McLaren is still trying to pinpoint the cause of Lando Norris’ shock retirement at the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix, with team boss Andrea Stella admitting the issue could be on either the engine or chassis side.
The British driver was chasing down team-mate Oscar Piastri at Zandvoort when smoke began to billow from the MCL39 cockpit on Lap 65. Just a few corners later, his car gave way as the engine shut down.
Had he finished, the gap between the pair would have extended to just 16 points, but with the retirement, Norris now trails championship leader Piastri by 34 points in the first race following the summer break.
After the race, questions mounted over the cause of the reliability issues, but Stella declined to speculate on the root cause of the problem.
“So, we have some initial indication based on the data, but in fairness, we don’t have full proof of what has happened on Lando’s car, so I would refrain from making any speculation about [whether] it’s a problem on the chassis side or it’s a problem on the engine side,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“In fairness, in terms of the result, it doesn’t make a big difference, even in how this is perceived, let me say. I want to take the opportunity to remind ourselves that we just see a chassis engine as a single team.
“So, we will see technically where the problem is, we will fix it, and we will go again, but at the moment it’s unclear on which side the problem is.”
McLaren reliability streak ends as Norris suffers sudden technical failure
McLaren’s last mechanical retirement before Norris’s was in the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix, over two years prior.
Stella acknowledged that the Woking-based squad’s long-standing reliability record took a hit in the Dutch GP, describing the technical issue as particularly inconvenient given the team’s desire to remain neutral in the Drivers’ Championship battle.
“Yeah, reliability has been a strong point at McLaren for a long time,” he added. “We have had today what looks like a technical reliability problem, which is always disappointing.
“But I would say that is even more inconvenient because it affects a situation in which we, as a team, wanted to stay as neutral as possible in what is the driver’s individual quest in the Drivers’ Championship.
“So it’s not ideal that we had a problem with the car, but that’s what it is. The whole team will process this, trying to take the learning, reviewing the problem, fixing it and making sure that this is not a factor anymore for the future, not only for the remainder of the championship, even if obviously this is the main focus for the moment.”
Norris reflected on the moment the issue struck, admitting that the problem caught him completely off guard.
“There’s nothing the team told me or said,” he said. “I think it was pretty instant as well. I don’t know what the actual issue was even. The engine just shut off and that was it.”
READ MORE – Lando Norris can be more ‘chill’ about F1 title race after unexpected Dutch GP retirement
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