Norris takes 10-place grid penalty as McLaren gets Merc PU update

Lando Norris will take a 10-place grid penalty at the Belgian Grand Prix as McLaren receives the updated Mercedes power unit for the first time.

Mercedes introduced a new power unit specification in Austria that focuses on reliability improvements, with Williams and Alpine taking the updated version at Silverstone. McLaren will now have the new PU on both cars this weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, but it results in Norris having to take a penalty.

Norris will exceed the maximum permitted number of control electronics, having already used three so far this season. His first unit suffered a terminal issue in China – preventing him from starting that race – and then a second unit introduced at the next round in Japan also required fixing during that weekend, before later completely failing in Monaco.

That left Norris on his final component before needing to take a penalty, and although his third control electronics worked reliably, McLaren has opted to install the updated Mercedes version due to reliability fixes that have been introduced.

The decision to take the penalty in Belgium is due to the increased overtaking opportunities at Spa-Francorchamps compared to the following rounds at the Hungaroring and Zandvoort. McLaren is also due to introduce a car upgrade package in Hungary, and says it plans to use the updated electronics unit “for the remainder of the season, in order to maximize reliability while minimizing sporting penalties on Lando.”

Oscar Piastri avoids such a penalty as he had not had as many terminal failures as Norris, and still had room in his permitted allocation to take the new Mercedes power unit without exceeding limits.