Lando Norris will start Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix from deep in the field after McLaren confirmed a 10-place grid penalty for fitting his car with a fourth power electronics unit this season. Three is the limit. McLaren blew through it before the summer break even arrived.
How Did We Get Here?
The short answer is Mercedes. The longer answer involves a trail of component failures that reads less like a season of racing and more like a warranty claim letter.
Norris lost his first power electronics unit to a terminal failure in China, leaving him unable to start the race at all. His second unit was installed in Japan, promptly suffered issues in practice, was pulled for repairs, and then died permanently in FP2 at Monaco. By that point, Norris was already on his third and final allocation-free unit before most teams had even thought about their summer plans.
The current unit, fitted since Japan and used reliably from Miami onwards, is actually fine. McLaren are not replacing it because it is broken. They are replacing it because Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains has since introduced reliability fixes to the updated specification, and the only way to access those improvements is to take the fresh part and eat the penalty.
“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 statement
Spa is the Least Terrible Option
At least McLaren are being strategic about it. Taking a grid drop at a circuit with Eau Rouge, the Kemmel Straight, and Les Combes is the textbook move when penalties cannot be avoided. Hungary and Zandvoort would be far more damaging venues to serve ten places. This is a team making the best of a mess largely not of their own making.
Oscar Piastri is simultaneously moving to his third power electronics unit, though he stays within the permitted allocation and avoids a penalty. Small mercies.
A Title Defence That Has Never Really Started
Norris sits fifth in the championship with 97 points, 82 points behind leader Kimi Antonelli. McLaren are third in the constructors’ standings, 154 points off Mercedes. The reigning double champions are, bluntly, defending nothing at this point.
McLaren has also been made to wait for Mercedes’ latest internal combustion engine specification, which their works team took in Austria. Alpine and Williams received it at Silverstone. McLaren get it now, in Belgium, which tells you quite a lot about where customer teams sit in the pecking order when supply is tight. For more on the reliability concerns surrounding these 2026 power units at Spa, see what Russell had to say about the conditions ahead.
The Plan From Here
McLaren insist this fourth unit will serve Norris for the rest of the season. Given the component’s recent track record, that statement deserves at least mild scepticism. The team will also debut a new conventional rear wing at Spa, a timely reminder that significant upgrade packages are planned for Hungary and Zandvoort.
Whether those upgrades are enough to mount any sort of championship challenge is another matter entirely. Even Hamilton thinks catching Mercedes is a tall order, and Ferrari are considerably better placed than McLaren right now.
Norris will start somewhere near the back on Sunday. The circuit at least gives him a fighting chance of recovering. Whether the car does is a different question altogether.
