Lando Norris faces a nervy wait to find out if the power unit that failed at the Austrian Grand Prix weekend can be salvaged by his McLaren engineers.
The Brit's preparation at the Red Bull Ring was heavily disrupted during the first and only practice session on the Friday. He suffered a power unit failure which severely restricted his time on track to prepare for the Sprint weekend.
And things did not get much better in qualifying later that day, a session for which he had very little preparation. This time it was an issue with his brakes that left him uncomfortable pushing, and he was unable to complete a hot lap in Q2.
The brake issue was later fixed while he was fitted with an old engine to complete the rest of the weekend. Now, McLaren are working to figure out whether or not the power unit that failed can be brought back to life and used again.
"The power unit that failed on Lando's side on Friday was a brand new one. It was his third one," explained team principal Andreas Seidl. "The analysis is still ongoing on [engine supplier] Mercedes side at the moment and hopefully they are in a position to recover that power unit and we will be in a better place again.
"Of course, it is not ideal that we have to go back to the old power units from the pool just because power units lose a bit of power with the mileage. But at the same time, it still allowed us to perform as we did [in Austria]."
If that new engine cannot be re-used, it makes it extremely likely that Norris will have to take a grid penalty between now and the end of the season. With 11 races to go, he has already used his allowance of three power units.
The other two used engines may still have some life in them, but are unlikely to last until the end of the season. And McLaren will want to be running with as much pace as they can from their power units, meaning at least one new engine will almost certainly be introduced to help them in their midfield battle.
