McLaren share surprising breakthrough despite horror double DNS

McLaren boss Andrea Stella has revealed that the team feels it has made a breakthrough in understanding its Mercedes power unit, despite its double Did Not Start in China.

On Sunday morning in Shanghai, Lando Norris's car developed an electrical issue in the power unit and did not leave the garage for the laps to the grid, with the reigning world champion forced to post the first DNS of his career, in his 154th entry. 

Just prior to the formation lap starting, Oscar Piastri was also wheeled off the grid with what the team described as a similar electrical issue in the power unit, but unrelated.

For the second time in two grands prix, Piastri failed to take the start, becoming the first F1 driver ever to record consecutive DNS results in the first two calendar races of a season. 

It was the first time since the 2005 United States GP that both McLarens failed to start a grand prix. 

Despite this, Stella believes that the team did make a breakthrough in its understanding of how best to extract performance from its Mercedes HPP power unit, despite saying the team had been on the "back foot" compared to the works Mercedes squad in Australia. 

"The most detrimental aspect of not being able to participate in the race is the loss of points in the championship," Stella told media, including RacingNews365. 

"Okay, while, at the moment, Mercedes seems 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 is not scoring the points. 

"It is also quite regrettable and disappointing for our fans, and for our partners from a commercial and technical point of view, so there are obviously several downsides. Every lap is important in 2026.

"I think we are learning quite rapidly, and with what we have learned in Australia and in the Sprint, we think we are actually in a good position now in terms of especially exploiting the power unit.

"So, definitely more data would have been very useful, but what we regretted the most is not having the championship points."