Lando Norris faces F1 grid penalties after McLaren battery failure

Reigning Formula 1 world champion Lando Norris is facing imminent grid penalties at the Japanese Grand Prix after McLaren were forced to fit his final permitted battery pack of the season.

The Briton is only at the third race of a 22-event calendar but has already exhausted his initial allocation of hybrid engine components.

Norris missed the previous race in China due to a terminal failure with his car’s energy store.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella confirmed that the power unit component used in Shanghai cannot be salvaged.

Reliability woes threaten title defence

A further setback occurred at Suzuka on Saturday when engineers detected another fault before final practice and qualifying.

The Woking-based outfit were forced to hastily install a third battery pack to ensure their lead driver could participate in the sessions.

Under current FIA regulations, drivers are restricted to using just three energy stores across the entire campaign.

McLaren race against time for repairs

If the British racer requires a fourth unit between now and December, he will automatically incur a 10-place grid penalty.

Stella explained the team’s predicament and their hopes of avoiding a severe handicap to their championship ambitions.

“The problem we noticed before the start of FP3 was on the same power unit component, the Hertz module, which includes the battery.”

“The only way to remove the pack is to investigate it. Once investigated, we realised that it will take time to attempt a repair.”

Margin for error erased

“We needed to give Lando the possibility to do the session, so we introduced a third battery pack.”

The Italian team boss remains hopeful that the damaged Suzuka unit can be repaired and returned to the pool of available parts.

If the mechanics cannot salvage the component, Norris will be left navigating the remaining 19 races without any technical safety net.