Lando Norris has been handed a 10-place grid penalty for the Belgian Grand Prix after already exceeding his power unit allocation for the season.
The reigning world champion, currently fifth in the F1 world championship standings, will take his fourth power unit of the campaign at round 10 at Spa-Francorchamps.
McLaren have justified the decision to take it this weekend because “overtaking is relatively more prevalent” at Spa than at the next two tracks in Hungary and the Netherlands. At 7km long, Spa is the longest circuit on the calendar.
A McLaren statement read: “McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team will fit car Number 1 with a fourth power electronics this weekend in Spa, exceeding our permitted number of allocated power electronics units and incurring a 10-place grid penalty.
“Car Number 1’s first power electronics unit suffered a terminal issue in China, which meant Lando was unable to start the race. Lando’s second power electronics unit, fitted in Japan, needed to be withdrawn for remedial work after suffering issues in Free Practice, which necessitated moving to a third and final power electronics unit within the permitted allocation.
“While the second power electronics unit was able to be repaired after the Japanese Grand Prix, it suffered a terminal issue in FP2 in Monaco, and was withdrawn from our allocation once again.
“While the power electronics unit we installed in Japan, and have used in every session since Miami, has worked reliably, Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains has since introduced a series of reliability fixes to their new power electronics systems. However, in order to take advantage of these improvements, we must incur a 10-place grid penalty on Lando’s car in order to take a new unit.
“We have chosen to do this in Belgium, a circuit where overtaking is relatively more prevalent, as opposed to the following two events in Hungary and Zandvoort. We now plan to use this fourth power electronics unit for the remainder of the season, in order to maximise reliability while minimising sporting penalties on Lando.”
Norris finished fourth at the last race in Silverstone and is still chasing his first win of the 2026 season. The Briton trails championship leader Kimi Antonelli by 82 points.
About the Author
