McLaren has confirmed that it will use the latest Mercedes engine at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix in Formula 1. The team was the only one among the four customers of the German manufacturer that had not yet adopted the new unit, while Alpine and Williams had already made the change before the British GP.
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The Mercedes update does not bring a performance gain, but improves the reliability of the package. The news comes after problems faced by George Russell, who retired in Canada, and Kimi Antonelli, who had a failure in Barcelona. Both had already used the new engine at the Austrian round.
McLaren’s decision to wait for the unit’s debut raised questions before Silverstone. Andrea Stella stated that Alpine and Williams had more “need” for the new engine at that moment, while Zak Brown explained that the power unit usage cycle did not justify an early change at the British GP.
Throughout the season, the team also faced problems related to the power system. Lando Norris had a battery failure in Monaco, while Norris and Oscar Piastri could not start in China after problems that affected both cars shortly before the race.
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At Spa-Francorchamps, Norris and Piastri will use new Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) units, but will not suffer grid penalties. This will be only the third unit used by each driver, within the limit of four engines allowed without penalty. Besides the new Mercedes engine, McLaren will bring a new rear wing for the Belgian GP free practice sessions. The team has not yet used the part known as “Macarena” on the MCL40, despite having brought the component to Austria, where it decided not to use it as a precaution.
“We are arriving at Spa with a new rear wing set, an update that was already in our plan as part of the car’s development path,” said Neil Houldley, technical director of applied engineering.
According to the director, the update should bring some extra performance, but a big change in competitiveness is not expected after a difficult weekend in England: “We are confident that this update will add a bit of performance to our car, but we are aware that, after a difficult weekend at the British GP, mainly in terms of pure performance, even this stage will not be so easy, so we do not expect big changes in terms of competitiveness.”
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