Power unit usage update for Spain

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The news that Ferrari is to introduce a new specification power unit on their cars this weekend means that Mercedes' current clean sheet is looking increasingly impressive.

At the moment, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas are both still on their first engines (ICE), turbochargers (TC), MGU-H and MGU-K, energy stores (ES) and control electronics (CE) components.

The only other team matching the Silver Arrows for power unit reliability is Racing Point, which itself uses customer engines from Mercedes.

Ferrari introduces Spec-2 engine ahead of schedule

That's also the case at Williams, and Robert Kubica is likewise yet to replace any parts on his FW42. Alas his team mate George Russell is not quite so blemish-free, as his unfortunate drain cover accident in Baku has meant he needed a replacement energy store and control electronics unit.

Given that 2019 consists of 21 races, the core power unit parts should be lasting for an average of seven races each if they're to get to the end of the season without penalties.

But Spain is only the fifth Grand Prix, so it's looking like all of the non-Mercedes teams are bound to get hit by costly penalties at some point, possibly even before the summer break.

Coming into this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix, Ferrari had previously made changes to the control electronics in both of their cars, and to those of their respective customer teams Haas and Alfa Romeo.

Haas and Alfa won't use new Ferrari engine in Spain

But the engine upgrades Ferrari announced this week will mean they will be on their second ICE, with probable knock-on changes to the TC, MGU-H and/or MGU-K to be confirmed on Friday.

Neither Haas nor Alfa Romeo will be taking those new components this week. However Antonio Giovinazzi incurred a penalty in Azerbaijan for taking a third CE unit, when only two changes are allowed per season within the rules.

Renault is also rumoured to be introducing a new power unit to its cars this weekend. Nico Hulkenberg is already on his second set of ICE, TC, MGU-H and MGU-K while Daniel Ricciardo has just had one new MGU-K to date.

Honda has already pushed through an early upgrade to their engines for both Red Bull and Toro Rosso. It's left Daniil Kvyat and Alexander Albon on their third ICE. One more and they will start to get hit by grid penalties too, much as happened last year when they became Honda's de facto test squad for rapid engine development.

Here's the current official state of power unit usage as confirmed by the FIA's technical delegate Jo Bauer on Thursday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

The updated Ferrari situation will be officially confirmed when the cars roll out on friday morning for first practice.

Power Element Usage - 2019 Spanish Grand Prix

Driver	ICE	TC	MGU-H	MGU-K	ES	CE
Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton	1	1	1	1	1	1
Valtteri Bottas	1	1	1	1	1	1
Ferrari
Sebastian Vettel	1	1	1	1	1	2
Charles Leclerc	1	1	1	1	1	2
Red Bull/Honda
Max Verstappen	2	2	2	2	1	1
Pierre Gasly	2	2	2	2	1	1
Renault
Daniel Ricciardo	1	1	1	2	1	1
Nico Hülkenberg	2	2	2	2	1	1
Haas/Ferrari
Romain Grosjean	1	1	1	1	1	2
Kevin Magnussen	1	1	1	1	1	2
McLaren/Renault
Carlos Sainz	2	2	2	2	1	1
Lando Norris	1	1	1	2	1	1
Racing Point/Mercedes
Sergio Pérez	1	1	1	1	1	1
Lance Stroll	1	1	1	1	1	1
Alfa Romeo/Ferrari
Kimi Räikkönen	1	1	1	1	1	2
Antonio Giovinazzi	1	1	1	1	1	3
Toro Rosso/Honda
Daniil Kvyat	3	2	2	2	1	1
Alexander Albon	3	2	2	2	2	2
Williams/Mercedes
George Russell	1	1	1	1	2	2
Robert Kubica	1	1	1	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.