Why does Lando Norris have a 10-place grid penalty in Belgium GP? Is it his fault?
Lando Norris suffers a 10-place grid penalty for the unreliability of the Mercedes' engines in his McLaren.
Defending Formula 1 champion Lando Norris will begin the Belgian Grand Prix this Sunday with a 10-place penalty on the grid because of a decision taken by his team, McLaren, to fix the frequent unreliability of their engines this season, problems that caused Norris to fail to start in China, also having problems in Japan and Monaco.
However, the responsibility doesn't really falls on McLaren, but Mercedes, provider of the McLaren engines that are recently failing more than they should (it also affected, for example, Andrea Kimi Antonelli from Mercedes' own team, who failed to finish the race in Barcelona). McLaren, one of Mercedes' customer teams, also faces similar issues.
The F1 rules only allow three power electronic units for each driver over the course of a season, and Norris' car has already used three. To fix the problems, McLaren has fit his car with a fourth power unit this weekend, knowing well in advance, and accepting, that they would incur in a 10-place gird penalty.
What is believed is that McLaren chose to fit this fourth electronic unit in the Belgian circuit because Spa-Francorchamps is one of the easiest circuits for overtaking, with many long straights and DRS zones. It was therefore the "lesser evil" to take the penalty here instead of taking it on other circuit.
