Red Bull opts out of Renault's latest MGU-K upgrade

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Neither Daniel Ricciardo nor Max Verstappen will have access to Renault's new MGU-K for this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix.

Fernando Alonso has also passed on the French manufacturer's latest upgrade this weekend. However, his McLaren team mate Stoffel Vandoorne has been fitted with the new part.

Renault announced on Friday that both drivers for their factory team will have a brand new MGU-K. It is the second of the season for both Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg - as well as Vandoorne - meaning that none will be hit by grid penalties.

However Verstappen is already on the last of his three permitted MGU-Ks of the season, meaning that he would be penalised if they took Renault's new component this weekend.

“It’s available for all the cars that want it,” Renault boss Cyril Abiteboul told Motorsport.com earlier this week. “It happens that not all teams have elected to go to the new spec.

"They will continue to use the MGU-K of a previous technical definition, with a higher reliability risk."

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Hulkenberg has already said that he's not expecting "a huge deal" from the new MGU-K and said it was just one piece of the puzzle.

Sainz and Hulkenberg also take a new energy store this weekend, as do Alonso and Vandorne. Sainz additionally takes on a new turbocharger, and Alonso benefits from a new electronics control unit.

All are within the driver's permitted quota for the season. However, they put the drivers close to the brink, with little room to spare for the rest of the campaign.

Power Element Usage

Driver	ICE	TC	MGU-H	MGU-K	ES	CE
Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton	2	2	2	1	1	1
Valtteri Bottas	2	2	2	1	2	2
Ferrari
Sebastian Vettel	2	2	2	1	1	2
Kimi Räikkönen	2	3	2	1	1	2
Red Bull/TAG Heuer
Daniel Ricciardo	3	3	3	2	2	2
Max Verstappen	2	3	2	3	1	2
Force India/Mercedes
Sergio Pérez	2	2	2	1	2	1
Esteban Ocon	2	2	2	1	1	1
Williams/Mercedes
Lance Stroll	2	2	2	1	1	1
Sergey Sirotkin	2	2	2	1	1	1
Renault
Nico Hülkenberg	2	2	3	2	2	2
Carlos Sainz	2	3	3	2	2	2
Toro Rosso/Honda
Brendon Hartley	4	4	4	3	3	3
Pierre Gasly	4	4	4	3	2	2
Haas/Ferrari
Romain Grosjean	2	3	3	1	1	2
Kevin Magnussen	2	2	2	1	2	2
McLaren/Renault
Fernando Alonso	2	2	2	2	2	2
Stoffel Vandoorne	2	2	2	2	2	2
Sauber/Ferrari
Marcus Ericsson	2	2	2	1	2	2
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.