– World champion Lando Norris’ Belgium weekend has already taken a severe hit before the event, as it has been confirmed that the McLaren driver will be penalized with a ten-place grid drop on Sunday before any wheel has turned at Spa-Francorchamps.
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As his team reports, Norris’ power unit will be equipped with new control electronics this weekend. For the Englishman, this is already the fourth in the 2026 Formula 1 season, exceeding the allowed quota of three units (see overview of engine parts 2026).
According to Article B8.2.8 of the Sporting Regulations, this automatically results in a ten-place grid penalty, which means Norris will have a lot of work ahead of him on Sunday if he wants to achieve a good result.
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Norris’ first electronics unit had already suffered irreparable damage at the second race of the season in China, which is why he was unable to participate in the race at all. The second unit, installed in Japan, had to be removed for repairs after problems in free practice.
Although it was repaired and used again, this unit also suffered irreparable damage during the second practice in Monaco and had to be taken out of the pool.
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Thus, Norris has been running with the third unit since Japan. And even though it has been reliable so far, McLaren feels forced to make a change to benefit from recent reliability updates from manufacturer Mercedes.
“We decided to do this in Belgium – a track where overtaking is comparatively easier than at the next two events in Hungary and Zandvoort,” McLaren states.
In fact, engine penalties have often been taken in Belgium in recent years for tactical reasons, as overtaking on the long Kemmel Straight is quite easy and the disadvantage is therefore not as great as on other tracks.
McLaren now plans to get through the rest of the season with the fourth control electronics unit. Another change would result in a further five-place penalty. For all other engine components, Norris currently still has some buffer – only for the battery has he already installed the third of three allowed units.
Read more Setback for Lando Norris: Ten-place grid penalty in Belgium!
