Pierre Gasly, Toro Rosso, Circuit de Catalunya, 2018

Gasly to get grid penalty for power unit change

2018 United States Grand Prix

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Pierre Gasly will start this weekend’s United States Grand Prix from the back of the grid after changing his power unit.

The Toro Rosso driver has taken his seventh new engine, turbocharger, MGU-H and his sixth MGU-K.

Drivers’ power unit components

No.CarEngineDriverICETCMGU-HMGU-KESCE
28Toro RossoHondaBrendon Hartley777634
10Toro RossoHondaPierre Gasly777633
27RenaultRenaultNico Hulkenberg565444
3Red BullTAG HeuerDaniel Ricciardo555544
14McLarenRenaultFernando Alonso444433
33Red BullTAG HeuerMax Verstappen444433
77MercedesMercedesValtteri Bottas444333
55RenaultRenaultCarlos Sainz Jnr444333
2McLarenRenaultStoffel Vandoorne444333
9SauberFerrariMarcus Ericsson433232
8HaasFerrariRomain Grosjean333222
20HaasFerrariKevin Magnussen333222
31SauberFerrariCharles Leclerc333222
5FerrariFerrariSebastian Vettel333222
44MercedesMercedesLewis Hamilton333222
11Force IndiaMercedesSergio Perez333222
31Force IndiaMercedesEsteban Ocon333222
18WilliamsMercedesLance Stroll333222
35WilliamsMercedesSergey Sitorkin333222
7FerrariFerrariKimi Raikkonen333222

ICE: Internal Combustion Engine
TC: Turbocharger
MGU-K: Motor Generator Unit – Kinetic
MGU-H: Moto Generator Unit: Heat
ES: Energy Store
CE: Control Electronics

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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17 comments on “Gasly to get grid penalty for power unit change”

  1. Hartley will also get new PU components albeit they will only make the change this evening. Honda has confirmed so both cars will start from the back.

    1. Honda really making huge steps in progress, right.

      1. Supposedly more power than Renault. How’s that working out?

        1. Yep, lots of boasting with little results.
          Time is running out for Honda to get it right.

  2. Honda better be aggressively testing 2019 concepts… RBR will be quite unpleasant if they’re forced to change PUs like this next year.

    1. @phylyp, this is a modified version of the latest specification engine to deal with current teething issues – whilst originally it was supposedly just getting a remapping to sort out those problems with oscillations through the drive train, Honda have now said that it has had to make further physical modifications to address other unspecified issues that were identified in Japan. https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/honda-penalties-changes-usgp-grid/3197963/

      1. anon – thanks for that summary and the link, much appreciated.

      2. Unspecified? Take a wild guess. Yes, engine failure.

        1. it could just be individual components and not whole engine development…?

      3. ok, I guess that is better than something giving up without them even really being sure what. But fact remains that the engine was put in in one session, then taken out to fine tune the SW, then they put it in last race weekend, but didn’t manage to get it working as it should in one car at all, and now they put in a new engine because it needed more than just tuning the electronics.

        Really more of the same we have seen with McLaren in the last few years with updates not coming in time, not delivering or proving to be unreliable. I won’t be expecting too much for next year either.

    2. They are always aggressively testing. They just aren’t good enough and it’s a shame that there’s no other engines in F1 for teams to choose. The worst is 4th best, and it is the worst by a large margin.

  3. 14 engines Honda have went through already. They really are dire.

    The only reason they have shown a power increase is because their engine is newer most of the time.

    1. Toro Rossos are confirmed to be guinea pig for honda this season, so as many changes as possible is gonna give them the idea which formula mix works… it looks bad, but if it is for the next season, nothing wrong with it as points not much an issue it seems…

      1. Yeah, that is what they make of it now. But in between they keep saying they see progress and large steps forward. We’ve seen that same attetude in the first and then in the second year with Honda.

        To me it seems things are still as lagging behind as we saw in that excellent documentary where all of McLaren’s detractors/RB fanboys keps saying that surely it was all because of the Woking team and Honda was put in a worse light than they should be.

      2. Yeah, that is what they make of it now. But in between they keep saying they see progress and large steps forward. We’ve seen that same attetude in the first and then in the second year with Honda.

        To me it seems things are still as lagging behind as we saw in that excellent documentary where all of McLaren’s detractors/RB fans keps saying that surely it was all because of the Woking team and Honda was put in a worse light than they should be.

  4. Hopefully it’s just more improving for 2019

  5. It was obvious that Honda did a ‘Suzuka special’ engine for their home race.

    They tested it in the car at Russia, then took it out immediately … used it to get two cars into Q3 (albeit with some luck anyway) … and had no choice but to replace it for this weekend in both cars as it was dead, finished, kaput.

    The fact that their one race special engine was still slower than their competitors – who’s engines are designed to last 6-8 races – just shows how useless Honda are performing in F1.

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