Lando Norris To Take Belgian Grand Prix Grid Penalty After Battery Change
World champion Lando Norris has taken a 10-place grid penalty for this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix after McLaren announced that it was fitting his car with a new battery.
World champion Lando Norris has taken a 10-place grid penalty for this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix after McLaren announced Thursday that it was fitting his car with a new battery. In Formula One's new hybrid era, with cars powered 50/50 by battery and petrol engine, Norris has struggled with reliability mainly due to problems with the electronics in his car's power unit. McLaren said Thursday that the "power electronics unit" will be Norris's fourth this season, one more than permitted in the regulations so a 10-place grid drop is mandatory.
Norris was unable to start the Chinese Grand Prix in March, had problems in practice with a second battery in Japan and then had more trouble in practice at the Monaco Grand Prix.
The team said their engine suppliers Mercedes were introducing an updated power unit in Belgium for McLaren but to take advantage of it "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 (Netherlands)."
McLaren had already said they plan to introduce a rear wing upgrade in Spa ahead of further upgrades in the following races.
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