McLaren to receive vital F1 upgrade for the Belgian Grand Prix

McLaren will run the new Mercedes power unit at the Belgian Grand Prix, with a new rear wing set to be tested on Friday.

After a double 'did not start' at the Chinese Grand Prix earlier this year, McLaren fell behind other Mercedes customers on its engine mileage. Having already suffered failures of components, chiefly the battery, which caused the problems in Shanghai, the team elected not to take Mercedes' latest power unit offering at either the Red Bull Ring or Silverstone, instead electing to maximise the usage of current parts, before beginning to stress new components.

This power unit was run first by Mercedes at the Red Bull Ring, with other customers, Williams and Alpine, taking the unit for Silverstone. 

The team will therefore benefit from fresh power units this weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, where sectors one and three heavily rely on straight-line performance and top speed.

The benefit of using a fresh power unit at Spa has been clear to see in the recent past, with Red Bull and Max Verstappen taking a penalty hit in 2022, '23, and '24. In the first of those, the Dutchman took a 14-place penalty, yet was still able to win on Sunday. 

 The power units will be McLaren's third of the season. 

McLaren has also confirmed that it will 'test and evaluate' a new rear wing during the Friday practice sessions. The team previously brought its version of the 'Macarena' wing to the Red Bull Ring, but elected against running the component in a session. However, Crash.net understands that the wing being brought to Spa is not a development of the 'Macarena' wing. 

“Our preparation has been thorough, using extensive simulation work to get ahead of what we know will be a very demanding weekend for energy management," said McLaren's technical director of applied engineering, Neil Houldey.

"We're arriving at Spa with a new rear wing assembly, an upgrade we've had in the pipeline as part of the car’s development pathway. We're confident that this update will add a bit of performance to our car, but we are fully aware that after a difficult British Grand Prix, mainly in terms of pure performance, even this round won’t be that easy, so we won’t be expecting any big change in terms of competitiveness.

“The Belgian Grand Prix is going to be incredibly challenging from an energy management perspective; it's one of the most energy-starved tracks on the calendar. We anticipate seeing a significant amount of super clip, which will test both the car and the drivers. 

"Furthermore, the forecast looks unpredictable. While wet weather presents its own difficulties, we see it as a valuable opportunity to finally potentially run this car in the wet and understand its behaviour in low-grip conditions, which could provide crucial data for the rest of the season.”