Aware of the penalty imposed to replace engine parts after failures suffered earlier in the season, Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes team have attempted to offset the damage in one hit at the Belgian Grand Prix. Hamilton will, as of the close of second practice, take a 30-place grid penalty for the race on Sunday having used two new power units on Friday.
Whether the three-times world champion will start at the very back of the grid, however, has yet to be determined. McLaren’s Fernando Alonso has taken a 35-place penalty, putting him behind Hamilton. But Mercedes have not ruled out taking a further power unit before final practice on Saturday, which would put the British driver last on the grid.
Doing so would make sense and the idea of taking multiple units in one go has been put forward by Hamilton. Another unit would increase even further the pool of components on which he could draw for the remainder of the season but would mean starting from the back for only this one race.
Nonetheless there would remain the chance further penalties would be incurred later in the season should he have to take new components because they have been upgraded.
“A straightforward day for me but a tough one for the guys in the garage with the engine change,” said Hamilton. “Massive respect to them and big thanks for all their hard work.”
Hamilton and his team had made it clear they knew he would have to fit new parts at some point and had planned to do so at a circuit that would suit the power advantage of the Mercedes and offer good overtaking opportunities, both of which are features of Spa-Francorchamps.
The team have used five engine tokens to bring an upgraded power unit to the race, which is the version Hamilton and his team-mate Rosberg have had fitted. Each component within the power unit can be replaced five times before incurring penalties. Rosberg has yet to reach that threshold and will go into the race with a considerable advantage over Hamilton, whom he trails by 19 points in the world championship.
The British driver’s two new power units include his sixth and seventh turbo chargers, which carry a 10-place penalty each, and two more motor generator unit-heat components, which carry a five-place penalty each.
Hamilton was second to Rosberg in first practice and having opted for a long run on the medium tyres was 13th in the second session, which was topped by the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. “The important thing is we got through our programme smoothly,” said Hamilton. “We can start focusing on the rest of the weekend.”
His former team-mate at McLaren, Jenson Button, believes the world champion will recover from the penalties. “He’s going to finish fourth at worst,” he said. “It’s not exactly a bad weekend considering his team-mate finished fourth at the last race.
“He’s in a strong position in terms of his car’s performance. He’s very good at finding his way through traffic so I don’t think there’s any rush for him. I think he’ll get past four cars by Les Combes.”
