Stella confirms Norris power unit costing McLaren up to 0.2s per lap in Bahrain qualifying

Lando Norris is carrying a measurable power unit deficit into the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix weekend in Malaysia, with McLaren team principal Andrea Stella confirming the issue is costing the reigning Formula 1 champion between one and two tenths of a second per lap in qualifying trim.

The problem first emerged during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend in Baku and has resurfaced at the Bahrain GP, held at the Sepang International Circuit. Stella described the fault as a loss of straightline speed in power-limited sections, where Norris’s car accelerates slightly less and reaches a marginally lower top speed than expected — a difference he quantified at roughly one to two kilometres per hour.

“In the power limited section, the car accelerates a little less and develops a little bit less top speed, all the other parameters being the same,” Stella told media after qualifying. “We should more precisely talk about the deficit of straightline speed, which we can quantify in a lap time loss that I would say in excess of one tenth of a second, possibly between one and two tenths of a second.”

Norris himself was candid about the frustration. “I’m just down on every single straight, so every time I get a good exit, I’m just slower at the end of the straight. It just hurts seeing this every single time,” he said.

While McLaren is already known to run lower gear ratios than other Mercedes-powered teams — a deliberate setup trade-off that reduces top-end straight-line pace — Stella made clear that Norris is losing additional time on top of that structural disadvantage, widening the gap further against the Red Bulls and Ferraris in qualifying.

Diagnosing the root cause, however, is proving difficult. Stella explained that a deployment-related fault would be straightforward to identify through telemetry, but a mechanical issue beyond the reach of the car’s sensors is far harder to isolate. He was also careful to note that the cause may not lie with the power unit itself, leaving the door open to other contributing factors.

The deficit is small enough to be masked by slipstream — Stella noted that even a car four seconds ahead can give Norris enough of a tow to appear faster than his team-mate — but statistically consistent enough for the team to treat it as a genuine concern heading into the race.