[raceweekendpromotion]Lewis Hamilton will take a five-place grid drop penalty at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix following another engine change.
Mercedes have fitted the a fresh internal combustion engine to Hamilton’s power unit, his fifth of the season, further exceeding the maximum allocation of three. Formula 1 rules stipulate a five-place drop for this second violation.The penalty will be applied to Hamilton’s starting position in Sunday’s grand prix. He will start Saturday’s sprint qualifying race in the position he takes in the qualifying session later this afternoon.
Hamilton’s team mate Valtteri Bottas is already on his sixth engine. All eight Mercedes-powered drivers in the field have exceeded their minimum allocation of three. Lando Norris became the final driver to take a penalty for a replacement, at last week’s Mexican Grand Prix.
The only other driver to have a new power unit component fitted this weekend is Charles Leclerc, who has a new exhaust on his Ferrari. He will not incur a penalty.
Power unit components used so far
No. | Car | Engine | Driver | ICE | TC | MGU-H | MGU-K | ES | CE | EX |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
77 | Mercedes | Mercedes | Valtteri Bottas | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 6 |
14 | Alpine | Renault | Fernando Alonso | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 9 |
31 | Alpine | Renault | Esteban Ocon | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 9 |
11 | Red Bull | Honda | Sergio Perez | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 7 |
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 |
22 | AlphaTauri | Honda | Yuki Tsunoda | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
55 | Ferrari | Ferrari | Carlos Sainz Jnr | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
16 | Ferrari | Ferrari | Charles Leclerc | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
4 | McLaren | Mercedes | Lando Norris | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
5 | Aston Martin | Mercedes | Sebastian Vettel | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
18 | Aston Martin | Mercedes | Lance Stroll | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
3 | McLaren | Mercedes | Daniel Ricciardo | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
31 | Williams | Mercedes | Nicholas Latifi | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
63 | Williams | Mercedes | George Russell | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
44 | Mercedes | Mercedes | Lewis Hamilton | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
7 | Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | Kimi Raikkonen | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
99 | Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | Antonio Giovinazzi | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
47 | Haas | Ferrari | Mick Schumacher | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
9 | Haas | Ferrari | Nikita Mazepin | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
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2021 Sao Paulo Grand Prix
- Red Bull and Mercedes summoned to FIA hearing on review of Sao Paulo incident
- McLaren must “get back to scoring the results that are on the table” – Seidl
- Hamilton makes his second-biggest climb to victory from 10th on the grid
- F1 releases missing video footage from Verstappen’s car of Hamilton incident
- How Alonso and Ocon “pushed team tactics to the ultimate limit” to delay Gasly
Barry Bens (@barryfromdownunder)
12th November 2021, 15:38
Not really a surprise, as I was wondering how Mercedes could fix a proper issue in an existing PU. But really interesting to see if they can get quite a big chunk extra power in the last few races and maybe force Red Bull to do the same.
Iosif (@afonic)
12th November 2021, 15:40
Yeah but if they lose this one to Max again, he can just get the title with 3 second places.
Dex
12th November 2021, 15:51
Extra power? I wouldn’t expect much. It was already a pretty new engine. I’m pretty sure they’d rather have those starting positions, since they mustn’t lose this race. If Red Bull plays this one well this could be it.
petebaldwin (@)
12th November 2021, 15:39
There we go. Seems a smart move. I can see some shenanigans happening at the start of the sprint race to try and make Max start from the back…. He’ll have to be extremely careful.
IVAYLO
12th November 2021, 16:00
Expected. He can easily win 3 points with the brand new engine.
benny
12th November 2021, 16:15
clearly this was before FP1 where Redbull have at least 0.5 advantage per lap… Why do people just assume Mercedes can win everwhere? Redbull have had the better car througout the year.
Mashiat (@mashiat)
12th November 2021, 17:21
Last I checked, Red Bull was not 0.5s quicker in FP1…
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
12th November 2021, 16:01
Helmut Marko already stated that RBR suspect Hamilton will incur another penalty before the end of season which panned out to be true. Also Toto’s usual political correct comments after Hamilton’s penalty in Turkey was a clear indication of a potential penalty.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
12th November 2021, 16:37
It’s a joke that after the first penalty change you only lose five places. It needs to be moved to ten.
Broom (@)
12th November 2021, 16:39
Agreed, with DRS its not enough of a punishment.
Alec Thomas
12th November 2021, 18:25
I think 5 places is more than enough (though I am an L Hamilton fan)