Norris explains the thinking behind taking his grid penalty in Belgium

Lando Norris has explained why McLaren has decided to take a 10-place grid drop for the reigning World Champion at this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix.

McLaren has opted to fit a new power electronics unit to Norris' car in an attempt to tackle recent reliability struggles, with engine supplier Mercedes also suffering issues for championship leader, Kimi Antonelli.

The new, upgraded part has been fitted after failures for the same component at other rounds, including China and Japan, with McLaren "exceeding our permitted number of allocated power electronics units", it said in a statement.

Speaking on Thursday's media day in Spa, Norris said: “[This weekend] certainly won’t be made easier by the grid penalty.

"That’s just because I’ve been unlucky in the first part of the season losing a lot of different bits, whether it was the engine or the power unit or the controls – whatever it’s been.

"I’m on the back foot from a spare parts point of view but that’s out of my hands, and out of our hands in some ways. So that’s life.

"[I've] just got to take it on the chin and deal with some of the penalties that I have coming up, but this is certainly a better track to take the penalties than the next two. It’s part of it, but we can still look forward to try and have a good weekend.”

McLaren has generally failed to match the performance of Mercedes and Ferrari this season, with Red Bull also moving into contention and demoting the reigning champions as the fourth-quickest car.

Norris acknowledged that upgrades, which include a new rear wing in Belgium, as well as further planned packages in Hungary and Holland, would be crucial.

"Every little thing helps. When you see an upgrade on the notes, you think it’s going to turn things around," he said.

"The rear wing that we have this weekend, it’s a very, very small step – probably not even a tenth of a second. Not even half a tenth maybe.

"We’re talking small numbers and hopefully the upgrades we can have in Budapest and into Zandvoort can help us maybe accelerate that progression.

"But we’re doing what we can – you can’t rush these things, you can’t just make them appear. So we’re paying the price, we’re working hard, the team are working hard and we just keep our heads down and maximise what we have now."