Max Verstappen says Red Bull aren’t planning to change his power unit at this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix, and take a penalty.
The Red Bull driver’s second power unit was taken out of service early due to damage resulting from his high-speed crash during the British Grand Prix. He is therefore likely to need a fourth power unit before the end of the season, which will result in a penalty, though Honda is hopeful some parts of the damaged engine can still be salvaged.Verstappen said that if the team does change his engine, it is unlikely to be at this weekend’s race.
“We haven’t really decided yet,” he said. “We’ll see. It’s definitely not the plan to have to take it here.”
The sprint qualifying format being used this weekend does not change how engine change penalties are applied. If Verstappen did take one this weekend it would affect his starting position for Sunday’s grand prix, not Saturday’s sprint qualifying race, where up to three points are available.
Although Red Bull have been more competitive this year than in previous seasons, Verstappen said he isn’t sure “if it’s going to going to be enough to fight” with Mercedes this weekend.
“But nevertheless, this weekend, with sprint qualifying stuff, it’s going to be very different. So I just hope that we did our homework before getting here and we can be very competitive.
“It’s a bit difficult to say where we will stand. I definitely don’t expect it to be like Zandvoort.”
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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 | 7 |
| 11 | Red Bull | Honda | Sergio Perez | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 |
| 10 | AlphaTauri | Honda | Pierre Gasly | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| 55 | Ferrari | Ferrari | Carlos Sainz Jnr | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| 22 | AlphaTauri | Honda | Yuki Tsunoda | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
| 33 | Red Bull | Honda | Max Verstappen | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| 16 | Ferrari | Ferrari | Charles Leclerc | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| 7 | Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | Kimi Raikkonen | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| 99 | Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | Antonio Giovinazzi | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| 47 | Haas | Ferrari | Mick Schumacher | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| 9 | Haas | Ferrari | Nikita Mazepin | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| 5 | Aston Martin | Mercedes | Sebastian Vettel | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 4 | McLaren | Mercedes | Lando Norris | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 77 | Mercedes | Mercedes | Valtteri Bottas | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| 44 | Mercedes | Mercedes | Lewis Hamilton | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| 63 | Williams | Mercedes | George Russell | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| 3 | McLaren | Mercedes | Daniel Ricciardo | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| 31 | Williams | Mercedes | Nicholas Latifi | 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 Italian Grand Prix
- Who was to blame for Hamilton and Verstappen’s collision at Monza?
- Hamilton-Verstappen crash was ‘a racing incident, no danger’ – Alonso
- Hamilton pleased stewards “set a precedent”, Verstappen “doesn’t fully agree”
- Ricciardo didn’t need title rivals’ latest clash for stunning Monza win
- Why Verstappen’s grid penalty differed from Hamilton’s Silverstone sanction
dan
9th September 2021, 18:08
By that chart surely Merc are in a worst position no?
erikje
9th September 2021, 20:47
Well at least we can expect a 4e engine for mercedes also.
The number of components already used are on the limit.
Its clear the merc engine never before had to endure these powerlevels for complete races.
The added sprint races will cause extra stress for all manufacturers. It should add an extra engine for all.
ryanoceros (@ryanoceros)
10th September 2021, 0:24
ugh I forgot this weekend had a sprint race. I really like how the normal F1 weekend builds slowly. I hope they forgo the podium trailer thing that was whack.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
10th September 2021, 3:16
If they were going to consider a change, I’d imagine they’d wait until at least after the sprint to assess where they are in the pecking order – if they’re well behind the Mercs they might make a snap decision to do it but I can’t see them sacrificing position without at least first assessing their performance.