How potential engine grid penalties could play a decisive role in the F1 title race
Penalties for new power unit parts could end up playing a role in the title fight.
As the F1 title battle moves towards the closing stages, the risk of engine penalties looms for the title contenders, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri of McLaren, and Max Verstappen of Red Bull.
We have reached the point of the season where teams’ best-laid plans come a cropper as they exceed their allocation for parts of the power unit and, as a result, pick up grid penalties.
How engine penalties could play a role in F1 title fight
At the start of each season, the FIA informs the teams how many of each part of the power unit they are allowed to use over the course of the season and any car that goes above that will be hit with a penalty.
The FIA rules for F1 2025 state a single driver can use:
4x Internal Combustion Engine (ICE)
4x Motor Generator Unit-Heat (MGU-H)
4x Motor Generator Unit-Kinetic (MGU-K)
4x Turbocharger (TC)
2x Energy Store (ES)
2x Control Electronics (CE)
8x Exhaust (EX)
Those elements are pooled, and can be drawn on by each team as needed – be that through a reliability requirement or as part of a pre-determined schedule.
For example, teams will often save certain elements for events such as the Belgian or Italian Grands Prix, where power is paramount.
Where a driver runs into trouble is in the case of a crash or reliability issue.
Should a failure occur, it can account for one or more elements, effectively reducing the pool of available components.
With each having a carefully calculated lifecycle, extending beyond that moving into dangerous territory with the risk of failure greatly increased.
And with 83 per cent of the season completed, we have arrived at the point of the year where a lot of drivers may face grid penalties for exceeding their allocation.
On the first instance, it is an automatic 10-place grid penalty with every further breach being five places dropped.
The penalties are served communally and if a driver hits 15 in a single race, they will automatically start at the back of the grid.
So far this year Lewis Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda, Fernando Alonso, Pierre Gasly, Franco Colapinto, Oliver Bearman, Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson have all served penalties, but the three title contenders could be in trouble.
More on the title battle from PlanetF1.com
👉 Lando Norris’ mentality ‘polar opposite’ to Lewis Hamilton as title pivotal moment identified
👉 Guenther Steiner delivers Oscar Piastri ‘not good enough’ blow
👉 How Max Verstappen produced the drive of his life at the 2024 Sao Paulo GP
Why Lando Norris is most at risk of potential grid penalty
Of the three contenders, it is Norris who arguably has the greatest cause for concern.
His retirement from the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort wasn’t just a blow in terms the hit he took in the championship standings.
An oil line failure that weekend raised doubts over whether the championship leader still has a full complement of power unit elements in his pool – theoretically placing him at greater risk of a potential penalty.
At Red Bull, Verstappen has been getting through exhausts far more frequently than his McLaren rivals.
Drivers are given an allocation of eight per season and Verstappen has already reached seven with four races and a sprint to go.
Meanwhile, Piastri and Norris are both on three.
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