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.
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
26th August 2016, 9:11
A Red Bull will win this race. A home(ish) race win for Verstappen would be something else.
JC
26th August 2016, 9:25
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!
Graham (@guitargraham)
26th August 2016, 9:27
thats exactly what i’d be doing too. get a spare or two of every single unit in the bag
HS (@hsvdt15)
26th August 2016, 9:31
I may have misheard but I’m pretty sure Sky just said you can’t do that this year.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
26th August 2016, 10:01
@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.
HS (@hsvdt15)
26th August 2016, 10:11
@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
JC
26th August 2016, 11:51
They’re changing out bits for FP2, so looks like Hamilton will be starting from the back!
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
26th August 2016, 10:00
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.
IJW (@)
26th August 2016, 11:30
@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.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
26th August 2016, 13:01
@ijw1 I think that used to be the case but it doesn’t say that in the rules any more.
JerseyF1 (@jerseyf1)
26th August 2016, 10:27
Quite a difference between Mercedes customer teams and Mercedes works team.
Anthony
26th August 2016, 11:01
Well the customer teams are running de-tuned versions so there reliability is much better.
pSynrg (@psynrg)
26th August 2016, 11:17
According to the customer teams & Mercedes, customer engines are identical to works engines. They are not “de-tuned”.
Charles King (@charleski)
26th August 2016, 11:29
@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.
x303 (@x303)
27th August 2016, 12:02
So software is part of the competitive effort of every team. There is no detune-conspiracy as Anthony believe.
Neel Jani (@neelv27)
26th August 2016, 12:43
It’s better to start from the pitlane considering the start mayhem of Spa T1.
Brian
26th August 2016, 12:58
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
pSynrg (@psynrg)
26th August 2016, 13:11
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…
krxx
26th August 2016, 17:01
@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.