McLaren will finally have the latest Mercedes engine upgrade at the Belgian Grand Prix. The Woking team will also take advantage of Spa to evaluate a new rear wing.
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McLaren will arrive at the Belgian Grand Prix with several important novelties. The British team has confirmed that it will finally use the latest evolution of the Mercedes power unit, already adopted by the other customer teams.
A new rear wing will also be tested at Spa-Francorchamps, in the hope of regaining better performance after a difficult weekend at Silverstone.
McLaren was the last customer team to wait
Until now, McLaren was the only one of the four teams powered by Mercedes High Performance Powertrains (HPP) not to have installed this new version of the engine.
Mercedes, Alpine and Williams had already been using it for several races. Alpine and Williams notably introduced this upgrade at Silverstone, while Mercedes deployed it as early as the Austrian Grand Prix after several reliability issues encountered by George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.
This upgrade does not provide a power gain, but mainly aims to improve the reliability of the power units. Russell’s retirements in Canada and Antonelli’s in Barcelona accelerated its introduction.
At Williams, Carlos Sainz also had to change his engine after a failure during the Austrian Grand Prix.
No risk of penalty for Norris and Piastri
At Spa, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will each use a third internal combustion engine (ICE) of the season.
This change has no consequence on the starting grid since the regulations allow up to four internal combustion engines without penalty during the 2026 season.
McLaren has also experienced several reliability issues this year. Norris had a battery problem in Monaco, while both MCL40s could not even start the Chinese Grand Prix after power unit failures occurred just before the start. Piastri’s car even had to be removed from the grid.
A new rear wing expected
Beyond the engine, McLaren will also bring a new rear wing to Belgium.
The team had already brought this upgrade to the Austrian Grand Prix, but ultimately decided not to use it as a precaution. The free practice sessions at Spa will finally allow its potential to be evaluated.
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Neil Houldley, technical director of applied engineering at McLaren, was cautious about the expected benefits.
“Our preparation has been very thorough, with significant simulation work to anticipate what will be a particularly demanding weekend in terms of energy management.”
“We arrive at Spa with a new rear wing assembly, an upgrade that was part of the car’s development program. We are confident it will bring a small performance gain.”
Spa promises to be a huge challenge
Despite these novelties, McLaren does not expect an immediate revolution.
After the difficulties encountered at Silverstone, where the team suffered in pure performance, Houldley believes Spa will also be a particularly tough test.
“Even with this upgrade, we do not expect a major change in competitiveness.”
The Belgian circuit represents one of the biggest challenges of the season for the new 2026 cars due to its long straights and significant energy demands.
“The Belgian Grand Prix will be extremely demanding from an energy management perspective. It is one of the most energy-consuming circuits on the calendar.”
McLaren especially expects significant use of the super clip mode, which heavily taxes both the drivers and the power units.
Finally, the weather could also play a major role throughout the weekend.
“The forecasts remain very uncertain. While rain always complicates things, it could also offer us an excellent opportunity to better understand the behavior of this car in low-grip conditions, which could provide valuable data for the rest of the season.”
With a more reliable engine and a new rear wing, McLaren hopes to make a step forward at Spa, even if the team remains realistic about the scale of the challenge ahead in Belgium.
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