Belgian Grand Prix: Lando Norris to have 10-place grid penalty because of new battery
McLaren driver Lando Norris will receive a 10-place grid penalty for Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix for exceeding the allowed number of engine parts.
The world champion’s car will be fitted with new power electronics units, Norris’ fourth of the season, one more than permitted.
‘Power electronics’ is the computer that controls the battery and has caused a number of problems for Mercedes-supplied teams this season.
As well as taking the latest spec from the Mercedes engine, McLaren decided to fit the new unit because the engine Norris uses did not have the reliability fixes introduced following a series of failures this year.
The team chose this weekend to take the penalty because overtaking is relatively easy at Spa and it is the last race before introducing the first of two major upgrade packages.
McLaren have fallen behind the top four teams in recent races due to upgrades from their rivals, but it is hoped that an aerodynamic package to be introduced for the Hungarian and Dutch Grands Prix either side of Formula 1’s summer break will return them to competitiveness.
Rather than jeopardize Hungary, where the car needed to perform better and overtaking was quite difficult, they decided it was better to take a grid penalty in Belgium, which they expected would be no more competitive than the last race in Britain but was relatively easy to overtake.
Norris’ grid penalty follows McLaren’s troubled start to the season in terms of both performance and reliability.
Norris was unable to start the Chinese Grand Prix in March due to a terminal problem with the power electronics unit, and a second example of this part had to be withdrawn after experiencing problems in practice at the next race in Japan.
The Japan unit was repaired but suffered a serious problem in practice in Monaco.
A statement from McLaren said: “While the power electronics unit we installed in Japan and used in every session since Miami has been operating reliably, Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains have since introduced a number of reliability fixes to the new power electronics systems.
“However, in order to take advantage of these developments, we need to take a 10-place grid penalty in order to buy a new unit for Lando’s car.”
The statement added: “We now plan to use this fourth power electronics unit for the remainder of the season to maximize reliability while minimizing the sporting penalties imposed on Lando.”
McLaren will introduce a new rear wing design at Spa, which the team hopes will better suit the specific characteristics of the high-speed circuit around the Ardennes forests.
This wing will have a traditional opening style in straight-line mode, rather than the tumbling designs introduced by Ferrari and Red Bull this season.
Red Bull was forced to return to the conventional wing this weekend after Max Verstappen crashed at high speed due to design problems in the previous two races.
