Does Verstappen's new power unit fall under the cost cap? McLaren doubts

08:28, 11 Nov

Updated: 16:44, 11 Nov

1 Comments

byKada Sarkozi

Andrea Stella doesn't believe a new engine would be worth the grid penalties in Formula 1.

"That's why in general you wouldn't change an engine and accept a penalty, or a loss of positions, because normally the performance you get back doesn't really compensate for the positional losses."

- Andrea Stella

Max Verstappen was equipped with a new power unit for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix after the Dutchman only qualified in P16. Starting from the pit lane, the defending world champion finished in third place, only behind Lando Norris and Kimi Antonelli.

McLaren team boss Stella, however, does not see the advantage of fitting new engines. He explained: "I don't know how this works for Honda, but in general these engines, they don't exhibit much degradation with mileage."

"So that's why in general you wouldn't change an engine and accept a penalty, or a loss of positions, because normally the performance you get back doesn't really compensate for the positional losses.

"But, like I say, I'm not sure how the power degradation works for Honda."

Stella on the McLaren pit wall - Photo: Race Pictures

Is the new engine included in Red Bull's cost cap?

The Italian also wondered after the session whether this change needed to be accounted for in the cost cap.

Stella continued: "To be honest, these kind of power unit changes, they challenge the regulations. I will be interested in understanding if the cost of this engine now goes in the cost cap or not."

"If the engine was changed for performance reasons, it should go in the cost cap.

"So let's see if this is the case, not that I will be able to see, as it's all on the Red Bull side."

"But this is also one reason why we wouldn't do it, because it would end up in the cost cap."

GPblog has the answer Stella's question. Read our exclusive article here!

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