Daniel Ricciardo expects to face a grid penalty later this year following the failure of one of his two batteries for the season.
The Red Bull driver’s retirement in Bahrain was caused by a failed energy store in his Renault power unit which the team has now replaced. Ricciardo believes the old one cannot be re-used.
“We’ve got a second one here,” he said. “I think if they do it again we have a penalty. Two have to last a year. One is already, I believe, in the bin.”Ricciardo could avoid a penalty by using his new one for the rest of the season, but he believes that is unlikely. “We only survived doing one [battery] for one race,” he said.
“It’s more likely than not we’ll have a penalty, but hopefully it’s happening later. So it’s the second one, 90% sure.”
However Valtteri Bottas has had good news about the state of his energy store and control electronics which were replaced following his crash in Australia. Following inspection Mercedes ran the parts again during practice in Bahrain. The team intends to run it in further practice sessions before returning it to use in a race scenario.
Power unit components used after Bahrain Grand Prix
| No. | Car | Engine | Driver | ICE | TC | MGU-H | MGU-K | ES | CE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 | Toro Rosso | Honda | Pierre Gasly | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 55 | Toro Rosso | Honda | Brendon Hartley | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 20 | Haas | Ferrari | Kevin Magnussen | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 77 | Mercedes | Mercedes | Valtteri Bottas | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | Red Bull | TAG Heuer | Daniel Ricciardo | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 2 | McLaren | Renault | Stoffel Vandoorne | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 14 | McLaren | Renault | Fernando Alonso | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 30 | Renault | Renault | Carlos Sainz Jnr | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 33 | Red Bull | TAG Heuer | Max Verstappen | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 27 | Renault | Renault | Nico Hulkenberg | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 5 | Ferrari | Ferrari | Sebastian Vettel | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 44 | Mercedes | Mercedes | Lewis Hamilton | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 31 | Sauber | Ferrari | Charles Leclerc | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | Sauber | Ferrari | Marcus Ericsson | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 7 | Ferrari | Ferrari | Kimi Raikkonen | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 8 | Haas | Ferrari | Romain Grosjean | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 31 | Force India | Mercedes | Esteban Ocon | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 19 | Williams | Mercedes | Lance Stroll | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 11 | Force India | Mercedes | Sergio Perez | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 18 | Williams | Mercedes | Sergey Sitorkin | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
NB. Ricciardo’s new energy store has not been officially confirmed yet which is why he is on one instead of two.
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Paul F (@)
12th April 2018, 12:43
Ugh.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
12th April 2018, 12:45
Isn’t it 3 PUs/components, not 2?
Racefan14
12th April 2018, 12:56
For most components yes, although I believe you only get 2 energy stores.
GeeMac (@geemac)
12th April 2018, 13:03
2 control electronics and energy stores. 3 ICE’s, Turbos, MGU-K’s and MGU-H’s.
Mikael André (@meko1971)
12th April 2018, 13:09
@phylyp
Article 23.3 a) of the 2018 Sporting Regulations, states: “Unless he drives for more than one team, each driver may use no more than 3 engines (ICE), 3 motor generator units-heat (MGU-H), 3 turbochargers (TC), 2 energy stores (ES), 2 control electronics (CE) and 2 motor generator units-kinetic (MGU-K).
Phylyp (@phylyp)
12th April 2018, 13:22
Many thanks for that clarification, @meko1971 @geemac and Racefan14
Mikael André (@meko1971)
12th April 2018, 13:26
@phylyp You’re welcome!
FlatSix (@)
12th April 2018, 14:11
@meko1971 If I’m a free to interpret that as I like, does that mean a third driver in a team gets another set of everything as the rule itself states “each driver”? So if I were to introduce Wehrlein back into Sauber at the moment of changing parts I wouldn’t take a penalty because of the third driver. That’s not so much interesting for Mercedes but surely for backmarkers although they’re used to starting at the back anyway?
aezy_doc
12th April 2018, 14:35
They’ve covered that in the regs already and is why Hartley started at the back at the end of last year.
GeeMac (@geemac)
12th April 2018, 14:39
Exactly, the parts are allocated to “the car” rather than “the driver”.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
12th April 2018, 18:33
In fact, if I recall correctly, with Kvyat moving out of and back in the team at the end of the year, he effectively ended up swapping cars.
Grixolja (@grixolja)
12th April 2018, 12:46
Pascal Wehrlein in Sauber again….!?
Albert
12th April 2018, 12:55
Massa and Wehrlein still in the championship?
GeeMac (@geemac)
12th April 2018, 13:01
McLaren Honda, Toro Rosso Renault, Pascal Wehrlien. I think the table needs updating @keithcollantine
TribalTalker (@tribaltalker)
12th April 2018, 15:15
@geemac – And “Sergey Sitorkin”, which I quite like.
Hakk the rack
12th April 2018, 13:25
There’s something wrong with the table, Keith :)
Gabriel (@rethla)
12th April 2018, 13:25
Im guessing they will have to change more stuff so its not so bad. Whatabout Bottas stuff though are they allowed to repair that stuff ur just “check it”.
Mick Harrold (@mickharrold)
12th April 2018, 13:31
Both the RB drivers hoped to be in the championship hunt this year. The car does seem capable, while still being an outside chance. But two races in and that dream is over already. Both of them are already too far behind in the championship.
Dan may have finished on the podium in Bahrain and may have still been in with a sniff without that failure (along with a silly penalty in Melbourne). But almost all hope is gone now. Unfortunately Max seems destined to chase immediate results (Corner by corner) instead of long term gains, so in reality, he was probably never in the hunt to begin with. I honestly half expect him to crash again in China based on his comments and lack of ownership. Maybe he will take out Dan in China and complete the misery for RB over what could have been.
In any case, it’s already over for both of them and over for RB. That is a shame for them and us. They may try valiantly to recover their losses, but it will all be in vain. 2 races in and this season is already about Vettel Vs Hamilton.
erikje
12th April 2018, 18:35
Not necessary, we are only two races in this season. A lot can and will happen till number 21.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
13th April 2018, 5:46
Think about the 2001 season, ferrari was fighting with mclaren at first, then halfway into the season (around hockenheim, old layout) williams became a legit contender for wins on pace, they weren’t a championship contender cause they came from far back, red bull could do the same this year since they seem fast but things went wrong in the first races.
Patrick (@anunaki)
12th April 2018, 14:40
wack
I keep feeling the same way about this: it doesn’t feel on the limit.
Gabriel (@rethla)
12th April 2018, 15:13
You are right, Ricciardo is over the limit.
Patrick (@anunaki)
12th April 2018, 16:17
L O L
Andrew Purkis
12th April 2018, 15:27
this is the Achilles heel of all the teams except the mercs powered cars
in a 21 race series reliably is key
and 4 yrs in the others still cant match them and doubtful they will
so its a Merc WDC/WCC till 2020
end of
frood19 (@frood19)
12th April 2018, 15:58
the power unit rules are unnecessarily harsh this year. given that most teams will breach the limit there are not actually going to be any cost savings, through reduced component use. even if the top engine manufacturer (mercedes) thinks they can get a car through on 3 components, they will still have built a few spares.
what do these rules really do then? they limit development obviously – you can only introduce new parts twice – but that’s not really a massive bonus. it just means we’re more likely to be locked into the performance paradigm we see at the very beginning of the season; there’s no opportunity for teams to claw it back, to converge on performance.
i thought the 5 component limit seemed ok – we weren’t seeing overuse then, whereas last year honda probably used more engines than they have in any season, despite the stricter rules.
johns
12th April 2018, 18:48
What these rules really do is shuffle the field. I think the purpose is to put some variability into the racing, so the fastest cars is not always on the front row, especially towards the end of the season. Thus, the Red Bull drivers still have a very good chance at making a real show for the WDC. For each race, the rules force a fast driver to start from the mid field, so the fans have the benefit of a driver making their way thru the field.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
13th April 2018, 5:53
Yes, and we’ve had a lot of those comeback drives last year, that I can think of: verstappen in china, austin, monza (recovery slowed by puncture), ricciardo in baku, silverstone, monza, brazil, mexico (the few laps before mechanical problem), hamilton in mexico and brazil, vettel in canada, malaysia, mexico, bottas in baku and silverstone (sort of) and raikkonen in japan (self inflicted), obviously helped by ferrari, mercedes and red bull being on another performance category compared to the other teams.
Joseph (@bigjoe)
12th April 2018, 16:36
I wonder if Riccairdo starts way back and overtakes 2-3 back-markers at once, if the BBC (Andrew Benson head of Lewis’ fan club) will compare it to Mansell v Piquet again and claimed that he is “stunned”