Lando Norris will have to take a 10-place grid penalty for this weekend’s Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix for taking his fourth battery of the season.

Two different battery failures meant neither McLaren driver could start the Chinese GP and Norris's next battery then failed during practice at the Japanese Grand Prix, putting him on his third and final allowed battery before triggering an automatic grid penalty.

So a grid penalty was essentially inevitable, but by taking the fourth battery now, it's been delayed to Spa and there are potentially fewer grid penalties in the long run.

That fourth battery is the first time Norris will get the benefit of the updated battery that debuted on the factory Mercedes and Oscar Piastri's McLaren in Austria. It has reliability fixes after the early-season issues.

The McLaren drivers are also both switching to a new specification of Mercedes power unit this weekend, which has a number of reliability improvements and debuted on the factory Mercedes cars in Austria - with Alpine and Williams receiving it one week later at Silverstone.

The McLaren drivers weren’t swapped onto the new power units there as they still had mileage available on many of their components, having faced multiple reliability issues early in the season.

Norris will be moved back 10 places from wherever he qualifies this weekend.

McLaren also has a new upgraded rear wing to trial in practice at Spa.