McLaren has outlined the findings from its investigation into the car failure that put Lando Norris out of Formula 1’s Dutch GP, with it already having remedies in place to prevent a repeat.
Norris suffered a major blow to his title hopes at Zandvoort last weekend when his car stopped in the closing stages following a suspected oil leak.
Running second at the time, the British driver had complained on the team radio that he could smell smoke in the cockpit shortly before he ground to a halt.
His retirement left the way clear for team-mate Oscar Piastri to take a win that opened his advantage at the head of the standings to 34 points.
While McLaren was unable to be sure of the cause of the problem until after the race, by Sunday night, it had narrowed down the matter to reveal that a component on the car had failed rather than it being anything involving engine supplier Mercedes.
Now some more specific details have emerged with McLaren telling The Race that the part that failed was an engine oil line.
This triggered an oil leak that was then detected by sensors on the car, which automatically shut the engine down to prevent any extra damage being caused.
Following a swift diagnosis of the problem, McLaren is understood to have put some countermeasures in place for this weekend's Italian GP – which Norris himself said involves beefing up the pipe.
Speaking at Monza about what McLaren had told him of the failure, Norris said: “There are a lot of insanely complicated things that have to come together.
“For them, the diagnostic of what happened is pretty easy. It's a part that's broken and they look at it and go, it's broken.
“But the understanding of how to fix it, they make the same part but stronger. Racing in F1 is always about making things lighter and stronger.
“So it's probably a very small weight penalty that comes with this part. It's a pretty small part. It's probably something that costs a little bit to make.”
The discovery that it was an engine oil line problem rather than anything that involved a powerunit failure will be of some consolation for Norris, as it means it is not guaranteed he will lose that engine from his pool.
The Dutch GP powerunit is now being evaluated by Mercedes to see if any damage was done by what happened and whether or not it can be returned to Norris’s pool later in the season.
As part of its planning for the year, McLaren was already switching both Norris and Oscar Piastri to fresher powerunits for this weekend’s Italian GP anyway because of Monza’s demands.
So there is no immediate penalty for Norris in having the Dutch GP unit taken out of action for now while it is checked.
Norris remains philosophical about being on the wrong end of McLaren’s first mechanical retirement since the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix.
In that race, Oscar Piastri retired early on with an electrical failure, while Norris suffered hydraulic problems that meant he had to stop six times in the pits.
“It’s 60 plus races of zero faults and failures,” said Norris. “Obviously little minor things here and there, but nothing which has cost me points or my team any points for that matter. It's pretty impressive.
“It's F1, these things happen. The team have just done an incredibly good job. It's more unfortunate timing that it's on what is probably the most important year of my career and ours in Formula 1 as a team.”
