Lando Norris set for enormous Belgian GP penalty | F1 | Sport

Lando Norris will have to serve a 10-place grid penalty at the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend. McLaren confirmed on Thursday that their driver will have no hope of starting Sunday’s Spa-Francorchamps race any higher than 11th on the grid after the decision was made to fit his car with new engine parts.

One of those new parts is a fresh control electronics component, his fourth of the season. That takes Norris beyond his annual allowance, which McLaren explained is as a result of poor reliability suffered earlier in the season. The team also confirmed that it will mean a 10-place grid drop for Norris.

A team statement read: “McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team will fit car Number 1 [Norris] with a fourth power electronics this weekend in Spa, exceeding our permitted number of allocated power electronics units and incurring a 10-place grid penalty.

“Car Number 1’s first power electronics unit suffered a terminal issue in China, which meant Lando was unable to start the race. Lando’s second power electronics unit, fitted in Japan, needed to be withdrawn for remedial work after suffering issues in Free Practice, which necessitated moving to a third and final power electronics unit within the permitted allocation.

“While the second power electronics unit was able to be repaired after the Japanese Grand Prix, it suffered a terminal issue in FP2 in Monaco, and was withdrawn from our allocation once again.”

Norris has been able to get by in recent weeks with that third and final permitted control electronics component. However, because suppliers Mercedes have now introduced upgraded parts which can deliver more performance, McLaren have decided it would be better in the long-term to swallow a grid penalty now so that they can bolt those upgraded parts onto the Brit’s car.

The team continued: “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.”

Neither Norris nor McLaren have enjoyed much success this season, relative to the last two campaigns. Their only victory so far in 2026 came at the Sprint race in Miami, which took place in early May. They failed to take advantage of their strong pace that weekend in the main Grand Prix as Norris was held off by winner Kimi Antonelli, and strong results have been hard to come by since.