Several Mercedes-powered cars to use fresh PU elements at Spielberg
Williams driver George Russell is the only driver to use a fresh internal combustion engine at the Austrian Grand Prix which is a consequence of the technical woes his car suffered during last weekend's race at the Red Bull Ring.
For the 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship, exhaust systems have been added to the list of limited-use components, with each driver allowed no more than eight per season.
Should a driver exceed that limit, grid penalties will apply, just as with engines (ICE) (three per season), motor generator units-heat (MGU-H) (three), turbochargers (TC) (three), energy stores (ES) (two), control electronics (CE) (two), and motor generator units-kinetic (MGU-K) (three).
After driving in the eye-catching eighth position in the opening stages of the Styrian Grand Prix last Sunday, Russell was forced to retire due to a power unit-related issue. The King’s Lynn-born driver is using a fresh internal combustion engine, turbocharger, motor generator unit-heat, energy store, control electronics and exhaust system this weekend.
Alpine driver Esteban Ocon and the Haas duo of Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher also received a new exhaust system for this weekend.
Six of the eight Mercedes-powered cars are using a fresh control electronics this weekend with only Nicholas Latifi and Valtteri Bottas sticking to their previous CE. This means that Lewis Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo, Lando Norris, Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel received a fresh CE for the second Spielberg round with Russell completing this list.
The same group of drivers have also received a new energy store which is one of the two new energy stores allowed for the 2021 Championship season for all of them.
Two drivers will race today with a fresh gearbox with Valtteri Bottas and Pierre Gasly using a fresh unit. The Mercedes driver has used his previous gearbox for six consecutive events while the AlphaTauri did not finish the last race in Spielberg.
