Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz wants to take a five-place grid penalty for the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Sainz required a new internal combustion engine for the Interlagos event, taking his tally for the season up to six, when the allowed number of ICEs is three.
This triggers a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s grand prix and won’t affect his starting position for Saturday’s sprint race.
He enters the sixth weekend in the championship, four points behind Lewis Hamilton and 63 points behind team-mate Charles Leclerc and now with a penalty to hamper his progress with helping Ferrari remain ahead of Mercedes in the constructors’ championship.
Mercedes trails Ferrari by 40 points with two race weekends remaining including this sprint event – which therefore offers more points – in Brazil.
Sainz also took new exhaust parts, as did Ferrari-powered Alfa Romeo duo Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, but those changes were permitted within the rules.
One driver who has managed to avoid a penalty despite reliability issues this season is Fernando Alonso, who did not need to take a penalty for the Alpine squad.
“I have a new engine that I introduced in Austin, I had a penalty there,” said Alonso when discussing the chance of a penalty back at the Mexico City event.
“It did only Saturday and Sunday of Austin and Mexico was an old engine. So I have a new engine for Brazil and Abu Dhabi, so it should be OK for two races.”
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