Carlos Sainz Jnr, Ferrari, Red Bull Ring, 2022

Sainz to take grid penalty for power unit parts change following Austria fire

2022 French Grand Prix

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Carlos Sainz Jnr will have a 10-place grid penalty for this weekend’s French Grand Prix after Ferrari exceeded his maximum allocation of power unit parts.

Repairs were required to Sainz’s car after the power unit failure and subsequent fire which put him out of the Austrian Grand Prix two weeks ago.

Ferrari has replaced the energy store and control electronics on Sainz’s 066/7 power unit. The latter is his third of the season, exceeding the allowed maximum of two, earning him an automatic 10-place grid penalty.

Sainz is likely to take further penalties ahead of Sunday’s race. As he is already likely to start no higher than 11th, Ferrari can replace his entire power unit again, giving him a fresh stock of parts for upcoming races, and only lose nine more places on the grid this weekend.

None of the other new power unit parts fitted to cars have incurred penalties for their drivers so far this weekend. Lewis Hamilton, whose car is being driven by Nyck de Vries in today’s first practice session, has a new engine, MGU-H, energy store and control electronics in his Mercedes. His team mate George Russell also has new examples of the latter two components.

Zhou Guanyu has a new Ferrari energy store, while Max Verstappen and Lando Norris each have new exhausts this weekend.

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2022 French 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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6 comments on “Sainz to take grid penalty for power unit parts change following Austria fire”

  1. So.. he gets a penalty not for the parts that failed, but for the parts that got burned in result of marshals taking their time… well, unlucky, but part of the game, i guess.

    1. @njoydesign a few remarks to that:
      – the marshals were following strict safety protocols
      – even if they hadn’t and therefore been faster, there’s no way to tell those components could have been saved
      – as the article says, he is likely to take on a new PU altogether, at which point the damage on these components itself and the resulting grid drop don’t really matter anyway

  2. It always seems harsh to me that having been penalized in the previous race by having an engine fire, he is further penalised in this race by having to take repairs.

    1. For sure. But one could also argue they brought it upon themselves. What is even harsher, particularly with the budget caps now, is when a driver is taken out by another driver who did a penalty worthy act, and that ends up costing the victim and his team big money and one less pu to play with for the season and thus grid penalties down the line, through no fault of their own.

      1. Yes, there’s scope for abuse for that, say a move like silverstone or monza 2021 but intentional, if a driver can plan it well and make it look like a racing incident, imo they should do something to prevent abuse of that.

    2. The DNF wasn’t a penalty, it was the result of a team failure. That failure caused the need for new parts, incurring the penalty.

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