Hamilton takes further power unit penalty, now 55 places

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Lewis Hamilton has taken another new power unit, taking his grid penalty up to 55 places in total for the Belgian Grand Prix.

The championship leader took a new internal combustion engine (ICE), turbocharger, MGU-H and MGU-K ahead of FP1 at Spa-Francorchamps, with the turbocharger and MGU-H being his sixth of the season, resulting in a 15-place grid penalty.

Each driver is limited to five of each power unit component - ICE, turbocharger, MGU-H, MGU-K, energy store and control electronics - per season. Every time a driver uses the sixth of any component, he receives a 10-place grid penalty, with each subsequent sixth power unit component used carrying a five-place penalty.

As a continuation of the same regulation, when a driver uses the seventh of any component he receives a 10-place grid penalty, with each subsequent seventh power unit component used carrying a five-place penalty.

Ahead of FP2, Hamilton took another new ICE, turbocharger, MGU-H and MGU-K, which resulted in another 15-place grid penalty but also brought his number of ICE and MGU-K up to the maximum permitted of five for the season. With the same four components changed ahead of FP3, all four carry penalties, resulting in an additional 25-place grid penalty.

Mercedes has taken the penalties all in one go as Hamilton will start from the back of the grid regardless, and the new parts expand his pool of available engines for the rest of the season. The penalties also coincide with Mercedes introducing a power unit upgrade this weekend at Spa-Francorchamps.

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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.