At the 2026 F1 Chinese GP, both McLaren drivers failed to start the race. The team left with a double DNS and two disappointed drivers.
Initially, it was Lando Norris’s car that ran into issues. The Brit failed to leave the garage when the pit lane opened. Shortly after this, Oscar Piastri’s car was taken back to the garage just before the formation lap. Despite the team’s efforts, they were unable to solve the electrical issues, and neither driver started the Chinese GP.
The new regulations introduced in 2026 have seen a lot of teams struggling to get to grips with their cars. There have been technical difficulties up and down the grid, and McLaren were not the only two drivers unable to start the race.
It was assumed that Andrea Stella would have been most frustrated about missing out on key data. However, when talking in a print media session after the 2026 Chinese GP, he said that this wasn’t the case.
A missed opportunity for points for McLaren F1
Andrea Stella believes that the main disappointment for McLaren at the 2026 F1 Chinese GP is missing out on potential championship points. Currently, it appears to be Mercedes’ championship to lose.
However, as the season progresses, teams will be rapidly developing and improving their cars, as the Woking-based team showed in 2023 and 2024. Stella believes that McLaren are still in a position to compete, despite their difficult start to the season.
“The most detrimental aspect of not being able to participate in this race is the points in the championship. While at the moment Mercedes seem to be in their own category and we are a little closer to Ferrari, we obviously race with the ambition to compete for important results and we are just losing ground. These points could have been important at the end of the season. So the most important shortcoming of what happened today is not scoring the points.
“At the same time, it’s also quite regrettable and disappointing for our funds and for our partners from a commercial and a technical point of view. So there’s obviously several downsides.
“Every lap is important in 2026, as you say. At the same time, I think we are learning quite rapidly. And with what we have learned in Australia and yesterday in the sprint, we think we are actually in a good position now in terms of especially exploiting the power units. So definitely more data would have been very useful, but what we regret the most today is not having the championship points.”
