McLaren has provided an update on the power unit situation of Lando Norris, and has stated it’s confident a repeat of his retirement at the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix will not happen.
The Brit suffered an oil leak which caused the DNF that puts him at a significant disadvantage in the title race against team-mate Oscar Piastri.
It was the Woking-based squad’s first technical-related retirement since the Bahrain Grand Prix in 2023, bringing to an end an impressive record.
But it believes that it can begin another long streak, with COO Piers Thynne stating that it has thoroughly examined what happened and how a repeat can be avoided.
“It was an unfortunate incident when we broke our long chain of positive reliability,” he said.
“The team have reacted extremely well and extremely pragmatically to look at the issue, find the root cause, understand it and manufacture parts that are extremely focused to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
“I’m extremely pleased with the reaction of the team and certainly the factory, both design and manufacturing, reacted in a very positive and pragmatic way to the issue.
“The solution that is here this weekend to prevent it from happening again is the right one.
Norris’ retirement has raised questions about whether he will need to take an engine change, but Thynne has firmly shut down any such idea, confirming the power unit can be added back to the pool.
“The issue that happened in Zandvoort hasn’t affected our engine allocation for this event and we continue to look at engine allocation in a circuit specific, most performant way, that balances what we have to the end of the year,” he explained.
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