McLaren boss makes startling admission about Lando Norris' car problems during the F1 Chinese GP

McLaren boss Andrea Stella has revealed that Lando Norris was struggling with the brake issue for a whopping 15-20 laps from the end during the F1 Chinese GP. The second race of the season was eventful for the reigning champions.

It started with both McLaren drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, struggling in the sprint shootout. Neither of the two could secure a front-row start for the sprint, and hence it was Lewis Hamilton who picked up his first win for Ferrari.

For the Grand Prix qualifying, however, Oscar Piastri nailed everything and started the race on pole position with Lando Norris in P3. In the race, Norris jumped George Russell and got up to P2, and by the time the chequered flag fell, the driver was still able to maintain the position. There was, however, a problem with brakes that Norris discovered late in the race and hence was only marginally able to hold off George Russell.

Talking to Sky Sports, Andrea Stella revealed that Lando Norris had been nursing the issue for a whopping 15-20 laps. He said (via formula1.com):

“The race has been more tense than it might have looked. First of all, because at the [pit] stop we lost a position with Lando to Russell, so we needed to recover the position thanks to a really great overtake by Lando. It solved the situation. Then it was very much about observing what the tyres would have done, but we were nervous, because we knew that there was a lot of graining."

He added:

"It wasn’t clear whether it would have been a two or a one [stop], if our competitors split, some going for two, some going for one, then which one do you pick? Then, around 15-20 laps to the end, we started to develop a problem on the brake pedal for Lando. Lando did a very good job, together with the team, to manage through the problem, adapting the driving style such that it didn’t become a terminal problem."

McLaren boss opens up on Lando Norris' struggle with the car in China

The race in China was not the smoothest for Lando Norris as the driver found it hard to extract the best from the car in qualifying. This was arguably the reason why he fell back from Oscar Piastri in the session and then had to make his way back through the field. Stella also acknowledged the issues with Lando during the weekend, as he said (via the aforementioned publication):

“The talent that we have at McLaren in our driver line-up is just incredible. When it comes to talent, on Lando’s side, in order to use his talent, he does need the car to behave in a certain way, which here, because of the tyres and because of the car to some extent, it was difficult to utilize."

After the first two races of the season, Lando Norris leads the championship by eight points over Max Verstappen. The British driver has had a decent start to the season and would be looking to build on this in the next race.