Fernando Alonso and Yuki Tsunoda have moved onto their third power units at the Australian Grand Prix.
Alonso started the third consecutive race weekend of the season with a new internal combustion engine (ICE), turbocharger, MGU-H and MGU-K, having begun the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian rounds with his other two permitted power units for the entire 2022 season. The Alpine driver lost use of his second Renault engine following his retirement in Jeddah.He is therefore highly likely to exceed the maximum number of allowed changes later in the season at which point he will incur grid penalties. The same goes for Yuki Tsunoda, who is in a similar position to Alonso.
AlphaTauri installed a new power unit on Tsunoda’s car after qualifying in Saudi Arabia following the problems that prevented him from setting a lap time. However Tsunoda also failed to start the race in Jeddah after he was told to stop his car on track on his reconnaissance lap to the grid. The AlphaTauri driver will therefore have his third ICE installed for the Australian Grand Prix weekend.
McLaren have also given Lando Norris his Mercedes second power unit of the season for this weekend, while Alonso and Mick Schumacher will take their second energy stores and control electronics units of the season in Australia also.
Alonso, Schumacher and Norris also start the event with new exhaust systems for the weekend, as will the two Ferrari drivers of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jnr. All will take the second of their eight permitted exhaust systems for the season, except for Alonso, who is on his third.
Following Sebastian Vettel’s stoppage at the end of first practice Aston Martin confirmed they will replace his power unit for this weekend, which will not incur a penalty.
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2022 Australian Grand Prix
- Aston Martin’s porpoising “does not allow us to exploit the progress the guys have made”
- Wolff puts Mercedes’ odds of championship victory at “two to eight”
- FIA responds to Verstappen’s criticism of Safety Car performance
- “So this is the end of our race, I guess?” How Alonso’s luckless Australian GP unfolded
- Two-degree temperature rise led to Hamilton’s “difficult position” radio message
cornels
8th April 2022, 8:07
It’s all going according to “El Plan”
Jere (@jerejj)
8th April 2022, 8:48
I didn’t expect this many changes within the opening three events, especially since we’re in the hybrid era’s year 9.
S
8th April 2022, 9:47
Little earlier than expected – but everyone will be taking multiple penalties this season, I’d expect.
Everyone wants data on their new toys, and the only way to get that is to run them on the track – more than they did with the old ones which were the result of many years of evolution.