Lando Norris dealt major blow after Mercedes investigation

Lando Norris has been dealt a major blow to the defence of his Formula 1 title for this season.

RacingNews365 can confirm that following an investigation by McLaren, and primarily its power unit supplier, Mercedes High Performance Powertrains, the British driver has suffered irreparable damage to a battery system.

F1 champion Norris and McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri both failed to start the last race in China due to separate issues related to an electrical item within the PU.

Whilst HPP has been able to apply a fix and salvage the battery for Piastri's MCL60, it has not been able to do the same for Norris.

It means Norris now has just two battery packs remaining to see him through the remainder of the 20-race campaign, starting with this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix.

Under the regulations, teams are only allowed two batteries per car per season before grid penalties occur for further changes. However, as this is the first season of a major regulation change, each car is allowed three of that particular component.

Regardless, it still puts Norris at a major disadvantage for the rest of the season compared to his rivals.  

"Alongside HPP, it took a little bit of time to figure things out," the 11-time grand prix winner told media, including RacingNews365.

"Of course, it [the double DNS] hurt us as a team; it certainly didn't make us look good to have two cars not starting a race.

"I think what hurt more was the fact that it was out of our control."

Nonetheless, the British driver was quick to underline the learning opportunity that came out of a disappointing episode for the team.

"But with HPP, we've worked hard to figure things out, to understand how it happened, why it happened, and of course, we'll do everything we can to make sure it doesn't happen again," said Norris.

"You live, and you learn. It was a tough one for all of us. None of us wants to have a weekend like that, and especially start a Sunday like that.

"So yeah, hurt a lot. But at the same time, a good time for us to learn and step back and move on to this weekend."