McLaren Reveals That A Software Glitch Bricked Lando Norris' Battery

At this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix, McLaren is hoping to rebound from a nightmare double DNS in Shanghai. The reigning F1 constructors' champions revealed on Thursday that a software issue with Lando Norris' battery forced the team to withdraw his car from last week's Chinese Grand Prix before the start. According to motorsport.com, the Mercedes energy store is believed to be permanently damaged and unusable in future races.

The battery failure has already put Norris in a precarious position during the season's early stages. Each driver only has an allotment of three batteries for the entire season. Even with the cancellation of races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, losing an energy store at the second round of a now-22-round schedule isn't good. If Norris is forced to use a fourth battery, he'll face a 10-place grid penalty.

The decision to toss the battery wasn't one taken lightly and was only done after an investigation by Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains, the automaker's F1 engine-building arm. McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said in Friday's press conference:

"No. We trust 100 per cent that HPP have put in place remedials. I think we are exposed as a team, likewise all other teams may be exposed. There's no team dependency in the kind of problem that we had on the electrical side of the power unit. HPP have very high standards. When they have information to process from a fault, for sure they will execute and put in place all the necessary learnings, adaptations and actions to avoid a repeat."

The debut season of new power unit regulations is always a challenge for every team, but it's even more difficult for the teams that purchase engines. The factory teams are direct competitors with their customers. While the FIA has established rules that customer teams must have access to all the same engine settings as the factory squads, that doesn't translate into knowing what to do to extract optimal performance from a power unit. ESPN reported earlier this month that McLaren was critical of Mercedes for this very reason, keeping the papaya-colored team in the dark.

The factory-customer disparity is even more frustrating for McLaren because this year's Mercedes has proven to be the best package. The German factory team has a pair of one-two finishes in the two races run so far. Meanwhile, McLaren is currently clinging to third in the constructors' standings by a single point. Third might not sound bad, but it's already an 80-point gap to the front. That figure is more than three race wins.