Sebastian Vettel will use his sixth different power unit at this weekend’s United States Grand Prix, the FIA has confirmed.
Consequently the stewards have announced Vettel will start Sunday’s race from the pits. He is the first driver to do so under new rules introduced this year.
Red Bull will change Vettel’s internal combustion engine (ICE), turbocharger, energy store, control electrics, MGU-K and MGU-H, putting him on the sixth example of each.
Vettel is the fourth driver to use a sixth power unit component, joining Pastor Maldonado and the two Toro Rosso drivers, all of which also use Renault engines.
Nico Hulkenberg, Sergio Perez and Esteban Gutierrez will also become the last drivers to use a fifth internal combustion engine this weekend.
2014 United States Grand Prix
Image © Red Bull/Getty
MtlRacer (@mtlracer)
31st October 2014, 17:49
During FP1 I saw tweet by Jennie Gow and BBCF1 reporting Christian Horner saying Vettel will also take part in qualifying in spite of pit lane start.
Glenn (@glennb)
31st October 2014, 17:56
I imagine he will be sent out to do a sector or 2 and park it.
Adam (@adamgoh)
31st October 2014, 18:14
Possibly to satisfy the 107% rule so as to avoid not qualifying. But who knows.
Ron (@rcorporon)
31st October 2014, 18:11
I doubt we’ll see much of him in Qualy. Why put unnecessary km’s on the engine? Stupid rule though. Deprives fans from seeing their favourite drivers in all parts of the race weekend.
alexanderf1
31st October 2014, 18:25
the rule isnt stupid.
however if renault had produced a reliable engine in the 1st place then there wouldnt be engine penalties.
and also if the teams werent limited to 5 engines for a season there wouldnt be any issues.
and lets be honest vettel was hardly going to get pole was he. so are the fans really going to miss that much.
Robert McKay
31st October 2014, 18:29
“lets be honest vettel was hardly going to get pole was he. so are the fans really going to miss that much”
Most of the drivers are in the same boat, so presumably you’re all in favour of just ditching the qualifying session altogether.
BasCB (@bascb)
1st November 2014, 6:24
I think there was some negotiaton going on. The FIA told the team that they are not at all convinced, that its neccissary to change as many components (some have not got that much mileage on them yet) and today the team confirmed that they would do a lap in Q1 to satisfy the 107% rule.
Afterall, there is no title at stake for Vettel and it would be a huge upset if another car wasn’t seen in action on saturday afternoon.
mendocino
31st October 2014, 18:17
Just a question: what IF (and very IF) he goes in Q3? Has he to start from pitlane with the Q2 set on which he does the best timed lap? thanks
reiter (@reiter)
31st October 2014, 18:26
He shouldn’t have an issue charging through the field with a brand new engine.
DaveD (@daved)
31st October 2014, 18:26
REALLY stupid rule. I paid for a ticket and I’m at the track…and I want to see him make a run at it tomorrow. Of course I want Lewis to thoroughly kick his backside, but still it’s part of the show. :(
RogerA
31st October 2014, 18:39
So those whining about engine penalty’s, What do you propose?
Do you want to go back to the time when teams would fit a new engine after every session, Where teams were spending millions on an engine that would only do a dozen laps in qualifying & then never be used again, To the time when teams had something like 30+ engines at every race of which most were either not used at all or used only for 1 session.
People always go on about how the driver should not be punished, But the driver is a part of the team so should be punished as part of the team.
Also what if damage to a component which forced gearbox, engine or ERS changes was caused in part by the driver hitting a kurb badly, crashing or something? Should they still be removed from the penalty?
Teams are not separated from driver related penalty’s such as pit speeding drive-thrus’s so why should the drivers be separated from penalty’s that affect the teams?
Also not as if most other categories don’t have similar regulations now.
Robert McKay
31st October 2014, 22:37
It’s a fair point but it was always stupid to decrease the number of engines allowed in a season when the technology was always going to be new and complex and unreliable. If the limit was 8 I think that would have been fine.
Alex W
1st November 2014, 0:19
YES! I for one loved it when they used 3 new engines for each car each weekend, that was true uncompromised perfection, not this collusion of cheaper weaker racing with well used engines that don’t blow up very often because they are designed to last 6 GP’s instead of 1.1. Admittedly it hurt the poor teams like Minardi that couldn’t afford that many new engines, but it never hurt the top teams. And we could always introduce a free engine supply rule, this would limit the cost of the engines for all teams by making better engine suppliers victims of their own success…
SauberS1 (@saubers1)
1st November 2014, 0:02
I think he had no choice, he got an order.
eml
1st November 2014, 17:28
Everyone is talking about how good Rosberge is compared to Hamilton. Yeah… No doubt he is a good driver but not as good as Hamilton. We all forgot that Rosberge has been with Mercedes for years before Hamilton showed up ans all of a sudden Rosberge now seems like a good driver. Hamilton happened to be the motivating factor that Rosberge needed all these years to prove that he can bid for the championship. All of the advantages from Rosberge is a result of helpful information shared by Hamilton to improve his car setting. Haven said that, Rosberge is good but Hamilton is better. Hamilton even out qualified Alonso in McLaren so its never a surprise for Hamilton to have a car for one year and by the second year he know exactly what the engineers need to do on his car to improve championship bid. Hamilton is probably best driver out there for now beside Alonso. If Hamilton had a redbull bull just like he has Mercedes right now he probably bring in 10 world v championship records which he will if Mercedes keeps his contract. I believe Mercedes will. Just my opinion. Dont take it personal. Its a sports. Not our day job.