How F1 grid penalties work, and why Ferraris Leclerc got bumped 10 places
Formula One may only be onto its second grand prix of the 23-race calendar, but grid penalties are already reshaping the nature of the grid — and who’s most likely to be out ahead .
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will start 10 grid positions below where he qualifies for this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The penalty is for using more than his two allotted control electronics units for the season, after a pair of failures in Bahrain forced Ferrari to give his car its third. This will be made official by the FIA when the new part is fitted during the race weekend.
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Such grid penalties may be harsh, but they’re F1’s tool for enforcing the part allotment rules designed to help save money and keep changes to a minimum. Here’s how they work.
What are the 2023 allocations for the power units and gearboxes?
A power unit is essentially what the normal driver would call an engine, but since today’s Formula One cars are hybrids, we need a term that includes the electric bit of the setup.
Power unit part allocations
| Component | Number Allowed |
|---|---|
Internal combustion engine | 3 |
Motor generator unit-heat | 3 |
Motor generator unit-kinetic | 3 |
Turbocharger | 3 |
Energy store | 2 |
Control electronics | 2 |
Exhaust | 8 |
The gearbox includes five restricted-number components.
Gearbox part allocations
| Component | Number Allowed |
|---|---|
Gearbox cassette and case | 4 |
Gearbox driveline, gearchange components and auxiliary components | 4 |
How do grid penalties work?
Buckle in, F1 fans. There’s plenty of conditions that preface how penalties are dealt. Let’s start with the power-unit.
- When the allocation is breached for the first time, a 10-place grid penalty is implemented. This is what Leclerc faces in Saudi Arabia.
- Every time a driver exceeds the allocation for that particular part after that, they face a five-place grid penalty.
- Penalties occurring at the same event are also cumulative: If you go over the limit for two different parts, you get both punishments. If a driver receives a penalty of more than 15 grid place drops, it’s an automatic back of the grid start.
When a new element is used, this becomes part of the driver’s “pool,” which means it can be interchanged race to race. For gearboxes, four can be in a driver’s ‘pool’ and swapped throughout the season. Go up to five or more of the allocated elements, and you face a five-spot grid penalty. Repeat occurrences also cost you five places; however, if both sets (the cassette and case, and the driveline, gear change components, and auxiliary components) are exceeded at the same time, a driver can face a 10-place grid penalty.
There is a strategy element behind this as well because some tracks are popular for making these component changes to the gearbox or power unit. Typically, it’s circuits where drivers can recover lost positions on long straights, such as Monza.
What happened in Italy to trigger an update in the regulations’ wording?
Power unit components and gearboxes were the talk of the paddock in 2022, as so many drivers faced grid penalties, there was some confusion in how to apply them, prompting a regulation wording change for the 2023 season.
The 2022 Italian Grand Prix essentially became a massive puzzle when nine drivers took various grid penalties, and it left everybody — including the drivers — confused on what the starting order actually looked like.
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Yuki Tsunoda, Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz all faced back of the grid penalties, though Tsunoda also faced penalties for accumulating too many reprimands and ignoring yellow flags. Tsunoda’s additional penalties on top of the back of the grid, though, did not impact anything given the larger penalty. Back of the grid penalties are prioritized, so if a driver qualified 14th and had a 10-place penalty, for example, they would start ahead of a driver that had a back of the grid one.
The grid penalties in place for Sunday#ItalianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/gkE6fUqLF2
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 10, 2022
Qualifying, though, was where things became tricky. Some of the penalties were “lessened” simply because there weren’t enough spots on the grid for everyone to be fully punished. Ocon, for one, dropped three spots instead of five. And it worked out great for drivers without penalties: Daniel Ricciardo jumped from eighth in qualifying to a fourth place start, while Pierre Gasly went from ninth to fifth.
The process was later clarified by the FIA using a “temporary” spot system for those who are dealt 15 or fewer cumulative grid drops. For example, if the driver qualifies 15th and is dealt a 10-place grid drop, they’re categorized as P25 for their temporary grid position. If two drivers have the same temporary spot, whoever posted the faster qualifying time will be ahead. Once those who did not receive penalties are given their starting grid positions, the penalized portion of the grid is determined.
The regulations were tweaked ahead of the 2023 season to read: “Classified drivers who have accrued more than 15 cumulative grid position penalties, or who have been penalised to start at the back of the grid, will start behind any other classified driver. Their relative position will be determined in accordance with their qualifying classification.”
(Photo of Charles Leclerc’s retired Ferrari in Bahrain: Eric Alonso/Getty Images)
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