Lando Norris will have to take a 10-place grid penalty at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix. McLaren announced on Thursday that the car of the reigning world champion will be fitted with a fourth power electronics unit of the season, one more than allowed under Formula One regulations.
- Lando Norris suffered "terminal" power electronics failures in China and during free practice in Monaco.
- McLaren said Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains introduced reliability fixes to their new power electronics systems.
- The team will install the improved unit now and accept the resulting sporting penalty to benefit from enhanced reliability.
- McLaren chose Belgium to take the penalty because overtaking is more prevalent than at Hungary and Zandvoort.
- Lando Norris is fifth in the standings, 82 points behind leader Kimi Antonelli; he beat Max Verstappen to last year's title.
Norris’s first two units suffered “terminal” issues in China in March, where he did not start the race, then in free practice in Monaco last month.
McLaren said: “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.”
Norris, who pipped Max Verstappen to last year’s title by two points, is fifth in the drivers’ standings, 82 points behind the leader, Kimi Antonelli.
