Sawt Falasteen - McLaren boss laments 'incredibly frustrating' double China failure

World champion Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were left kicking their heels in the pit lane because of issues before the start at the Shanghai International Circuit.

It compounded an awful start to the season for constructors' world champions McLaren.

"We came here to go racing and today we were not in condition to do so because of technical problems," Stella told Sky F1.

"This is very frustrating and disappointing for the team, for the drivers, for our technical and commercial partners, and obviously for our fans.

"So we are sorry for that. We will regroup. We will understand these technical problems and we will go again in Japan."

Norris was unable to leave the garage for a run to the starting grid.

"Once we were preparing the car of Lando to leave the garage, we found a problem on the electrical side of the power unit," explained Stella.

"We tried to fix it, but actually there was no way to fix it."

Piastri did make it to the grid but was pushed back into the garage a few minutes later.

"We found another problem on the electrical side of the power unit on Oscar's car," said Stella.

"They seem to be different problems and they were basically meaning that there was no way to start the race."

Britain's Norris, who came fifth in the season-opening race in Melbourne, told Sky Sports: "Just frustrating.

"It is on the PU (power unit) side, so the guys tried as hard as they could to get things sorted, but they were unable to.

"My first DNS (did not start) in F1, tough to take, but that is racing sometimes."

Williams' Alexander Albon and Gabriel Bortoleto of Audi also failed to start.

Last weekend only one McLaren took part in the opening race after Piastri crashed on his way to the grid in Melbourne, meaning the Australian is yet to race in a grand prix this season.

W.Mansour--SF-PST