Lando Norris’ afternoon in Monaco lasted a very short time. The McLaren world champion had to wave the white flag due to a sudden blackout on his MCL40, which left him stranded at the exit of the Monte Carlo tunnel.
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A blow difficult for Norris to digest, especially on a track where driving as much as possible is fundamental to gain the right confidence with the car and be ready for Saturday’s decisive qualifying.
According to what was learned from FormulaPassion.it, McLaren’s problem should be connected to the battery, which caused the Mercedes power unit to suddenly lose power. However, the team did not want to commit further before starting all investigations once the car is brought back to the pits.
Read more McLaren flop, Monaco Friday is a disaster: “We are far off”
Reliability spectre for Mercedes?
If a problem with the electrical part of the power unit were to be confirmed, it would be a new alarm bell for Mercedes to be carefully monitored. Already two weeks ago in Canada, in fact, a problem of the same nature (although not fully specified by the team) forced Russell to retire while he was in full contention for victory with Antonelli.
Not only that: also in China, the two McLarens had withdrawn even before starting due to electrical problems related to the power unit, while in Japan a battery fault forced the papaya team to replace the component on Norris’ car.
Could this be the true Achilles’ heel of the Mercedes engine?
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