Grid penalties loom in the near future for Lewis Hamilton, as he uses a brand new power unit for the Austrian Grand Prix. This means that the Brit has burned through all of the power units allotted to him this season. This means that grid penalties are inevitable moving forward.
Early issues this weekend have forced Hamilton to take a completely new power unit for this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix. This means that the Mercedes driver is currently using his final turbo and MGU-H. With the season not yet at the halfway point, grid penalties will be unavoidable later on in the season, which will add some complications to his bid for the World Drivers’ Championship title.
Hamilton will surely end of starting from the rear of the grid of at least one of the events this season, although the team are expecting that there will be two races with grid penalties. In order to minimize the impact of the grid penalties, the team will be looking to take the penalties at circuits which cater to the superior performance of the Mercedes power unit or have a high probability of safety cars during the race. This probably means that the team will swap power units in Belgium or Italy, as well as the United States or Mexico.
Mercedes also has previously used components from other engines that they can put in the car without taking a penalty. These are power units that were sent back to the team’s factory after having been replaced, where they were stripped and repaired.
Nico Rosberg has also taken a new power unit for the Austrian Grand Prix, but this is only his third engine of the season. The European Grand Prix increased Rosberg’s championship lead to 24 points.
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