Catastrophic scenario for McLaren at Bahrain

Without any of their drivers making it to Q3 on Saturday, the British team’s qualifications were already disappointing, and the race itself was catastrophic.

Lando Norris had gained one position during the first lap, while Oscar Piastri, who had climbed up to 16th, had gained two. The horizon seemed to clear up for McLaren, who could hope to aim for the midfield and maybe even score a few points. But the sky eventually darkened. The thunder struck first Piastri. On the 13th lap, he entered the pits to change the steering wheel, unfortunately, the electrical issue was more serious, and the young Australian won’t be able to continue.

Then it’s Norris’ turn to come in for the first time due to a tire issue. After an interminable 11-second pit stop, he goes back on track with hard tires. A problem with air pressure then arises on his car, forcing him to go through the pits every ten laps so that the mechanics can supply the car with air. Nevertheless, the young British driver still took his car as far as possible to gather data in order to make improvements in the future.

According to McLaren’s statement, after this unsuccessful start to the season, Andrea Stella says he is aware of the work that needs to be done. « It’s not the start to the season we were hoping for. Points were certainly possible today, as the cars had a competitive pace during the race stints, and Lando in particular was in a good position. Unfortunately, we were hit by two reliability issues.

We leave Bahrain knowing that we have work to do, but the season is long. We will analyze this and we will be ready to leave for Saudi Arabia. (m)

On his part, Lando Norris insists on staying optimistic. We had some issues to deal with, which really took us out of the race, but we tried to hang in there as long as possible, just in case there was a safety car or something and we could have had a chance at the end. I think the pace was good otherwise. Just too many problems today to fight for points, so we’ll start again next time.

« We are optimistic, we still believe that we can score points with the car we have, which makes us even more optimistic for the rest of the season. And we will continue to try,” he adds to the media.

The team, which finished fifth in the constructor championship last season, will have to double down to regain its level. It has just under two weeks to work on its car before the next Grand Prix, which will take place in Saudi Arabia, at the Jeddah Circuit.