Norris takes 10-place grid drop at Belgian GP as McLaren fits fourth power electronics unit

Lando Norris will incur a 10-place grid penalty at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix after McLaren fitted a fourth power electronics unit to his MCL40 at Spa-Francorchamps, the team confirmed on Thursday. The change pushes Norris beyond his permitted seasonal allowance for that component and is a direct consequence of a Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains reliability upgrade now being made available to customer teams.

Norris had been running on borrowed time with his power unit allocation for much of the season. The reigning world champion burned through his third and final set of control electronics early after encountering issues in China and Japan, leaving McLaren with little margin for the remainder of the campaign.

Mercedes introduced a revised power electronics specification — carrying a series of reliability fixes — after its own cars took the update in Austria. Customer teams Alpine and Williams received the new internal combustion engine at Silverstone, while McLaren has now moved to fit both Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri with updated components in Belgium. Piastri moves to his third power electronics unit and avoids a penalty; Norris, taking his fourth, does not.

“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,” McLaren said in a statement.

The team was deliberate in its choice of venue for absorbing the penalty. Spa-Francorchamps, with its long straights and established overtaking zones, offers Norris a better chance of recovering positions than the two circuits that follow — the tight confines of the Hungaroring and the technical Zandvoort layout.

“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,” McLaren explained. “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.”

McLaren will also receive Mercedes’ latest internal combustion engine specification at Spa, completing a broader power unit refresh for the papaya squad as the championship heads into its summer stretch.