TECHNICAL: Leclerc and Sainz set to race with fresh engines in Miami

Having completed the opening part of the 2024 F1 season with the same power unit, Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have received fresh PU components for this weekend's Miami Grand Prix. F1Technical's senior writer Balázs Szabó reports on the engine situation at Round 6 of the season.

For the 11th year running, the 2024 F1 cars are powered by V6 hybrid turbo power units with 1.6-litre engines. This season represents the penultimate year the current engine configuration appears before being replaced by a new power unit formula in 2026.

Current F1 power units feature seven elements: the internal combustion engine (ICE), motor generator unit-heat (MGU-H), motor generator unit-kinetic (MGU-K), turbocharger, energy store (ES), control electronics (CE) and exhaust.

Over the course of the 2024 season, a driver may use no more than four ICEs, MGU-Hs, MGU-Ks and turbochargers, two energy stores and control electronics, and eight of each of the four elements that make up a set of exhaust systems (comprising primaries left-hand side, primaries right-hand side, secondary LHS and secondary RHS).

Having suffered several technical issues in the first part of last season, Ferrari have displayed an improved reliability so far in 2024. The better reliability has enabled Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to complete the first five races with a single power unit. The Scuderia has now decided to equip the two SF-24s with a fresh internal combustion engine, turbocharger, MGU-H, MGU-K and exhaust system.

The two McLaren MCL38s of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, the Aston Martin AMR24s of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll and the C44s of Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas have also been equipped with a new ICE, TC, MGU-K, MGU-H. Moreover, Alonso Stroll, Piastri and Norris have also received a fresh exhaust system.

Drivers are also limited in terms of how many restricted-number components (RNCs) they can use during a season. RNCs are components that make up the gearbox, split between the gearbox case and cassette, and the gearbox driveline, gear change components and auxiliary components.

As with their power units, drivers have a ‘pool’ of four gearboxes that can be swapped around during the season. Only when a driver exceeds their allocation of either of the above gearbox components do they receive a grid penalty.

Lando Norris will race with a fresh gearbox case and driveline in Miami, although it is only his second new unit this season. Having already used two gearbox drivelines so far in 2024, Max Verstappen has once again received a new one for the Miami round, meaning that he only has two more fresh drivelines for the rest of the season.