F1 News, Reports and Race Results

McLaren's Sainz hit with more engine component changes for Bahrain GP!

McLaren's Carlos Sainz has already started to eat into his inventory of engine elements following Renault's decision to add additional changes to the Spaniard's engine.

An MGU-K failure in Melbourne, after just 11 laps, compelled Renault to replace the device on Sainz's unit for this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix.

But the manufacturer has since added a second internal combustion engine, turbocharger and MGU-H.

As a reminder, drivers are allowed two MGU-K elements and three examples of the other components. Sainz is therefore just one MGU-K failure away from a grid penalty.

It is understood that Renault has discarded Sainz's crippled MGU-K from Melbourne, but it is not known if the other three elements were damaged and if they were, if they can be repaired and thus kept in the authorized pool of parts.

Sainz revealed on Thursday that the MGU-K appeared to be a weak point of Renault's power unit.
"It is true we had a couple of failures during testing, so it is something that is a weak point of the car," he said.

"We need to keep working on to ensure we don't throw any more points into the bin because we did throw a couple of them in Australia."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Michael Delaney

Recent Posts

Antonelli: ‘Still a long way to reach Verstappen and Norris’ level’

Kimi Antonelli is sitting comfortably at the top of Formula 1’s 2026 Drivers’ Championship standings,…

15 hours ago

Szafnauer: Root cause of Aston Martin ‘mess’ planted five years ago

Former Aston Martin team principal Otmar Szafnauer has delivered a stinging verdict on Team Silverstone's…

17 hours ago

Hadjar details how he unlocked his consistency at Red Bull

Isack Hadjar believes one of his biggest challenges during his first season with Red Bull…

18 hours ago

Four classic German GP winners at the Nürburgring on this day

Down the years, August 4th has seen several German Grand Prix races held at the…

20 hours ago

Gasly: Alpine’s Dutch GP upgrade ‘critical’ for F1 midfield fight

Pierre Gasly believes Alpine’s upcoming Dutch Grand Prix upgrade package will be “critical” to the…

21 hours ago

Piastri reveals hidden gains behind mixed first half of 2026

Oscar Piastri may not have the results to show for his efforts in 2026, but…

22 hours ago