Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri suffer 21-year low as McLaren drivers fail to start Chinese Grand Prix

F1 world champion Lando Norris and McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri both failed to start the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday morning.

The teammates, who went head-to-head for the title last season, suffered problems with their cars moments before the race began.

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They both were forced to have their cars moved back into the garage while others were on the grid, where they were meant to be starting fifth and sixth.

Norris‘ title defence will now take a big hit, while Piastri has not completed a single lap of the season so far after crashing on his way to the grid in the Australian Grand Prix last week.

It was McLaren’s first double car retirement before a race had started since the United States Grand Prix in Indianapolis in 2005.

And for Piastri specifically, his back-to-back Did Not Starts have made him the first McLaren driver to suffer that since Bruce McLaren in the USA and Mexico 57 years ago.

Their withdrawal came after two other drivers were also ruled out of the race before it even got started on Sunday, as Williams‘ Alex Albon and Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto didn’t start either.

McLaren confirmed the disappointing news on social media after both of their drivers were forced to withdraw.

They wrote on X: “Unfortunately, we identified separate issues on both cars, which prevented them from starting the Chinese GP, with Oscar’s being removed from the grid shortly before the formation lap. We will now work to identify each issue.”

After 10 laps of the race, Sky Sports’ Ted Kravitz then added some more detail, saying: “Two completely different issues, they are related to the power unit, a completely random set of circumstances.

“They were fine in qualifying, fine in the sprint race, a complete coincidence.”

Both Norris and Piastri were then seen out of their racing gear and helmets, walking around the pitlane after withdrawing.

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The chaos then continued in the early laps in Shanghai, as Lance Stroll was forced to retire in his Aston Martin.

Stroll parked up on the side of the track, also forcing an early safety car, which bunched up the pack once again.

Lewis Hamilton took over Mercedes’ George Russell and Kimi Antonelli to lead the race after the first corner.

Later on, after 35 laps, Fernando Alonso retired his Aston Martin, taking the overall tally for the race up to six retirements.

What has Norris said?

Speaking about the first DNS of his career so far, a clearly disappointed Norris told Sky Sports: “We can’t race.

“It’s frustrating, it’s on the PU side, and the guys tried as hard as they could to find a solution.

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“I’m not sure when they knew, but probably an hour or so before. I was just warming up ready to drive and then found out.

“I don’t know yet, they know it’s an issue that they have to sort now…and they’re going to spend time trying to fix it.”

Norris’ new rule anger

Norris and his teammates’ failure to start the second race of the F1 season comes just a week after he complained about the new rules.

Hybrid engines, which are powered 50 per cent by sustainable fuels, with the other half by electric power, have been introduced.

The move now puts focus on managing battery levels at the expense of driving the car to the limit in corners.

And that’s something that angered Norris ahead of the opening race last weekend, where he finished fifth, but there were also two cars that didn’t start and another three DNFs.

“We’ve come from the best cars ever made in Formula 1 and the nicest to drive to probably the worst,” Norris said.

“It sucks, but you have to live with it and just maximise what you get given. It’s certainly different. It’s certainly not like it was last year.

“It’s not like, yeah, push this corner more. Sometimes you push more, you lose the battery and just go slower. You have to understand how to do things.”