There will be no shortage of power units for Hamilton to finish off his season, as the team opts to take another power unit on Saturday morning, thus increasing their grid penalty to 55 places. Hamilton will now have three power units to use for the remainder of the season, meaning that it is unlikely that he will need to take another grid penalty this season.
The team’s shortage of power units was a concern for Hamilton’s side of the Mercedes garage, as their driver was forced to use up his entire allocation of power units before the summer break, thanks to an array of technical issues early in the season. The team were predicting that Hamilton will need at least two power units to finish up the season.
The team opted to take a grid penalty at a circuit which suited the Mercedes car well, in order to allow Hamilton to easily make up positions and minimize the damage to the World Drivers’ Championship battle. The team decided that Belgium was an ideal location and used a new power unit for free practice one, receiving a 15 place grid penalty. The team earned an additional 15 place penalty when they swapped for a new power unit before the second practice on Friday.
On Saturday, the team decided to take another new power unit just to be safe, thus adding an additional 25 places to their grid penalty. This brought the total to 55 places, which really has no additional impact on the grid results, since Hamilton was already going to start from the rear of the grid anyway, since there are only 22 cars on the grid.
Hamilton has now used six internal combustion engines, six kinetic motor generator units, eight heat motor generator units and eight turbochargers this season, putting him well over the FIA’s allocation of the season. The team has previously stated that they still have some components which can salvaged from Hamilton’s previous power units, but with another power unit in the bank, it is highly unlikely that they will need to use those components.
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