Mercedes confirms 15-place penalty for Hamilton

2016 Belgian Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton will start no higher than 16th in this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix as he will take a 15-place grid penalty, Mercedes has confirmed.

Hamilton will use his sixth MGU-H and sixth turbocharger, taking him beyond the five he is allowed to use in a season without penalty.

Mercedes announced both drivers will have complete new power units this weekend. Hamilton will use his fourth engine and MGU-K.

Nico Rosberg, who has not had to change as many power unit components so far this season, will use his fourth engine, MGU-K, MGU-H and turbocharger.

Marcus Ericsson will also use his sixth turbocharger and receive a ten-place penalty.

The Ferrari pair will use new MGU-Ks this weekend and the McLaren drivers have complete new power units, but not have incurred any penalties.

Power unit components used so far

2016 power unit components used so far

2016 Belgian Grand Prix

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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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    19 comments on “Mercedes confirms 15-place penalty for Hamilton”

    1. A Red Bull will win this race. A home(ish) race win for Verstappen would be something else.

    2. I reckon by the time Q1 comes around, he’ll have a lot more than 15 places of grid penalties. If I were Mercedes, I’d be putting new PU components in for each practice session!

      1. thats exactly what i’d be doing too. get a spare or two of every single unit in the bag

        1. I may have misheard but I’m pretty sure Sky just said you can’t do that this year.

          1. @hsvdt15 Can’t see anything in the rules which would prevent it. And if teams weren’t allowed to change power units more than once in a weekend then they couldn’t change a newly-installed engine which had subsequently failed – as appears to be the case with Alonso.

            1. @keithcollantine just going off what Sky said. Something about Mercedes lobbying against (or maybe for? I wasn’t listening too hard) the carry-over grid penalties that were in place previously and having to actually use the new components put in the car rather than putting them in and then another new set

          2. They’re changing out bits for FP2, so looks like Hamilton will be starting from the back!

    3. McLaren have now said Alonso will need a new power unit which will put him on a sixth example of every component. If he goes to another new engine that will mean 35 places of penalties.

      1. @keithcollantine I thought if you took a completely new PU, you basically start from the Pit Lane. Hence the reason for people suggesting that Hamilton takes a new PU rather than loads of new individual parts.
        I suspect over the remaining races, Hamilton will need a 7th TC component and a 7th MGU-H component. So, it looks like he might need to take another 15 place penalty later on (maybe Monza?), on top of the current penalty for Spa.

        1. @ijw1 I think that used to be the case but it doesn’t say that in the rules any more.

    4. Quite a difference between Mercedes customer teams and Mercedes works team.

      1. Well the customer teams are running de-tuned versions so there reliability is much better.

        1. According to the customer teams & Mercedes, customer engines are identical to works engines. They are not “de-tuned”.

          1. @psynrg I seem to remember someone explaining that the difference lay solely in the software, and the hardware was identical. Even so, software tweaks can have a large impact on both the performance and reliability of an engine.

            1. So software is part of the competitive effort of every team. There is no detune-conspiracy as Anthony believe.

    5. It’s better to start from the pitlane considering the start mayhem of Spa T1.

      1. There are pros and cons to starting from the back of the grid. Granted, there is a greater chance of getting caught up in the peanut gallery mishaps, but starting from the grid also presents a huge opportunity which could see one gain as many as 4 places. Starting from the pits however means all cars must pass the pit exit before you leave the pit exit. First overtaking opportunity will only come on the straight after en rouge, but most likely, you will be dead last for a lap or two

    6. I’m guessing Lossberg will be long gone, but I’m relishing the prospect of Lewis battling thru the field, all being well at least, and that’s a tall order here.

      Saying that, whoever manages a non-DRS pass this weekend will get my driver of the race…

      1. @psynrg
        I’m also looking forward to the race, but why would it be, in particular, a tall order here? They didn’t choose Spa for nothing to incur the penalties.

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