Lewis Hamilton will have a 10-place grid penalty for this weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix after Mercedes fitted a new power unit to his car.
Mercedes has replaced the internal combustion engine only in his M12 power unit. This is his fourth of the season, exceeding the maximum of three, which brings an automatic penalty of 10 places.Hamilton will also have a new exhaust this weekend, which is his third from a maximum of eight, and does not attract a penalty.
Asked yesterday whether he expected to exceed his allocation of power unit parts this weekend, Hamilton said: “At the moment, I still have number two and three, so I don’t envisage us having to take one at the moment. But that could change. Who knows.”
The stewards have also confirmed Ferrari have fitted a new complete power unit to Carlos Sainz Jnr’s car, meaning he will start from the back of the grid.
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Power unit components used so far
No. | Car | Engine | Driver | ICE | TC | MGU-H | MGU-K | ES | CE | EX |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
31 | Alpine | Renault | Esteban Ocon | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
14 | Alpine | Renault | Fernando Alonso | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
10 | AlphaTauri | Honda | Pierre Gasly | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
33 | Red Bull | Honda | Max Verstappen | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
55 | Ferrari | Ferrari | Carlos Sainz Jnr | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
11 | Red Bull | Honda | Sergio Perez | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 |
7 | Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | Kimi Raikkonen | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
99 | Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | Antonio Giovinazzi | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
77 | Mercedes | Mercedes | Valtteri Bottas | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
16 | Ferrari | Ferrari | Charles Leclerc | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
22 | AlphaTauri | Honda | Yuki Tsunoda | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
4 | McLaren | Mercedes | Lando Norris | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
47 | Haas | Ferrari | Mick Schumacher | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
9 | Haas | Ferrari | Nikita Mazepin | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
31 | Williams | Mercedes | Nicholas Latifi | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
44 | Mercedes | Mercedes | Lewis Hamilton | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
5 | Aston Martin | Mercedes | Sebastian Vettel | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
63 | Williams | Mercedes | George Russell | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
3 | McLaren | Mercedes | Daniel Ricciardo | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
18 | Aston Martin | Mercedes | Lance Stroll | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
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2021 Turkish Grand Prix
- Fifth place was possible from back row without slow pit stop – Sainz
- Giovinazzi ignoring position swap order was “not ideal”, admit team
- Bottas becomes 35th Formula 1 driver to reach 10 race wins
- Medical Car driver van der Merwe likely to miss further races due to Covid-19 rules
- Drivers to ask Masi why Alonso and Norris went unpunished for “very clear” incidents
Qeki (@qeki)
8th October 2021, 9:59
The chess match continues
iCarbs (@icarby)
8th October 2021, 10:22
He better get pole position.
Jeff
8th October 2021, 10:27
Cue the articles on sunday evening raving about his “amazing” comeback even though the car is miles quicker than 80% of the field
Emma
8th October 2021, 11:06
Miles quicker in his hands, yes. Did you see Bottas making any progress through the field in Russia?
Just out of curiosity, in case he does make a comeback (and there’s no guarantee since we’ve seen him stuck behind Mclarens in recent races), would you prefer it not be reported/talked about?
GoodTimes76
8th October 2021, 11:41
Remember Bottas at Monza?
cdfemke (@cdfemke)
8th October 2021, 12:20
Remember Russell in that same car being as good, maybe even better than hamilton with it? He’s not just quick but has tons of racecraft
David BR (@david-br)
8th October 2021, 11:47
Cue comments from the no-nothing-sphere downplaying anything Hamilton does even before it happens.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
8th October 2021, 13:42
I like comeback drives, but I think they must be taken with a grain of salt with those cars, I think it’s pretty obvious I’m a verstappen fan (but I also like other current drivers), but even I was disappointed with the likely 7th place before rain came after starting from the back, so when a driver starts from the back of the grid with a top car on a track you can overtake I have high expectations, no matter if it’s hamilton. And this is not even starting from the back, so higher.
Indeed, bottas is often subpar at recovering but at monza he did well.
David BR (@david-br)
8th October 2021, 14:52
@esploratore1 My point is let’s evaluate the actual race performance. Shouldn’t be a difficult ask.
Yes Bottas has often been a negative benchmark, often unable to make the same progress back through the field when starting behind – at the Sakhir GP, Russell showed that up too. I think we can try to factor in the difference the car makes in terms of ease of passing but there’s simply no sense in which driver skill doesn’t play a factor, and in some instances it makes a huge (‘amazing’) difference.
Niefer (@niefer)
8th October 2021, 19:11
@esploratore1 – I think you are spot on. And this does not extends to Mercedes and Red Bull only, but to any field leader, even McLaren. I say that because it’s a little frustrating to overlook a decent solid but unsparkling performance in favour of any DRS feast a top fielder can get.
Only Facts!
8th October 2021, 10:30
It’s interesting that despite being fast on the straights, competitive enough to fight Mercedes, race winners and all, no hints about McLaren adding PU parts to their pool.
And yet we see the factory team taking 3 extra ICEs so far…
It could be that Mercedes is testing new parts before engine homologation, but they wouldn’t do it to #44 car at this time of the game. I think…
George May (@grandmasterorge)
8th October 2021, 19:06
Or is this because the Merc factory team are still actually running more aggressive engine modes than the customer teams have access to?
Matthijs (@matthijs)
8th October 2021, 10:38
What I am missing is why Hamilton gets a 10 place grid drop while Leclerc, Verstappen and Bottas were due to start from the back of the grid in Sochi.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
8th October 2021, 10:40
I got the answer, albeit from a different site.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
8th October 2021, 12:17
@psynrg I hope you have a pleasant day. Stay away from the sour grapes.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
8th October 2021, 12:26
@psynrg You can read the sentence “Mercedes has replaced the internal combustion engine only in his M12 power unit” two different ways:
1. Mercedes has replaced the internal combustion engine only – in his M12 power unit.
2. Mercedes has replaced the internal combustion engine – only in his M12 power unit.
I read the latter, and I misread that they changed Hamilton’s engine but not Bottas’. That’s why I felt information was lacking.
pastaman
8th October 2021, 13:05
I was also confused because the first sentence says “after Mercedes fitted a new power unit to his car.” Then the very next sentence says only the ICE was changed.
erikje
8th October 2021, 10:42
Hamilton only replaced the ice. The others the complete set including hybrid parts.
It remains to be seen if Mercedes replaces more later on.
cdfemke (@cdfemke)
8th October 2021, 12:21
Amd then taking additional penalties instead all at once
John Mitchell
9th October 2021, 1:00
Exactly. In effect Max V has not served his 3-place penalty for the stupid mistake taking out Lewis H and himself. Last race he took an engine placement penalty the same as everyone faces but that should have had nothing to do with a 3-place race penalty. At Turkey he should take the 3-place penalty otherwise he has not paid for his error however Red Bull will get away with it. Unfair to all other drivers/Teams. What this says is that if you get a penalty in a race and your are close to replacing an engine then take it in the next race so that your penalty is wiped out (apart from bad points on racing licence). Well done FIA.
Jere (@jerejj)
8th October 2021, 10:43
No point in changing everything for the sake of changing unless an absolute necessity, I guess.
cdfemke (@cdfemke)
8th October 2021, 12:22
The strategy is, that you then have 1 additional unit for everything on the shelve, penilised in a race you couldnt win anyways. Also, it might be upgraded parts