Raikkonen, Vettel and Stevens penalties confirmed

2015 United States Grand Prix

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Both Ferrari drivers and Manor’s Will Stevens will take grid penalties for power unit component changes.

Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel will be moved back ten places on the grid for Sunday’s race having both taken their fifth new engine of the season, one more than the maximum number allowed. The pair also have new MGU-Ks and energy stores, for which no penalty is incurred.

Stevens has also taken his fifth new engine plus a fifth turbocharger and MGU-H, meaning he will have a 20-place grid penalty.

Ten drivers have now had power unit component change penalties this year however no Mercedes-powered driver has had such a penalty. Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg are both using new energy stores and control electronics this weekend.

Power unit components – United States Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    13 comments on “Raikkonen, Vettel and Stevens penalties confirmed”

    1. Not Will!!!

      1. Also, should the race get cancelled, do they carry their gridpenalties to the next round or did ferrari potentially just score a free engine?

        1. YES!!! That’s what I wanted to ask as well!!

          1. F1 Karmic rules are in effect – bad karma begets grid penalties, in this life..err race..or the next.

        2. Carry over.

        3. ColdFly F1 (@)
          24th October 2015, 12:43

          I read yesterday that the (grid) penalties will be taken during the ‘next event’. @mrboerns
          This will be Mexico if COTA is cancelled (or Brazil if Mexico’s circuit were to incur too much damage during the storm).

          20 place penalty – very bad news for Will indeed :-(

    2. Stupid engine formula.

      1. No, it’s the rules, just like turning up at a race with 107% rule race compliant car is. Teams and drivers have made decisions based upon using 4 engines this season, and this will have affected the outcome of races. There are lots of reasons why people chose to exceed the allocation of 4, but everyone knew the consequences.
        As an example, Red Bull had the option of running Renault’s latest engine, but using it would entail penalties because of this rule. They seem to have chosen to run with their current spec engine rather than incur the penalties. Again, that is a choice based upon this rule, and that will affect the outcome of the next 4 races.

    3. I’m surprised Maldonado has used so few, I thought he would have obliterated his in crashes.

      1. The more he crashes, the less mileage I guess.

    4. This really shows just how great a job Mercedes have done this year. They got their reliability sorted, while still delivering best performance. Although Ferrari are catching up, Mercedes do seem to be a year ahead in development, and probably at least 2 years ahead of Renault and Honda. I think next year the engine situation will stabilize a bit with better reliability and smaller performance gaps, so these V6 PU regulations finally will have the intended effect. Hopefully we’ll see far less ridiculous penalties, and better racing overall.

    5. So, Stevens will start in his usual spot? Okay, thanks for the news.

    6. Will this affect the race? I expect the Ferraris to get through the field and end in their usual 3rd and 5th.
      If it happens.

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