Hamilton Suffers Belgian Grand Prix Engine Woes

[Paul Jeffrey]

As Nico Rosberg and then Max Verstappen stormed to the top of the timesheets during Fridays running at the Belgian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton suffered yet more engine woes, his Mercedes team have confirmed the Briton has incurred a whopping 30 place penalty due to changes to his AMG Mercedes Power Unit ahead of the Grand Prix.

Hamilton, leading the World Championship by 19 points from his German teammate, received a new MGU-H ahead of opening practice and, coupled with a new Turbo Charger, ICE and MGU-K earned the British driver 15 place grid penalty as he ran over his season allocation. With Hamilton's race already compromised, Mercedes decided to fit another new power unit for Practice 2 in order to extend the pool of allocated engines, earning the Brit a further 15 place penalty.

In other news, Nico Rosberg took to the circuit in the morning session sporting his AMG Mercedes teams interpretation of the Halo device, setting a session topping time of 1m 48.348s on soft tyres, the first time a car with the experimental head protection has headed the timesheets in an official Grand Prix session.

Manor Racing debutant Esteban Ocon also impressed onlookers with a spectacular drive to 16th position, well ahead of his German teammate and fellow Mercedes junior driver Pascal Wehrlein.

Practice continues tomorrow before qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Free Practice 1:

1.Nico Rosberg GER Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 48.348s
2.Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 49.078s
3.Kimi Raikkonen FIN Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 49.147s
4.Sergio Perez MEX Force India-Mercedes 1m 49.274s
5.Sebastian Vettel GER Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 49.768s
6.Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull-TAG 1m 49.782s
7.Max VerstappenNED Red Bull-TAG 1m 49.865s
8.Nico Hulkenberg GER Force India-Mercedes 1m 50.088s
9.Valtteri Bottas FIN Williams-Mercedes 1m 50.394s
10.Esteban Gutierrez MEX Haas-Ferrari 1m 50.583s
11.Romain Grosjean FRA Haas-Ferrari 1m 50.899s
12.Felipe Massa BRZ Williams-Mercedes 1m 51.122s
13.Marcus Ericsson SWE Sauber-Ferrari 1m 51.125s
14.Carlos Sainz Jr ESP Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 51.424s
15.Felipe Nasr BRA Sauber-Ferrari 1m 51.768s
16.Esteban Ocon FRA Manor-Mercedes 1m 51.787s
17.Daniil Kvyat RUS Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 52.308s
18.Jenson Button GBR McLaren-Honda 1m 52.407s
19.Pascal Wehrlein GER Manor-Mercedes 1m 52.837s
20.Kevin Magnussen DEN Renault-Renault 1m 53.053s
21.Jolyon Palmer GBR Renault-Renault 1m 53.089s
22.Fernando Alonso ESP McLaren-Honda no time

Free Practice 2:

1. Max Verstappen NED Red Bull-TAG 1m 48.085s
2. Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull-TAG 1m 48.341s
3. Nico Hulkenberg GER Force India-Mercedes 1m 48.657s
4. Sebastian Vettel GER Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 49.023s
5. Sergio Perez MEX Force India-Mercedes 1m 49.100s
6. Nico Rosberg GER Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 49.161s
7. Kimi Raikkonen FIN Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 49.244s
8. Romain Grosjean FRA Haas-Ferrari 1m 49.419s
9. Jenson Button GBR McLaren-Honda 1m 49.419s
10. Esteban Gutierrez MEX Haas-Ferrari 1m 49.648s
11. Pascal Wehrlein GER Manor-Mercedes 1m 49.716s
12. Fernando Alonso ESP McLaren-Honda 1m 49.772s
13. Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 49.782s
14. Daniil Kvyat RUS Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 49.916s
15. Marcus Ericsson SWE Sauber-Ferrari 1m 50.083s
16. Valtteri Bottas FIN Williams-Mercedes 1m 50.151s
17. Felipe Massa BRZ Williams-Mercedes 1m 50.157s
18. Carlos Sainz Jr ESP Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 50.194s
19. Kevin Magnussen DEN Renault-Renault 1m 50.375s
20. Jolyon Palmer GBR Renault-Renault 1m 50.562s
21. Esteban Ocon FRA Manor-Mercedes 1m 50.659s
22. Felipe Nasr BRA Sauber-Ferrari 1m 50.719s


Read more about Formula One and the Belgian Grand Prix in our Formula One sub forum here at RaceDepartment.

Do you think Hamilton has a chance of strong points this weekend? Can Rosberg regain some lost ground in the championship fight? Have engine penalties gone too far? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[BlindDeadMacSlow]

These race penalties for changing engines etc in an attempt to have a car that runs & provides good racing are beyond idiotic today. Couple that with FOM & Ecclestone, a bunch of clowns both with egos so big they need their own postcodes & we are in a downward spiral of ludicrous regulations that are strangling free racing. But hey, so long as the money that feeds the circus is rolling in...

 

[fortyfivekev]

Looks like a long weekend for Lewis' mechanics if he takes a new engine for each FP session. I guess Mercedes have found a loophole in the stupid penalty system and good for them.

 

[Chris]

These race penalties for changing engines etc in an attempt to have a car that runs & provides good racing are beyond idiotic today.

It's not to promote good racing. It's to incetivise quality engine manufacturing and ultimately cost saving.

 

[resmania]

Nico to blame. xD

 

[Andy 'Mars Bar' Graham]

Well Ricciardo and Verstappen look good. Will be a interesting three way scrap, unless Mercedes have a lot of pace they haven't shown, then well done Rosberg

 

[PsyaNyde]

It's not to promote good racing. It's to incetivise quality engine manufacturing and ultimately cost saving.

Then penalise the engine manufacturer, there's 2 championships going on, Driver AND Constructor, so in the event of engineering failures penalise the Constructor, NOT the driver.
Deduct the points from the Constructors championship instead of constantly penalising the driver

 

[burrito]

Then penalise the engine manufacturer, there's 2 championships going on, Driver AND Constructor, so in the event of engineering failures penalise the Constructor, NOT the driver.
Deduct the points from the Constructors championship instead of constantly penalising the driver

So you'd deduct points from Williams for a Mercedes engine failure?

 

[Paul Jeffrey]

Nigel Mansell FTW

 

[Nick Hill]

Then penalise the engine manufacturer, there's 2 championships going on, Driver AND Constructor, so in the event of engineering failures penalise the Constructor, NOT the driver.
Deduct the points from the Constructors championship instead of constantly penalising the driver

I don't disagree.

I would rather see them implement something like a luxury tax. If the big money teams want to switch out/upgrade a bunch of parts during the season, each time they do so they need to put money into a bucket that then gets allocated to the smaller teams.

A perhaps better idea (and I honestly can't remember if this is original to me, or if I heard it somewhere before and stole it as my own!) is that you could keep the token system, but make it more of a marketplace. Each team starts the year off being given X tokens based upon the previous season's finishing order (with the worst teams getting more tokens than the best teams), but now those tokens are free to be used either (1) for car upgrades OR (2) traded in a token marketplace in exchange for cash.

This would create a situation where a team like Mercedes, coming off a dominating season, would enter the next season starved for tokens but still flush with cash. A cash starved team like Manor, which likely lacks the engineering brain-power to spend though all their tokens over the course of a season anyways, could then put a bunch of their tokens up for auction in the marketplace and get a nice cash infusion from the token-starved big money teams.

Let this scenario play out over the course of multiple seasons and I think you might start to see more upward mobility from the little teams.

 

[racelover]

So, how will this 30 place penalty be enforced? Last on the grid? starting from the pit?

 

[Andy 'Mars Bar' Graham]

So, how will this 30 place penalty be enforced? Last on the grid? starting from the pit?

Probably starting from the pit I'm guessing. He won't be last as Nando has a 35 place grid penalty

 

[Ben Lee]

Alonso is starting from The Nurburgring.

 

[Andy 'Mars Bar' Graham]

Alonso is starting from The Nurburgring.

Which was not as bad as last season. He had a 55 place grid penalty which meant he probably started from China.

 

[stbreaker]

Which was not as bad as last season. He had a 55 place grid penalty which meant he probably started from China.

I think at one race he or Button had like a 97 place grid penalty last season (Starting from the moon?) It was part of the reason they changed the "if you're already last, we carry the penalty over" system. I would imagine the FIA is going to do something to prevent other teams from repeating the Mercedes master plan for this weekend.

I find it ironic that the rules designed to increase competitiveness/cost cut/level the field, are the things that actually make dedicated F1 fans the most angry (e.g. DRS, dice roll tire longevity, grid spot penalties for mechanical failures, that awful rolling knockout qualifying format, hardcore testing restrictions, radio ban, etc.) It's just staggering how long that list could be only including stuff from the last few years. I definitely like the idea of the token marketplace. It allows teams that have more money to spend it if they want and should help teams like Sauber to stay afloat. It's actually one of the few "reverse" situations that actually makes sense.

 

[Mark Aalberts]

The penalty is indeed ridiculous. However they suggested a preventing rule to limit the engine swap for this year!. But that one got shot by the teams.

The wrong people are running the place that's what's wrong with F1

 

[Andy 'Mars Bar' Graham]

The wrong people are running the place that's what's wrong with F1

The problem doesn't lie with the teams getting a say, it lies with WHAT teams get a say. Teams like Manor and Sauber have no power in the strategy group, so decisions always go against them