Lando Norris sums up McLaren woes as Martin Brundle details chat

Lando Norris says champagne celebration can 'go wrong'

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Lando Norris has admitted his McLaren issues started on the very first lap in Bahrain in a major blow to the British star. Sky Sports commentator Martin Brundle found out the extent of McLaren’s issues after a private chat with Norris after the race.

Brundle said Norris was putting on a “brave face” after McLaren suffered a nightmare start to the new campaign.

Norris suffered a pneumatic pressure leak which ended any chances of fighting for points.

The 23-year-old had to stop regularly to top up the pressure with the highly-rated youngster stopping six times on Sunday.

Writing in his Sky Sports F1 column, Brundle explained: “McLaren likely had the most disappointing weekend with neither speed nor reliability, with Lando Norris last of the 17 cars that finished, and Oscar Piastri forced to retire on his F1 debut.

“Lando put on a brave face but told me after the race that his problems with a pneumatic pressure leak, which ultimately forced him to make six pit stops, started on lap one.

“I assume they just wanted to run the car to see if anything else broke and to get a race distance experience, because otherwise it seemed like a waste of good engine mileage.” McLaren’s woes started as early as pre-season testing after the team completed the fewest laps of any other team on the grid.

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The former title winners also struggled to find performance and failed to light up the timesheets in Bahrain. Both cars failed to make it into Q3 on Saturday while both suffered mechanical failures on Sunday.

Piastri also retired from the Grand Prix with team boss Zak Brown admitting this was down to an electrical glitch.

Norris raised fears he could be tempted to walk away from the team as he claimed McLaren’s lack of competitiveness could continue beyond the end of his current deal.

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He also revealed he was “not the most patient guy” as McLaren realised they were in for a difficult campaign.

Team principal Andrea Stella commented: “So there was a pneumatic pressure leak on Lando’s car, we discovered this leak relatively soon in the race, and then we knew that it was possible to do only 10 [or] 11 laps each time before having to refill.

“So we decided to stay in the race, we decided to try and stay at least within one lap from the leader in the last 10 laps and then if there’s a Safety Car, try and see if there’s an opportunity – but it meant that we did six pit stops.”

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