Lando Norris’ rocky title defence just got rockier. The reigning World Champion will start on the back foot at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix after McLaren confirmed they’re fitting his car with a new power electronics unit, exceeding his permitted allocation and triggering an automatic 10-place grid penalty.
This will be the fourth power electronics unit fitted to Norris’ car this season, one more than F1 regulations allow without penalty. McLaren explained the run of bad luck in a team statement: Norris’ first power electronics unit suffered a terminal issue in China, meaning he was unable to start the race there. His second unit, fitted in Japan, needed to be withdrawn for remedial work after issues in Free Practice, forcing a move to a third unit. That second unit was later found to have suffered a terminal issue in FP2 in Monaco.
Now, with Mercedes having introduced reliability fixes to their power electronics systems since Norris’ Japan-spec unit was installed, McLaren have decided the upgrade is worth the grid drop.
McLaren chose Belgium specifically because it’s a circuit where overtaking is relatively more prevalent, rather than taking the hit at the following two events in Hungary or Zandvoort. The penalty means Norris will start no higher than 11th on the grid, regardless of where he qualifies.
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The timing stings, Spa-Francorchamps is where Norris took pole position last year and it’s also a bit of a second home race for him given his mother is Belgian. It comes at a tough stretch for McLaren more broadly, who currently sit third in the constructors’ standings behind frontrunners Mercedes and Ferrari. Norris is currently fifth in the Drivers’ Championship, 82 points behind leader Kimi Antonelli, having endured a season where McLaren have struggled to consistently challenge the front-runners.
McLaren say the silver lining is durability: they now plan to use this fourth power electronics unit for the remainder of the season, aiming to maximise reliability while minimising further sporting penalties for Norris.
