Oscar Piastri’s Nürburgring test cut short as McLaren hit by test issue

Oscar Piastri’s Nürburgring F1 debut was cut short by a technical issue as McLaren and Mercedes hit the track for a Pirelli tyre test.

Formula 1 returned to the Nürburgring for the first time in six years on Tuesday.

Oscar Piastri Nürburgring test halted by McLaren issue

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The two-day outing at the Nürburgring has replaced the planned test in Bahrain at the end of February that had to be cancelled due to the world events.

Day One on Tuesday got underway on a damp circuit with Russell and Piastri covering a few installation laps on intermediate tyres, before switching to the slicks as the track dried out later in the morning.

The two completed several eight-lap runs, running various constructions of the C3 compound.

But while Russell moved on to longer runs in the afternoon, an undisclosed technical issue with Piastri‘s MCL40 sidelined the McLaren driver for most of the afternoon.

Russell topped the timesheet with a 1:33.899, while Piastri’s best was a full second slower at 1:35.096.

F1 car go brum. We’ve missed this! pic.twitter.com/71xhXTvIsO

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) April 14, 2026

Piastri admitted to Sky F1 that while the Pirelli test wasn’t a grand prix, it was still useful for himself and McLaren after his difficult start to the season that included two back-to-back DNSs.

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“It’s useful,” said the Australian driver. “I think in a race weekend it’s always going to be more useful and obviously here at a circuit, we don’t race at.

“So with the current regulations, there’s a lot of preparation that’s very specific to each circuit. So there’s definitely some things we can learn here.

“But yes, unfortunately it’s not quite the same as doing a race or a race weekend, but it’s better than nothing.”

However, the scope of what teams are allowed to do is very limited.

“It’s more just about getting laps in the car and checking our systems work,” he said. “We obviously can’t change anything in these kind of test days with Pirelli.

“But even just kind of systems and small things like the comfort of the seats and just making sure all these things are as good as you can make it because you never really want to change those kind of things on a race weekend.

“And even just for me you still get a feeling for the car. We’ve only done three race weekends, and in my case only one full race.

“So just getting any laps at this point in these cars is useful.”

McLaren and Mercedes will be back on track on Wednesday with Lando Norris and Kimi Antonelli taking over the driving duties.

The Nürburgring held the Eifel Grand Prix during the COVID-affected 2020 season. It was the first time since the 2013 German Grand Prix that the GP-Strecke layout hosted an F1 race.

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