Why McLaren broke F1 curfew for second weekend running at Barcelona-Catalunya GP

The McLaren Formula 1 team broke curfew for the second Friday night running after practice at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.

McLaren confirmed after second practice in Barcelona that it would be using the second of its four curfew exemptions this season to work on both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’s cars.

The reigning world champion squad described the work as “precautionary”. McLaren said it will replace key components to “help improve the robustness of the installation and integration of the power unit” on both its MCL40s.

“McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team will today use the second of its four curfew exemptions within Restricted Period Three to carry out precautionary work on both MCL40s,” a McLaren team statement read.

“The team will replace permissible key components to help improve the robustness of the installation and integration of the power unit on both cars.”

McLaren has endured a series of technical problems relating to the Mercedes power unit in its car this season.

The team suffered a double pre-race electrical issue in China that prevented both Norris and Piastri starting, while Norris needed a new battery in Japan and retired from the Monaco Grand Prix with a power unit gremlin.

Norris’s Monaco failure came after McLaren broke curfew on Friday night in Monaco to address an issue that caused the reigning world champion to grind to a halt in practice.

In Monaco, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella admitted his side has felt the downsides of being a customer team for the first time this season.

McLaren made an encouraging start to its weekend in Barcelona with Norris topping the times on Friday.

Norris, who has retired from the last two races, was 0.009 seconds quicker than Mercedes’ George Russell, with McLaren team-mate Piastri just 0.057s off the pace in third.

"Very different from the last two tracks in Monaco and Canada. It's quicker, playing with the car in a very different regime than the last few weeks and it seems to be working in a better place than the last few weeks,” Norris said.

"A reasonable Friday. Still a good few things to improve. It's hot and I don't think anyone's going to be that happy. It's difficult with the wind and with the conditions but it seems to be working better than the last few weeks, which is a good sign.

"We're up there with the people we want to be with. It's hard to know what fuel loads others are on but we're just happy we're heading in the right direction after the last couple of weeks."

Alpine and Cadillac also broke the 10pm curfew for the second time this season. Alpine did so to prepare a new chassis for Pierre Gasly.