F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Power unit element status in Mexico

New power unit elements for McLaren's Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne see them rewarded with another slew of grid penalties for this weekend's Mexican Grand Prix.

Alonso faces a 20 place grid drop for Sunday's race, and Vandoorne will be demoted 35 places. Both drivers will likely be on the back row of the grid on Sunday, regardless of their qualifying performance.

Toro Rosso's Pierre Gasly will also be toward the back for the start of the race. His car has been fitted with its fifth Control Electronics unit, meaning he gets a five-place drop.

The STR12 also received a fourth Energy Store. However this is within the allocation of units allowed over the course of a season and does not incur a penalty.

Gasly's car was originally driven first by Carlos Sainz and then last week by Daniil Kvyat. In Friday morning's free practice 1 it was in the hands of test and development driver Sean Gelael.

Alonso loves Mexico but challenges lie ahead

Esteban Ocon's Force India has been fitted with its third Control Electronics unit without incurring a penalty.

As a reminder, drivers are permitted to use only four of each of the six elements that make up the power unit under current regulations. Any more than that and they start getting some painful grid penalties.

There's a 10-place penalty the first time a fifth element is used.

When any of the remaining elements is used, there's another five-place drop imposed. And the first time a sixth element is used, another 10-place grid penalty is applied.

Here's the latest summary of power unit element usage for the 2017 season.

It includes the latest changes made by McLaren, Toro Rosso and Force India on Friday morning in Mexico and is correct up and including the start of FP1 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.

More power unit changes may be made by teams over the course of the weekend, and may incur further penalties.

Power Element Usage

Driver	ICE	TC	MGU-H	MGU-K	ES	CE
Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton	4	4	4	4	3	3
Valtteri Bottas	4	4	4	4	3	3
Red Bull/TAG Heuer
Daniel Ricciardo	5	5	6	3	3	3
Max Verstappen	6	5	6	3	4	4
Ferrari
Sebastian Vettel	5	5	5	4	4	4
Kimi Räikkönen	4	4	4	4	4	4
Force India/Mercedes
Sergio Pérez	4	4	4	4	2	2
Esteban Ocon	4	4	4	4	3	3
Williams/Mercedes
Felipe Massa	4	4	4	4	3	2
Lance Stroll	4	4	4	4	2	2
McLaren/Honda
Fernando Alonso	9	11	11	8	7	6
Stoffel Vandoorne	10	12	12	9	7	7
Toro Rosso/Renault
Brendon Hartley	6	5	6	3	5	5
Pierre Gasly	5	5	6	3	4	5
Haas/Ferrari
Romain Grosjean	4	4	4	4	4	4
Kevin Magnussen	4	4	4	4	4	4
Renault
Nico Hülkenberg	5	5	6	4	4	4
Carlos Sainz	5	6	6	3	4	4
Sauber/Ferrari
Marcus Ericsson	4	4	4	4	4	4
Pascal Wehrlein	4	4	4	4	4	4

Notes:

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

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.