Zak Brown issues ‘frustrating’ reaction to McLaren’s double did not start at the Chinese Grand Prix

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McLaren endured a complete disaster at the Chinese Grand Prix as Zak Brown’s team did not make it out of the garage.

The defending champions have had a tough start to the 2025 season, with Oscar Piastri crashing before the Australian Grand Prix had even started. Lando Norris finished P5 in Melbourne, but the team did not complete a single lap in Shanghai.

Disaster for Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Alex Albon and Gabriel Bortoleto as they fail to start the Chinese Grand Prix!

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Norris and Piastri had separate electrical issues before the Chinese Grand Prix and were wheeled off the grid. They would not make it back out of the garage for the start, nor Gabriel Bortoleto or Alex Albon.

McLaren are struggling to understand Mercedes’ power unit, with the factory team currently controlling the field. The reigning drivers’ and constructors’ champions are falling behind, and their double DNS in China is truly damaging.

Zak Brown reacts to Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’s double DNS in Shanghai

Ralf Schumacher has noticed a change in Brown in 2026 as he appears more tense amid McLaren’s start to the season. Norris and Piastri’s double DNS will not have helped his mood.

Writing on X (formerly Twitter) after the race, the McLaren CEO assessed the retirements and the team’s plans to solve the issues.

“Very frustrating day for the team,” said Brown. “A double DNS through electrical issues on the PU side, is a tough outcome, and not reflective of the huge team effort and improvements we had made ahead of this weekend.

“We will now work with our partners at HPP to identify and address the issues so that we can move forward with full confidence as One Team heading into Japan.

READ MORE: All you need to know about McLaren F1 Team from team principal to engine

Andrea Stella analyses McLaren’s issues at the Chinese Grand Prix

Team principal Andrea Stella gave his assessment after the race, explaining that there was ‘no way’ for McLaren or Mercedes to solve the car’s problems.

He told The Race: “We are here to go racing, and today we were not in condition to do so because of separate electrical problems on both power units, which is extremely frustrating and disappointing for the team, the drivers, our technical and commercial partners, and of course our fans.

“Nothing had changed between Saturday’s qualifying and the fire-up in the garage pre-race, but as we prepared Lando’s car to leave the garage an electrical problem was discovered on the power unit.

The plaudits go to Kimi Antonelli, but who else in the top 10 impressed you at the Chinese Grand Prix?

Let us know in the comments below!

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“We tried to fix it alongside our partners at Mercedes HPP, but there was no way to do so which resulted in the first prevention of a grand prix start in his career.

“Then on the grid we found another electrical issue on Oscar’s power unit which couldn’t be resolved, resulting in the car being required to return to the garage for further investigation.

“They look to be separate electrical faults on the power unit occurring at the same time, an extremely unfortunate coincidence which meant there was simply no way to start the race with either car this afternoon. We’ll investigate together alongside our partners at HPP to understand what happened.”