The FIA has officially confirmed that McLaren driver Lando Norris will serve a 10-place grid penalty at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.

It comes after McLaren revealed on Thursday that Norris was facing a grid drop for exceeding his pool of engine components for the F1 2026 season.

FIA confirms Lando Norris penalty for Belgian Grand Prix

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McLaren is using the latest Mercedes engine at Spa this weekend, two races after the Mercedes works team introduced its updated power unit in Austria.

The move has seen Norris take a fourth power electronics unit of the season, one more than the permitted maximum of three.

Norris’s patchy reliability record in F1 2026 has led to his grid penalty, with two of his power electronics units suffering terminal damage so far this season.

One was written off when he failed to start the second race of the season in China, with Norris losing a second power electronics unit when he stopped on track during FP2 in Monaco.

A note written by Jo Bauer, the FIA’s Formula 1 Technical Delegate, on Friday confirmed that Norris will serve a penalty at Spa.

Bauer wrote: “The control electronics unit used by Lando Norris is the fourth (4th) of the three (3) new control electronics units allowed for the 2026 Championship season and this is not in conformity with B8.2.2 e) of the 2026 Formula One Sporting Regulations.”

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In a statement issued to PlanetF1.com on Thursday, McLaren said: “McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team will fit car Number 1 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“Lando’s second power electronics unit, fitted in Japan, needed to be withdrawn for remedial work after suffering issues in Free Practice, which necessitated moving to a third and final power electronics unit within the permitted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unit was able to be repaired after the Japanese Grand Prix, it suffered a terminal issue in FP2 in Monaco, and was withdrawn from our allocation once again.

“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.”

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