Valtteri Bottas will start the Belgian Grand Prix from the back of the grid due to an engine change penalty.
Mercedes has confirmed it has decided to fit a complete new power unit to his car, which takes him beyond the maximum allocation of all six elements.Lewis Hamilton will also run a new power unit but has not exceeded his allocation and will not receive a penalty.
Mercedes’ customer teams are also running the upgraded engines.
Nico Hulkenberg will also start from the back of the grid as he has also exceeded his allocation by taking a complete new Renault power unit.
How many power unit components each driver has used
| No. | Car | Engine | Driver | ICE | TC | MGU-H | MGU-K | ES | CE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 | Toro Rosso | Honda | Brendon Hartley | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 |
| 10 | Toro Rosso | Honda | Pierre Gasly | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| 27 | Renault | Renault | Nico Hulkenberg | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 77 | Mercedes | Mercedes | Valtteri Bottas | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 7 | Ferrari | Ferrari | Kimi Raikkonen | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | Red Bull | TAG Heuer | Daniel Ricciardo | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 14 | McLaren | Renault | Fernando Alonso | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| 8 | Haas | Ferrari | Romain Grosjean | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 20 | Haas | Ferrari | Kevin Magnussen | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 9 | Sauber | Ferrari | Marcus Ericsson | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 31 | Sauber | Ferrari | Charles Leclerc | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 55 | Renault | Renault | Carlos Sainz Jnr | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 5 | Ferrari | Ferrari | Sebastian Vettel | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 2 | McLaren | Renault | Stoffel Vandoorne | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 44 | Mercedes | Mercedes | Lewis Hamilton | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 11 | Force India | Mercedes | Sergio Perez | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 31 | Force India | Mercedes | Esteban Ocon | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 18 | Williams | Mercedes | Lance Stroll | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 35 | Williams | Mercedes | Sergey Sitorkin | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 33 | Red Bull | TAG Heuer | Max Verstappen | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
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Sham (@sham)
24th August 2018, 10:34
Will be interested to see if Merc he have managed to narrow the engine gap that Ferrari have managed to open.
They certainly won’t take kindly to being out horsed and will be pushing like crazy.
Nikki (@nikkit)
24th August 2018, 10:46
Mercedes have had a tendency to make a jump in performance after the summer break reletive to Ferrari, so it’s possible.
Worth noting though, that that extra power the Ferrari had the last couple of races didn’t seem to do them much good. Yes, wet weather played a part, but that extra grunt only seemed to be good for a couple of quick laps.
Spa and Monza will be the best tracks I think for comparing the two teams. Though, with the wet weather expected much of this weekend, it’s goign to be interesting to see if Ferrari have been able to make that car more stable in the wet. It hampered them in qualifying at Hungary and we all know what happened in Germany.
Joao (@johnmilk)
24th August 2018, 10:53
So no wingman
greg-c (@greg-c)
24th August 2018, 11:35
@johnmilk
Can we now use the term “rear gunner” :)
Joao (@johnmilk)
24th August 2018, 11:41
Seems appropriate
Jere (@jerejj)
24th August 2018, 10:54
Oh well, at least this means that we’re up for an overtaking-show from Bottas. 6th should be reachable thanks to the significant pace advantage the Mercedes car has over the cars of all the other teams Ferrari and Red Bull excluded. Now, concerning Hulkenberg’s chances: lower points-positions (P7-P10) should be achievable for him.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
25th August 2018, 3:03
Yes, renault have proven they can climb back lots of places as well even if they’re not a top team in china, if the track is good for overtaking and spa is, can barely target the points though I believe without a lot of dropouts between the top teams.
BillC20
24th August 2018, 16:06
So who actually starts 20th – Bottas or Hulkenberg?
Bleu (@bleu)
24th August 2018, 18:13
Mercedes announced the intention to change PU parts to the technical delegate earlier – so that would make Bottas to start 19th and Hülkenberg 20th.
toiago (@toiago)
24th August 2018, 19:34
@bleu During the practice sessions someone at Sky mentioned that it was actually Bottas who was going to start last – Renault managing to do it just a bit before Mercedes.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
25th August 2018, 3:03
Think it also depends on qualifying, so bottas should have the edge if they take part in all sessions they can.
leque
25th August 2018, 13:10
Can it be decided based on qualifying time? Or is it a matter of who communicated the decision first?
If it´s the latter I doubt they take part of the qualifying sessions