Russian Grand Prix: Grid Penalties for Magnussen, Hülkenberg, and Maldonado

The Japanese Grand Prix is an opportunity to take stock of the mechanical elements that have been changed since the start of the season. Thus, the FIA, through several official documents, allows tracking, throughout a race weekend, all the replacement operations carried out on the single-seaters.

This season, such a series of information is very important, as the Sporting Regulations (Article 28.4a) require teams to adhere to a maximum quota of five power units per car, each consisting of a series of components that can themselves be replaced individually, within the limit of five. These components are:

– le moteur thermique

– le turbocompresseur

– la batterie

– le MGU-K

– le MGU-H

– l’unité de contrôle électronique (UCE)

Beyond these quotas, penalties of 5 or 10 grid positions may be applied.

Few changes are to be noted on the sensitive parts: Kamui Kobayashi is the only one to change the MGU-H, while Sebastian Vettel, the Force India team and Jean-Eric Vergne are changing their batteries.

However, since Pastor Maldonado, penalized 10 grid places at Suzuka for a thermal engine change, only used 5 places, he will be penalized again by 5 grid places at Sochi.

Outside of the power unit, some drivers have installed a new gearbox: this is the case, without penalty, for Kimi Räikkönen and Esteban Gutierrez whose gearboxes lasted the last six Grand Prix. On the other hand, Nico Hülkenberg, whose gearbox broke during the Japanese Grand Prix, and Kevin Magnussen and Max Chilton, whose gearboxes broke during FP3 in Sochi, will start with a 5-place grid penalty because their gearboxes had to be changed before completing six races.

Thus, before the qualifying session, here is the complete set of elements used by the drivers since the start of the season.