The Albany Gazette - McLaren hit a bump after celebrations

World champion Lando Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri finished the opening day in 19th and seventh places respectively, the Briton suffering an electrical failure that stopped him on track and the Australian complaining of lack of grip.

"A bit of a difficult day," said Piastri. "It's not just one place where we’re struggling – it's a little bit everywhere."

The team’s chief technical officer Rob Marshall said Norris's car had shut down completely. "It could be anything," he said. "But it's electrical."

The setback is a becoming a familiar issue in the new hybrid era of Formula One with its controversial and unpopular 50-50 split in power provision between engine and battery – a feature of modern racing that did not concern the team in its earlier successes.

As the most successful team at F1's blue riband event, the Monaco Grand Prix, McLaren enjoyed a glamorous party on Thursday evening to mark 60 years since their debut at the race in the Mediterranean principality where they have won 16 times, a record six of those by Ayrton Senna including five in succession for McLaren.

Founded in 1963 by Bruce McLaren, owner and driver, McLaren have won 203 Grands Prix, claimed 177 pole positions and 10 world championships, an overall record second only to Ferrari.

The celebrations, featuring cars and drivers from the team’s glorious past, included appearances by John Watson, Emmerson Fittipaldi, Gerhard Berger, Lewis Hamilton, Mika Hakkinen, Heiki Kovalainen, Juan Pablo Montoya, David Coulthard and Fernando Alonso as well as current world champion Norris and Piatri, his team-mate.

Two-time champion Hakkinen took the team's first F1 car, the M2B, out for a demonstration lap of the Monte Carlo circuit that evoked memories and triggered emotions, not least for Norris who has made more starts for McLaren than any other driver.

"It’s a pretty awesome stat to think of," he said. "And, to be honest, normally I hate stats and I hate when people say them, but this is one that I'm proud of… It's something just to see my alongside so many greats.

"A lot of the people everyone knows and remembers achieved a lot more. I certainly want to get to the level that they did, but for my name to be amongst some incredible drivers in the past is an amazing thing."

Having won on his way to the title last year, Norris was coy about his prospects this time. "We have the goals of pole and winning, but we don’t want to be over-optimistic and Ferrari and Mercedes have been very strong. But we have belief that it is possible."

(O.Garcia--TAG)