Lewis Hamilton's Belgian GP grid penalty tops out at 55 places after third engine change

Laurence EdmondsonAug 27, 2016, 05:13 PM
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SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium -- After a further power unit change ahead of final practice, Lewis Hamilton's grid penalty for the Belgian Grand Prix has hit 55 places, ensuring he will start from the last row of the grid in Sunday's race.

After Hamilton suffered two turbo and MGU-H failures earlier this season, it became inevitable he would have to take a penalty at some point over the remaining races. Mercedes chose to take the grid drop at this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix to coincide with an engine update, allowing Hamilton to stock up on updated components rather than old-spec versions.

Over the course of the weekend Mercedes has fitted an updated power unit to Hamilton's car ahead of each practice session, creating a pool of new components to be used over the remaining nine races of the season. The power unit changes mean Hamilton has now used eight turbochargers and eight MGU-Hs this year and six internal combustion engines and MGU-Ks, exceeding his season-long quota of five for each component.

Engine penalties explained

What's an ICE and an MGU-H and why are they impacting grid positions?

Under the regulations, an F1 car's power unit is divided into six major components: the internal combustion engine (ICE), turbocharger, MGU-K (the part of the energy recovery system that harvests energy from the rear axle under braking), MGU-H (the part of the energy recovery system that harvests energy from the turbo), the energy store (or battery) and control electronics.
In order to stop teams spending eye-watering amounts of money fitting new components at every race weekend, drivers are limited to five of each component during the 2016 season, with grid penalties acting as a deterrent against using more.

So what happens if they do use more?
Once a driver uses the sixth of any of the components he incurs a 10-place grid penalty in the next qualifying session, with further five-place penalties every time another of the components is replaced for the sixth time. The same penalty system applies for the seventh set of components, and so on.

What happens if the grid penalty exceeds the number of places on the grid?
It's true that drivers cannot start any lower than 22nd, and that creates a potential loophole. In the knowledge that their driver can't go any lower on the grid than 22nd, a team may be tempted to stockpile new components (and add to their penalty) so that they don't have to take additional penalties at later rounds. Once a component has been used in a session, it can then be used at any of the subsequent rounds.

Could all the teams work together and load up on components at one single round?
In theory, yes, but in practice F1 teams struggle to agree on the time of day. It's very likely that at least one team would break the agreement in order to take pole.

Under Formula One's complex engine penalty regulations (see sidebar), the changes equate to a 55-place grid drop, which means Hamilton will start from the back row, most likely joined by McLaren's Fernando Alonso, who has a 35-place grid drop of his own. Hamilton is not expected to take part in qualifying beyond Q1 in order to save fresh sets of tyres for the race.

Therefore, Hamilton will have to fight back through the field in Sunday's race in the hope of minimising the damage teammate Nico Rosberg can cause to his championship lead. The world champion believes there are "seven or eight" potential overtaking opportunities at Spa-Francorchamps, but said it will become increasingly difficult to pass anywhere other than Les Combes once he comes across the more competitive cars at the front of the field.

"On Sunday I might have a chance to overtake in Turn 1 [La Source], maybe, but it's unlikely anyone will overtake there because it screws up the long straights, so most people will only overtake into Turn 5 [Les Combes] down the back straight.

"What I'm saying is that there are other places you could overtake if the car in front is struggling, but that's unlikely as you get further up the grid. It's not really a good track for overtaking, I think."