Carlos Sainz Jnr, Renault, Spa-Francorchamps, 2018

Sainz and Vandoorne to take power unit grid penalties

2018 Belgian Grand Prix

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Carlos Sainz Jnr and Stoffel Vandoorne will take power unit penalties after fitting new power units ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix.

The two Renault-powered drivers had qualified 14th and 18th for today’s race. They will now be moved to the back of the grid.

Sainz’s team mate Nico Hulkenberg had already had the same penalty after changing his power unit ahead of qualifying.

2018 power unit component use

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

ICE: Internal Combustion Engine • TC: Turbocharger • MGU-K: Motor Generator Unit – Kinetic • MGU-H: Moto Generator Unit: Heat • ES: Energy Store • CE: Control Electronics

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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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5 comments on “Sainz and Vandoorne to take power unit grid penalties”

  1. Panagiotis Papatheodorou (@panagiotism-papatheodorou)
    26th August 2018, 11:42

    Could never have though that Max has used the fewest components by anyone.

    1. Many of his early season DNF’s were accidents, not technical, and I think some of the later failures weren’t the engine or they were able to revive it (ie. sensor/software fault that shut the thing down).

  2. Unsurprising given their provisional starting positions.

  3. For those puzzled by the acronyms, see https://www.formula1.com/en/championship/inside-f1/rules-regs/Power_Unit_and_ERS.html

    The power unit is deemed to consist of six separate elements: the internal combustion engine (ICE), the motor generator unit-kinetic (MGU-K), the motor generator unit-heat (MGU-H), the energy store (ES), turbocharger (TC) and control electronics (CE).

    Each driver is permitted to use only three ICE, MGU-H and TC, and only two ES, CE and MGU-K during a championship season and any combination of them may be fitted to a car at any one time. Should a driver use more than that during the course of a season, a grid penalty will be imposed.

  4. I don’t think Kimi has taken a fourth Turbocharger, at least I don’t remember him getting a grid drop for doing so?

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