Loading
Lando Norris will take a 10-place grid penalty at the Belgian Grand Prix after McLaren fitted his car with a fourth power electronics unit of the season.
The move takes the McLaren driver beyond the permitted allocation of three units. The team said the decision followed a series of reliability problems during the campaign, while also allowing Norris to benefit from software improvements introduced by Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains.
The penalty is therefore a sporting cost attached to a reliability-focused decision. McLaren has indicated that the new unit is intended to remain in Norrisâs car for the rest of the season, reducing the risk of further penalties later in the year.
McLaren outlined the chain of events behind the change. Norrisâs first power electronics unit suffered a terminal issue in China, preventing him from starting the race.
The second unit was fitted in Japan but had to be withdrawn after encountering problems during Free Practice. That forced McLaren to move to a third and final unit within the permitted allocation.
Although the second unit was repaired after the Japanese Grand Prix, it failed terminally during FP2 in Monaco and was removed from the allocation again. The unit installed in Japan, and used in every session since Miami, continued to operate reliably, but Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains subsequently introduced a series of reliability fixes for its new power electronics systems.
McLaren chose to adopt those improvements despite the grid penalty. âHowever, in order to take advantage of these improvements, we must incur a 10-place grid penalty on Landoâs car in order to take a new unit,â the team stated.
McLaren considers Spa-Francorchamps the least damaging venue for the penalty because overtaking is more prevalent there than at the next two rounds, Hungary and Zandvoort. That gives Norris a clearer opportunity to recover positions during the race, although his starting-place loss will still shape McLarenâs weekend strategy.
The team said Belgium was selected specifically to limit the sporting impact of the change. âWe have chosen to do this in Belgium, a circuit where overtaking is relatively more prevalent,â McLaren explained.
The decision adds another layer to McLarenâs Belgian Grand Prix weekend. The team is also set to run a new rear wing at Spa, as reported in McLarenâs Belgian Grand Prix technical update, while Norris faces the immediate consequence of the power electronics allocation exceeding its limit.
Heâs a software engineer with a deep passion for Formula 1 and motorsport. He co-founded Formula Live Pulse to make live telemetry and race insights accessible, visual, and easy to follow.