Another grid penalty for Ricciardo after turbocharger switch

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Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo looks doomed to start his penultimate race with the team with yet another grid penalty.

Ricciardo was forced to take a new turbocharger for the Brazilian Grand Prix. It's his sixth of the season when only three are allowed all season, so it incurs a five-place drop on Sunday.

The change comes after his retirement from the Mexican Grand Prix with ten laps to go, having started from pole position. His team mate Max Verstappen went on to win the race.

After the disappointment, Ricciardo vented that he might not even show up for the final two races of the season before his switch to Renault over the winter. However he later clarified the remarks, insisting that they were never intended to be taken seriously.

Ricciardo surprised Mexico comments were taken seriously

In total, Ricciardo has suffered eight retirements in 2018 - six of them for technical reasons. He started from the back of the grid in Italy and Russia due to power unit-related penalties.

A five place drop doesn't mean that the Australian is completely down and out this weekend. He could still start as high as sixth place on the grid even if there are no additional penalties for other drivers.

So far, the FIA has not reported any other power unit changes being undertaken. However if they are, they will be applied after Ricciardo's drop had been imposed.

That's because sanctions are calculated in the order in which cars go out on the circuit once the change is made. Ricciardo made sure his penalty would be addressed first by waiting at the pit lane exit for almost ten minutes before the start of Friday morning's first free practice session.

Here's the rest of the power unit element situation, which includes Ricciardo's latest update:

Power Element Usage

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

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.