Austrian Grand Prix – McLaren’s Carlos Sainz and Toro Rosso’s Alex Albon will both take grid penalties for this Sunday’s race at the Red Bull Ring.
Carlos Sainz will take a raft of grid penalties, due to taking plenty of new power unit components in his car. He has been fitted out with his fourth Renault power unit of the year. With just three permitted per driver for the season, this triggers a ten place grid penalty. He has also taken his fourth turbocharger of the year, also a part with an allowance of three for the season.
It’s the same story with his MGU-H, another part of which drivers can only use three throughout the year. As this is Sainz’s fourth, it’s another 10 place penalty. An allowance of two applies to the MGU-K – with Sainz taking his third here in Austria, it’s another grid drop. Similarly, he’s taken a third Control Electronics and a third Energy Store – both of which drivers are only allowed use two of.
Sainz has thus triggered a total of a sixty place grid drop. Anything over a fifteen place grip drop triggers an automatic ‘start from the back’ penalty, meaning a back row start.
However, he could yet start from P19, as Toro Rosso’s Alex Albon is in a similar situation. With Honda rolling out an upgraded Spec 3 engine last week for France, Albon was the only Honda-powered driver to not get the upgrade. He’ll have it for this weekend but, having already reached his allowance on most engine components, he also triggers penalties.
He has taken a new combustion engine and a new MGU-K, triggering a twenty place grid drop. However, the ‘start from the back’ rule supercedes the grid drop, meaning it’s unclear for now whether it’s Sainz or Albon that will start from P20.
