Lando Norris will take a 10-place grid penalty at Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix.
McLaren confirmed on Thursday that Norris’ MCL40 will be fitted with a new power electronics unit at Spa-Francorchamps – which will be the fourth such element the car has used this season, one more than is permitted without penalty under F1’s regulations.
A fourth unit automatically triggers a 10-place grid drop for the reigning world champion from wherever he qualifies for Sunday’s race. Norris will therefore start no higher than 11th.
McLaren said they are fitting the fresh unit to take advantage of battery reliability improvements from engine suppliers Mercedes after failures with initial units earlier in the season, with Spa-Francorchamps chosen as the circuit to take the penalty due to its relatively overtaking-friendly nature.
A McLaren statement read: “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“Lando’s second power electronics unit, fitted in Japan, needed to be withdrawn for remedial work after suffering issues in Free Practice, which necessitated moving to a third and final power electronics unit within the permitted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unit was able to be repaired after the Japanese Grand Prix, it suffered a terminal issue in FP2 in Monaco, and was withdrawn from our allocation once again.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.”
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Lando Norris said McLaren needed to play catch-up after he qualified in P6 ahead of the British Grand Prix.
‘I’m on the back foot’ – but Norris still eyeing strong Spa
Norris, who counts Spa as a second home race as his mother is Belgian, has endured a challenging world title defence so far in the 2026 season with McLaren unable to match front-runners Mercedes and Ferrari on a consistent basis.
He is fifth in the Drivers’ Championship after nine rounds, 82 points behind leader Kimi Antonelli. His average qualifying result is fifth place.
On his prospects this weekend now given the penalty to come, the Briton said: “The main thing is just another weekend, another weekend to look forward to.
“Try to race well, try to qualify well and try to have a good weekend. We’ll see what we can improve on. It certainly won’t be made easier by the grid penalty but that’s just because we’ve just been unlucky in the first part of the season losing a lot of different bits, whether it was the engine or the power unit or the controls.
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Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri take on Sky Sports F1’s karting challenge at Silverstone and then get up to some hi-jinks afterwards!
“I’m just on the back foot from a spare part’s point of view but that’s out of my hands and out of our hands in some way. That’s life, just got to take it on the chin and deal with some of the penalties I have coming up.
“But this is certainly a better track to take the penalties in than the next two. It’s part of it but we can still look forward to trying to have a good weekend.”
Mercedes have recently introduced wider reliability improvements for their power unit, which their title-leading works team first used two races ago in Austria and then customers Alpine and Williams last time out at Silverstone.
McLaren had not yet run Mercedes’ new-specification internal combustion engine as their failure to take the race start with both cars at March’s Chinese Grand Prix meant they had not reached the required mileage limits on the existing units.
However, Norris and Oscar Piastri are set to take the fresh ICEs, without any grid penalty as they remain within the allocation for that power-unit element, this weekend.
Sky Sports F1’s Belgian GP schedule
Friday July 17
8.50am: F3 Practice
10am: F2 Practice
12pm: Belgian GP Practice One (session starts at 12.30pm)
2pm: F3 Qualifying
2.55pm: F2 Qualifying
3.30pm: Belgian GP Practice Two (session starts at 4pm)
5.15pm: The F1 Show
Saturday July 18
9am: F3 Sprint
11.15am: Belgian GP Practice Three (session starts at 11.30am)
1.15pm: F2 Sprint
2.15pm: Belgian GP Qualifying build-up*
3pm: BELGIAN GP QUALIFYING*
Sunday July 19
7.30am: F3 Feature Race
9am: F2 Feature Race
10.45am: Porsche Supercup
12.30pm: Belgian GP build-up: Grand Prix Sunday
2pm: THE BELGIAN GRAND PRIX
4pm: Belgian GP reaction: Chequered Flag
*Also on Sky Sports Main Event
Formula 1’s summer run continues with the Belgian Grand Prix at legendary Spa-Francorchamps this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime
