS,” the stewards report noted.
“This, in the opinion of the FIA representatives and admitted by the team, completely defeated the purpose of the CDS system, which is designed to be activated quickly by a marshal wearing protective gloves.
“The team conceded that it was not possible to break the tape and press the button by hand without the use of a tool.
“The Stewards have determined to suspend a lower amount of this penalty compared to a breach of this same regulation at the previous event, because that breach, and the subsequent penalty, should have alerted all teams to the importance of the CDS system.”
The squad was handed a €30,000 fine, €10,000 of which is suspended for 12 months.
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