Esteban Ocon, Alpine, Monza, 2022

More engine changes mean nine drivers will take grid penalties

2022 Italian Grand Prix

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The FIA has confirmed three more drivers have exceeded their maximum allocation of power unit parts this weekend, meaning they will take grid penalties.

Six drivers were already due to move back places on the grid for tomorrow’s race after parts were changed on their cars yesterday: Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz Jnr, Valtteri Bottas and Yuki Tsunoda.

They have been joined by Esteban Ocon and Haas team mates Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher. The Alpine driver will take a new engine only, meaning he incurs a five-place grid penalty.

Of the Haas pair, Schumacher has also only taken a new engine, meaning a five-place penalty. However Haas have also changed his gearbox, exceeding his allocation, increasing his penalty to a total of 15 places. His team mate Magnussen will lose the same number of positions after Haas changed his engine plus turbocharger and MGU-H.

Ferrari have fitted a complete fresh power unit to Carlos Sainz Jnr’s car, but as he had already incurred enough penalties to start at the back of the grid it makes no difference to his starting position.

Another Ferrari engine user, Zhou Guanyu, has had a new exhaust fitted to his car, but this remains within his allocation and he will not take a penalty.

Among the previously announced penalty takers, Hamilton and Tsunoda will drop to the back of the grid with Sainz, Bottas will move back 15 places, Perez 10 places and Verstappen five.

Penalties confirmed so far

Verstappen – Five-place grid penalty for power unit component change
Ocon – Five-place grid penalty for power unit component change
Perez – 10-place grid penalty for power unit component change
Bottas – 15-place grid penalty due to multiple power unit component changes
Magnussen – 15-place grid penalty due to multiple power unit component changes
Schumacher – 15-place grid penalty due to power unit component and gearbox changes
Hamilton – Start at back of grid due to multiple power unit component changes
Sainz – Start at back of grid due to multiple power unit component changes (incurred twice), 10-place grid penalty for gearbox component changes
Tsunoda – Start at back of grid due to multiple power unit component changes, 10-place grid penalty for collecting five reprimands, three-place grid penalty for ignoring yellow flags

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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...

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10 comments on “More engine changes mean nine drivers will take grid penalties”

  1. It’s getting silly now. Utilise those extra grid slots and make them take the correct number of grid slot penalties. Qualify 15th with a 15 place penalty, then it’s grid slot 30 for you!

    1. I don’t think that would make much of a difference, especially in Monza, where they will be clogging the first corner. They will just brake later than others and catch up. I think we need a completely different concept in regards to these penalties.

    2. It’s ineffective, isn’t it? Drivers would be bunched up and you would catch up within the first lap.

  2. These penalties are relics of a past era. The FIA now has a much better tool than grid penalties; they’ve effectively been meaningless for half the grid since their inception anyway. That, of course, is the budget cap. Put the engines under the budget cap.

    1. Interesting, but I’ll wait til I see some replies from people with more brains than me as to if theres any downsides to this/how it can be gamed.

    2. Remove the penalty and rule to use max engine components. There is a budget cap, want to spend it on engines, have fun. Want to spend in on aero, be my guest. Want to spend it all in developing a new B-spec, sure why not. More freedom, more fun.

    3. @MichaelN @maxv I guess the issue with making the engine part of the budget cap is that not everyone pays the same for an engine supply. I think some of the manufacturer backed teams don’t actually pay anything for the engine supply.

      Also why should customer teams who are paying to be supplied with the engine have to suffer financial penalties some of them can’t really afford for the failure of something they have no control over?

      I think all that needs to happen is for the supply allocation to be raised to 5 or 6 for the season as I think it’s become plainly obvious that trying to do 23/24 races on just 3 isn’t viable without having races where almost half the field are taking penalties.

  3. Jelle van der Meer (@)
    10th September 2022, 13:29

    Interesting the better Lewis and Sainz qualify the higher up Max may start the race if he qualifies ahead of them.
    Best case for Max would be qualify 1st with Lewis, Sainz and Perez in top 6 then Max will start the race 3rd.

    Curious if Lewis/Sainz will be fighting for who starts ahead or simply get to Q3 and then do just 1 run on the extra soft given for Q3.

    1. @jelle-van-der-meer

      not true because Lewis and Sainz will get into Q3 ONLY to help non penalty team mates by giving them a huge slipstream to guarantee pole.

      also like what @eurobrun the FIA is a farce and need to be more clear calculating and communicating penalties(zero simple way to know who is penalized on the official website) plus some penalties are worse than others but still classed as ‘back of grid’, for example Lewis is at the Back of the grid but will be ahead of Tsunoda who is even more back due to extra grid penalties..

  4. Now, now children, don’t rush! There are plenty of penalties for everyone!

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