In a surprising and thrilling turn of events, the FIA has just announced that McLaren’s sensational F1 stars, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, will be receiving a double engine change ahead of the sumptuous Belgian Grand Prix. The two-man attack has been a force of nature this season, with their Mercedes-powered McLaren collecting an astonishing nine race victories in their haul of the 2025 season thus far.
As per an official statement shared by the FIA, Norris, Piastri, and Lance Stroll of Aston Martin will all receive multiple changes this weekend at Spa. All three drivers will be bolting on a new internal combustion engine (ICE), turbocharger (TC), motor generator unit-heat (MGU-H), and motor generator unit-kinetic (MGU-K) to ramp up their performance on -track.
The FIA stated further that Carlos Sainz of Williams will be using the same new power unit components in his vehicle. Under the FIA sporting regulations, each driver can change three engines per season, an act that is not against the regulations whereby sentences carry no penalties.
Another notable development is that Piastri will go even further with a component change using one of his two dictated energy stores (ES) and control electronics (CE) – an act which will also be joined by Gabriel Bortoleto of Sauber.
But why the change of engines for McLaren at the Belgian GP? Typically, F1 teams will have an change of engine components at Spa due to the long straights and need for power. There have been reliability concerns with Mercedes’ power unit during the season but it seems that McLaren, which is a customer of the German manufacturer, is confident in the new upgrades going to Spa.
With Piastri remaining undefeated in 2025 and finishing in the points in all 12 rounds he has been with McLaren, a new engine could further strengthen the McLaren lead in drivers championship points.
As the Belgian Grand Prix approaches, as we expect with McLaren’s upgrades, we will see if they can taking the track by storm with their new engines.
