Team principal Andrea Stella has addressed the late brake issue that Lando Norris encountered at the Shanghai International Circuit as McLaren secured their first 1-2 finish of the season at the F1 Chinese GP.
After aborting his final flying lap in Q3 due to a couple of mistakes and starting from third on the grid on Sunday, Norris managed to get a strong launch off the line and overtake George Russell at Turn 1.
While his teammate Oscar Piastri made his way to the top step of the podium, the 25-year-old successfully held off a charging Russell and finished second despite his brake pedal going long in the latter half of the race.
Norris’s brake issue not acceptable from the standpoint of reliability
In his post-race print media session, the McLaren team principal acknowledged that they were really pleased after securing the maximum points on Sunday. At the same time, Stella elaborated on how the brake pedal issue that Norris faced in the last 20 laps of the race had nearly jeopardised their overall fantastic results at the F1 Chinese GP.
The Italian was generous in his praise for Norris and the rest of the team, and he highlighted their effective communication and adaptability as the complication worsened in the closing stages of the race.
However, Stella was also quick to remark that such issues are unacceptable from the perspective of reliability and that they need to work better to prevent such problems from compromising their performance in the future.
“I am happy with the 1-2 [finish] and we have been tense at the pit wall and I’m sure the entire team and the fans because we had one issue on Lando’s [Norris] car with the brake pedal that we needed to manage over the last 20 laps.
“Lando and the team did a very good job in being in the loop as to how to adapt the driving style to this kind of problem which then got worse and worse through the race and put the entire result at risk which is obviously just not acceptable from a reliability point of view.
“We need to do better, and this will be one of the points that we will definitely re-emphasise to the entire team that has worked at an incredibly high level but we cannot have issues that put these sort of results at risk.”
Stella implies Norris could’ve been a contender for victory without the brake issue
Emphasising how the Brit had adapted well to the changing behaviour of the tyres despite struggling to find his confidence in the car last weekend, Stella implied that Norris could’ve challenged his teammate for victory at the F1 Chinese GP if the brake pedal issue hadn’t compromised his pace during his final stint on the hard tyres.
“Lando has been very, very good at adapting to some behaviours of the tyres and the car that was not ideal for him but he learnt his way and today I think without the brake problem it would have been an interesting final part of the race.”
“I think Lando ultimately was a bit upset that we got the problem with the brakes because he thought that he had saved the tyres to give it a go over the last 15 laps.
“But at the same time Oscar [Piastri], we know that he’s quick, has been quick all weekend and also he had the benefit of the free air.
“So it would have been interesting to see our two drivers pushing and see who actually had a bit of the edge on the other one.”
Brake issue caused by a leak in one of the components
When asked to shed more light on the problem and explain how Norris was actively adapting to it, Stella revealed that the McLaren driver’s brake pedal went long and that his car was no longer slowing down properly.
Stella further added that Norris couldn’t apply peak pressure and resorted to the lift-and-coast technique to bring the car home at the F1 Chinese GP on Sunday.
“The brake pedal was going long, and what we needed to do was to avoid more and more the peak pressure.
“So he [Norris] needed to brake with less and less and less peak pressure to the point that over the final laps where he was just coasting for a long time, off the throttle, and then applying just a minimum amount of brake pressure to stop the car and go around the corner.”
In terms of what the root cause of the brake issue that Norris ran into was, Stella responded that he was unable to share the precise details due to IP concerns. Nonetheless, commenting that the problem could be traced back to a leakage in one of the components, he further explained the steps that the Brit took to minimise the damage.
“We understand what the problem is, which I don’t disclose for IP reasons. But fundamentally, it had to do with a leak in one of the components, not the brake line but somewhere else.
“The main action required was to limit the peak brake pressure. You could brake but very, very gently.
“So what was 100-metre braking became 200 metres, and towards the end it was 300 metres because Lando needed to lift the throttle, coast to a certain speed, and then apply very gentle brake pressure.
“That was to avoid the leak from becoming too fast.”
