Martin Brundle puzzled by McLaren decision that left Lando Norris ‘too much to do’ in the Belgian GP

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Martin Brundle thinks McLaren cost Lando Norris a stronger result in the 2026 Belgian Grand Prix, after the reigning F1 champion had to settle for only seventh place at Spa.

Norris started Sunday’s Belgian GP on the back foot after getting a 10-place grid penalty at Spa for taking his fourth battery of the season so far. Formula 1’s regulations limit the drivers to three control electronics, but McLaren have had regular issues with their Mercedes units.

The penalty proved very costly, as Norris actually qualified P3 for the Belgian GP on Saturday despite aborting his second run in Q3. He instead had to start the race from P13 on the grid, so McLaren started the Briton on the hard C2 compound Pirelli tyres to run far into the race.

Martin Brundle thinks McLaren’s strategy cost Lando Norris in the Belgian Grand Prix

Norris gained three places on the first lap of the Belgian GP, and he continued to gain places before finding himself in the lead of the race on Lap 21 of 44 as most of the leaders stopped for new tyres under the second virtual safety car (VSC) period. But McLaren elected to leave Norris out, which proved to be a huge mistake within a matter of laps as he fell backwards.

READ MORE: Kimi Antonelli overtakes Charles Leclerc to win the 2026 Belgian Grand Prix

Brundle has now told Sky Sports that he believes McLaren simply left Norris with “too much to do” by not pitting under the VSC. Norris eventually came in for his only stop on Lap 30, at which point he had fallen to fourth place and lost a full pit stop over teammate Oscar Piastri.

He said: “Norris drove beautifully all weekend but had to start 13th due to needing power unit control electronics beyond the allowance in the regulations, which is designed to keep costs down so that wealthy teams can’t just throw new parts at the car every weekend.

“Curiously, McLaren chose not to use the virtual safety cars, or indeed a straightforward pit stop, until Lando eventually pitted on Lap 30 to get rid of his starting hard-compound tyres.

“This left him with too much to do to catch Isack Hadjar, who started his Red Bull from the back row of the grid due to numerous power unit penalties, to finish an impressive sixth.”

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While Norris received a 10-place grid penalty for his new battery at Spa, Hadjar was sent to the back of the grid after Red Bull put a new internal combustion engine, turbocharger and exhaust in his RB22. Yet Red Bull’s smart thinking for Hadjar’s strategy saw him finish sixth.

Hadjar also started the Belgian GP on the hard C2 compound Pirelli tyres, but Red Bull took advantage of the full safety car on Lap 1 after Lewis Hamilton and George Russell’s incident to pit him. Red Bull then pitted Hadjar again on Lap 2 to go back onto the C2 tyres, after he took the medium C3 tyres at his first stop to comply with F1’s rule for using two compounds.

Still, Red Bull pitted Hadjar again under the VSC on Lap 20 to take another set of the hard C2 tyres, which left the Frenchman running in seventh place and more than 20 seconds adrift of Norris. Yet when McLaren finally pitted Norris on Lap 30, he fell to 10.4s behind Hadjar and also behind Audi driver Gabriel Bortoleto. It proved to be too much for the Briton to recover.

Norris took the chequered flag to finish the Belgian GP 0.707s behind Hadjar in P6 and P7. It might have been possible for Norris to fight for the podium at Spa had McLaren also pitted him on Lap 20 during the second VSC period, like Red Bull wisely did for Hadjar last Sunday.