McLaren chief critical of reliability: “Just not acceptable”

McLaren’s dominant 1-2 finish at the Chinese Grand Prix was overshadowed by a brake failure scare that nearly cost Lando Norris his second place.

McLaren finished the Chinese Grand Prix with a dominant 1-2 finish, with Oscar Piastri taking his first win of the 2025 Formula 1 season. But what should have been a standard celebration for the Papaya team has turned into questions following the race as Lando Norris was affected by a failing brake pedal toward the end of his campaign.

Team principal Andrea Stella has discussed this with media, including Motorsport.com, expressing his concerns with the issue that jeopardised Norris' finish, labelling it as "unacceptable."

Oscar Piastri converted his maiden pole into a commanding win in Shanghai. Leading from start to finish, the Australian wasn't challenged by his team-mate, who secured P2 despite brake issues that slowed him massively in the closing laps of the 56-lap race.

After the race, Stella didn't mince his words:

"I am happy with the 1-2. 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 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.

Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

"We need to do better. And this will be one of the points that we will definitely reemphasise to the entire team that have worked at an incredibly high level, but we cannot have issues that put these sort of results at risk."

Norris was given a considerable challenge to contend with, something he described as "scary."

"It's scary. It's like my worst nightmare. When I have a nightmare, it's when the brakes are failing," Norris explained after the race. "And I was losing 2, 3, 4 seconds in the last couple of laps, so I was a bit scared, but we survived, and then we made it to the end."

His brake pedal, progressively getting "longer and longer," forced him to change his driving style as he focused on lifting and coasting into corners towards the end of his race. While Mercedes driver George Russell was keen on an overtake before the end of the race, he wasn't able to catch the Papaya driver.