Lando Norris retirement a repeat of Carlos Sainz Spa problem

Eifel Grand Prix

Norris retirement a repeat of Sainz Spa problem

Unburnt fuel in the exhaust caused the bodywork to burn

Sam Hall

Monday 12 October 2020 10:31

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McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl has confirmed the cause of Lando Norris' retirement from the Eifel Grand Prix was a repeat of the issue that prevented Carlos Sainz from starting in Belgium.

Norris ran fourth in the early stages at the Nürburgring and was closing on Daniel Ricciardo to potentially score a second career podium.

On lap 42, however, after reporting a loss of power and managing the problem for a handful of laps, the Briton pulled the side of the track as his power unit shut off.

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Confirming the nature of the problem, Seidl said: “It looks like we experienced a similar issue to what Carlos experienced on his lap to the grid in Spa which means an issue on the ignition side causing misfires which then in the end caused major damage to the car again.

“In the end, together with our colleagues from Renault, we tried to get out of this protection mode the engine goes into then when having such an issue, but unfortunately that wasn’t possible because the problem was constantly there."

This was not the first problem Norris had experienced across the weekend, with the team replacing the ICE [internal combustion engine], MGUH [motor generator unit heat], MGUK [motor generator unit kinetic] and TC [turbocharger] on Sunday morning after 'detecting an issue' in qualifying.

“It’s obviously very disappointing because we were, with Lando, in a very promising position in the race," continued Seidl.

"He was running P4 and with a different strategy we had chosen. Compared to Daniel he was actually catching him and it would have been interesting how that would have played out the different tyre age towards the end of the race.

“So very disappointed for that but it was good to see we had good pace in the race to fight with our main competitors."

As Norris came to a halt, cameras showed a burnt area of bodywork and the McLaren boss explained, "What happens then is there is an issue in the ignition side which is causing unburnt fuel going through the exhaust and then is goes kaput.”

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