New power unit and penalty for Sainz
Carlos Sainz surprised by strong qualifying performance.
The FIA have confirmed Carlos Sainz’s Austrian Grand Prix penalty with the McLaren driver starting from the back of the grid after taking on Renault’s updated engine.
Renault introduced an updated power unit at last weekend’s French Grand Prix, however, McLaren opted to wait until Austria to put it in Sainz’s car.
Taking on all six elements, the McLaren driver’s penalty is more than 15 meaning he will start from the back of the grid.
“That is unfortunately part of the game,” McLaren boss Andreas Seidl told Motorsport.com. “But it is the same for the others around. We have seen others are taking penalties already now, so we have to see.
“In the end, how the regulations are, you need to make a plan of how you’re going to use your engines throughout the season in terms of the modes, mileage and so on to avoid penalties.
“We got the engine delivered from Renault, which is good and encouraging to see that they keep bringing steps.
“But again the plan for us was that it was better not to use it yet, simply to minimise the number of penalties that we would get until the end of the season.”
Follow all the action from the Austrian Grand Prix with the PlanetF1 live centre
