Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff said Friday that all teams “struggled” with the allocation of power units for the season and that the team was “considering” taking a penalty at Monza to top up their pool for the remainder of the year.
During qualifying on Friday evening, the FIA issued a bulletin confirming that Mercedes had installed a number of new drive elements in Bottas’ car.
With a fresh engine, turbocharger, MGU-H and MGU-K, Bottas is ready for a start in Monza.
This applies to the main race on Sunday and not to the sprint race on Saturday, in which Bottas will start from where he ends in qualifying on Friday.
The move will bolster Bottas’ car’s pool of engine elements for the remainder of the year, which means no further penalties should be imposed this season.
Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes
Photo by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Images
Teammate Lewis Hamilton could also need a grid drop at some point this year as Wolff was aware of the implications of a possible DNF if they tried to end the season with the existing pool.
“We believe that between P1 and P2 with the fastest lap, if you have a DNF, it takes the other four races to catch up,” said Wolff on Sky Sports.
“And that’s brutal. So you can afford to finish second four times [place]. So you just really have to play it safe and not sacrifice performance. “
In recent years, Monza has been a popular route for teams to get engine penalties due to the overtaking opportunities at the end of the long straights.
Red Bull is in a similar situation to Mercedes with Max Verstappen’s car after losing one of its remaining engines to an accident at Silverstone.
But Verstappen said on Thursday that there is currently no plan for him to take a starting place in Monza.
“We haven’t really decided where to take it yet,” said Verstappen.
“I think this engine is still very new so we’ll see. It’s definitely not the plan to bring it here. “
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