Power unit element status for Monaco

©WRI2

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It's only the sixth race of 2018, but already things are getting serious for a number of drivers when it comes to power unit elements.

This season, drivers are allowed only three of each of the core components of their power units. As soon as they have to take a fourth of any of them, the grid penalties start piling up.

Each item has to last for 21 races, which means on average that they have to last seven races before being replaced. Heading into Monaco, that means everyone should still be on their first set of components.

But that's emphatically not the case!

Toro Rosso's Brendon Hartley is in the worst position. He's already taken three turbochargers and three MGU-H this season - one more and he'll start dropping down the grid.

The Kiwi has also taken two engines, two MGU-K, two energy stores and two control electronics units. That leaves him just one more before he goes over his allowed limit.

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo is in almost as bad a position as Hartley, having used two of everything so far.

Honda to probe MGU-H failure back at Sakura base

Kevin Magnussen is next up. He and his Haas team mate Romain Grosjean have both come to Monaco with a new engine, turbocharger and MGU-H. That means Magnussen has now used two of everything with the exception of the MGU-K where he's still on his first edition.

Fellow Ferrari customer team Sauber has deployed the same raft of upgrades for Marcus Ericsson and Charles Leclerc this weekend. That puts them on the same footing as Grosjean, and also Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and Toro Rosso's Pierre Gasly.

Only four drivers teams have avoided any upgrades so far: Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, Force India's Esteban Ocon, and the two Williams of Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin have all kept a clean sheet up to now.

Power Element Usage

Driver	ICE	TC	MGU-H	MGU-K	ES	CE
Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton	1	1	1	1	1	1
Valtteri Bottas	1	1	1	1	2	2
Ferrari
Sebastian Vettel	1	1	1	1	1	2
Kimi Räikkönen	2	2	2	1	1	1
Red Bull/TAG Heuer
Daniel Ricciardo	2	2	2	2	2	2
Max Verstappen	1	1	1	2	1	1
Force India/Mercedes
Sergio Pérez	1	1	1	1	2	1
Esteban Ocon	1	1	1	1	1	1
Williams/Mercedes
Lance Stroll	1	1	1	1	1	1
Sergey Sirotkin	1	1	1	1	1	1
Renault
Nico Hülkenberg	1	1	2	1	1	1
Carlos Sainz	1	1	2	1	1	1
Toro Rosso/Honda
Brendon Hartley	2	3	3	2	2	2
Pierre Gasly	2	2	2	1	1	1
Haas/Ferrari
Romain Grosjean	2	2	2	1	1	1
Kevin Magnussen	2	2	2	1	2	2
McLaren/Renault
Fernando Alonso	1	2	1	1	1	1
Stoffel Vandoorne	1	1	1	1	1	2
Sauber/Ferrari
Marcus Ericsson	2	2	2	1	1	1
Charles Leclerc	2	2	2	1	1	1

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.