McLaren reveal Mercedes 'trust' stance after shock F1 engine failures

McLaren boss Andrea Stella says the team has complete "trust" in power unit supplier Mercedes HPP following its shock double DNS in China.

In Shanghai, both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri failed to start the race after suffering separate electrical problems on their Mercedes HPP power units, with Norris stuck in the garage and Piastri wheeled off the grid before the formation lap. 

It is the first time since the 2005 United States Grand Prix that McLaren has suffered a double Did Not Start, with the team only recording one start from a possible four to begin the season following Piastri's crash on the way to the Australian GP grid.

Reflecting on the result, Stella has described how McLaren has 'complete trust' in the initial report supplied to it by Mercedes HPP and that the double DNS was a pure "coincidence".

"On Lando's car, in preparation for the laps to the grid, we saw that there were problems with the electrical side of the power unit," Stella told the media, including RacingNews365. 

"We couldn't communicate with the component. We tried to rectify the problem and change as many parts as we could without changing that part specifically, because it would take a long time. 

"We reprogrammed, but there was no way to fix the problem. 

"We attempted to change the ECU because whilst we were having no communication with the battery, changing the ECU takes just a few minutes, and we hypothesised that it could have been the ECU.

"So we went for the ECU change, but it did not make a difference.

"On Oscar's side, the car was able to go to the grid with no issues, but once on the grid, the car wouldn't fire up similarly to Lando, but it was easier to diagnose the problem. 

"It appears to be a problem with the same power unit component on the electrical side, but of a different nature, so it is quite exceptional and uncharacteristic that you have two terminal problems at the same time on the same component."

Referring to the interaction with HPP specifically, Stella added: "We will review together with HPP the reason for the faults, and make sure that it doesn't happen again. 

"It is an area of the car which is not under McLaren's control, so we rely entirely on what is reported by HPP, and we trust their report completely.

"According to it, the problems are of a different nature, so it just looks like a coincidence that they happened at the same time, at the same grand prix and were both of a terminal nature."