McLaren have devised a clever engine ‘strategy’ that will benefit Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri

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McLaren have revealed the clever engine ‘strategy’ that they have employed to save their title protagonists, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, from serving any unnecessary penalties as the 2025 F1 season approaches a crucial period.

In the latter stages of a Formula 1 campaign, it’s common to see drivers on the grid incur penalties as they overstep the limits of the FIA’s engine allocation for each entry.

For example, Mercedes deemed Kimi Antonelli’s engine unrecoverable after his retirement at the Spanish Grand Prix earlier in the season, which left the 19-year-old with a grid penalty in Belgium after the German constructor decided to bring another engine into play.

As they clock in more miles throughout the course of a season, the power units regress in performance, meaning that drivers will benefit from more power with a fresh engine rather than one that has already competed multiple Grand Prix distances.

READ MORE: Lewis Hamilton now has a ‘high probability’ of picking up grid penalties later this season after worrying Ferrari decision made

McLaren’s F1 engine ‘strategy’ revealed as the 2025 title fight approaches boiling point

Speaking in a review of the Mexico City Grand Prix on her YouTube channel, F1 journalist Julianne Cerasoli touched upon a fan’s question regarding McLaren’s use of all of their allotted engines for the current campaign, highlighting a clever strategy that the team has employed.

She said: “McLaren adopted a type of strategy where they put all their engines into play, as we say in Formula 1, in the engine pool very early. So, even before the August break, they were already using all the engines.

“And then when you see that FIA list saying which engine each driver is on, it doesn’t mean he is using that engine in that race, it means he has already used the four engines he has at his disposal, he has already taken a penalty, and now has five.

“But it doesn’t mean he is using number five in all races or number four in all races. What McLaren is doing is good.

“Number one, the engine that debuted in Australia is already an engine only for Friday. And then two, three, four, they rotate depending on what they need for each race.

“So, the engine when there is a track where the engine doesn’t count much, they use the more used engine, the engine that counts. On a track where the engine counts more, they use the less-used engine.

“And I checked this with McLaren, they said they are calm, that the plan is as they had thought at the start of the season, and they do not need to change engines until the end of the season.”

READ MORE: Ferrari are already in a ‘race against time’ to avoid Lewis Hamilton receiving penalties in 2026

Lando Norris still has all engines in play after ‘unfortunate’ retirement at the Dutch Grand Prix

Aside from the obvious concerns of missing out on a haul of points during his retirement from the Dutch Grand Prix in August, McLaren were also worried about the possibility of needing to bring an extra engine into Norris’ pool to be able to finish the season with the same calibre of performance as his teammate.

The British driver was running in second place at the time, behind then-championship leader Piastri, who called the retirement ‘incredibly unfortunate’.

Luckily for Norris, engineers at the Woking-based factory confirmed that the engine he used in Zandvoort can be reintroduced later on this season, alleviating any concerns that the title hopeful would suffer a second setback from the incident.

After an investigation into what happened to the power unit, McLaren found that a broken oil fitting caused the DNF, something that had never previously happened to a car within the team.

Being a recipient of Mercedes power units through a deal with the German constructor, it remains to be seen if they have taken any steps to prevent the issue from cropping up again in the future.