Renault under investigation for MGU-K breach on Ricciardo’s car

2019 Singapore Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Daniel Ricciardo’s starting position for the Singapore Grand Prix is in jeopardy as the stewards are investigating whether his car breached the technical rules during qualifying.

FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer reported Ricciardo’s MGU-K “exceeded the MGU-K power limit of 120 kW, which is in breach of Article 5.2.2 and the Energy Flow Diagram shown in Appendix 3 of the 2019 Formula One Technical Regulations.”

The stewards are investigating the matter.

The regulation Ricciardo is suspected to have broken states: “When the car is on the track a lap will be measured on each successive crossing of the timing line, however, when entering the pits the lap will end, and the next one will begin, at the start of the pit lane (as defined in the F1 Sporting Regulations).

“Electrical DC measurements will be used to verify that the energy and power requirements are being respected. A fixed efficiency correction of 0.95 will be used to monitor the maximum MGU-K power.”

Ricciardo originally qualified eighth for the race. Past instances where teams were found to have breached the technical regulations in qualifying have usually resulted in exclusion from the session, meaning they have to start from the rear of the field.

Don't miss anything new from RaceFans

Follow RaceFans on social media:

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2019 F1 season

Browse all 2019 F1 season articles

Author information

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...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

8 comments on “Renault under investigation for MGU-K breach on Ricciardo’s car”

  1. How much of an effect would that have on lap time? Obviously rules are rules, if you break them you get a penalty, but they could be a bit more lenient if it’s no gain.

    1. @hugh11 Difficult to judge if that had a direct impact on any of his lap times. Something like this is quite rare.

  2. Well, glad to have seen him quite happy after qualifying, not sure that will last the night then!

  3. Assuming it’s a DQ from qualifying if found guilty? It would be gutting for Renault as finally look to be going in the right direction

  4. If they’re investigating then I can’t see them not being penalised. I suspect any investigation is to check it’s an error or fault rather than any deliberate attempt to break the rule which should be a harsher penalty than simply exclusion from qualifying.

    Isn’t there a rule that engine manufacturers should provide the same engine specification and mappings to their customers as they use as it seems awfully fishy how Renault started gaining from the mid point of the year on McLaren when the engine gets turned up in qualifying. It might just be Renault always run very heavy in practice compared to McLaren but just anecdotally they look like they gain 3 tenths or so at most tracks from practice to qualifying. I wonder if they’re pushing some limits that they don’t provide to McLaren. If I was McLaren I’d be trying to appease Honda or get back in bed with Mercedes. Way too many reliability issues happening now that Renault are trying to catch them too…

  5. Silly rules. The technical rules should be simple And easy to understand, like 1.6 liter max, no bAtteries bigger than x cubic meters, etc. when u start writing rules that have assumptions( eff of .95) then the rules are too complex. This is one rule that seems to be a bit complex

    1. You should look into the rules for F-E.
      F1 is simple and clear in comparison.

  6. All the problems aside, the new Renault engine has the sweetest sound.

Comments are closed.