Daniel Ricciardo will take a grid penalty, dropping him to the final row for tonight’s Formula 1 Turkish Grand Prix.
Set to line up 16th after a tough qualifying session on Saturday, McLaren has opted to fit the Australian’s car with a number of new elements.
That includes a new internal combustion engine, turbo charger, MGU-H, MGU-K, and exhaust.
The latter of those components does not come with a penalty, being Ricciardo’s fourth of eight allowed during the season.
However, all other components do attract grid penalties, which means he’ll line up alongside Carlos Sainz on the back row.
Following qualifying, Speedcafe.com asked McLaren team principal Andrea Seidl whether the Ricciardo would take a new power unit given the comparatively minor impact the resulting penalty would have.
“That’s something we have to review now overnight, together with our colleagues from Mercedes and see if we will change our plans for tomorrow,” he said at the time.
“So far this weekend, we didn’t plan to do any changes.”
Sainz starts from the rear due to his own power unit penalties, while Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton will line up 11th after a new internal combustion engine was fitted to his W12.
McLaren uses Mercedes power, with Toto Wolff admitting on Saturday there were “unusual noises” in the element in general which were being investigated.
“We have seen unusual noises within the combustion engine that aren’t completely understood at that stage yet and therefore caused some trouble,” Wolff said.
“In the past we had engines that basically failed,” he added.
“Now it’s about containing the problem because, in that phase, redesigning parts is not something you would tackle.”
The Turkish Grand Prix gets underway at 23:00 AEDT tonight.
