F1 | Hamilton changes Power Unit and setup: he will start from the pit lane

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix was an uphill battle for Lewis Hamilton. The English driver had only managed to secure seventh place in qualifying, underlining how difficult it was to get the tyres to work in the correct temperature window, given the W15’s sensitivity to track changes.

An aspect that has also been observed in other appointments, which is why the British driver himself was not surprised by the difficulties encountered in qualifying on Saturday, while his teammate still managed to score a good fifth place, leaving behind Max Verstappen, who made a mistake on a lap that could have sent him to the second row.

However, the race will now be even more uphill, because Hamilton will be forced to start from the pit lane after some components of the Power Unit have been changed on his car, namely the engine, the turbo, the MGU-H and the MGU-K, namely all those elements with which he had already reached the limit before this race. Up to this point in the season, in fact, the seven-time world champion had already used four units of each of the elements replaced this morning, so now he will get a penalty and will be forced to start from the pit lane, given that in the meantime the setup of his W15 has also been changed.

On the contrary, the control unit, battery pack and exhaust system were not replaced, as they would not have benefited in any way: Hamilton is still well within the maximum number of units allowed by the regulations with these elements, so a possible replacement would not have allowed him to accumulate parts by serving a “free” penalty. It is important to keep in mind that realistically Hamilton would have had to serve a penalty during the season anyway, as he had lost an engine in Australia after just a few races: Baku is an event where it is possible to recover, especially now that the DRS zone on the main straight has been extended.

A Power Unit change that comes after the problems encountered on Friday with George Russell, when Mercedes noticed an anomaly in the oil samples taken from his car, which prompted the star to intervene preemptively to avoid further complications.

Hamilton won’t be the only one to receive a grid penalty: Esteban Ocon, who should have started from the back anyway given his disappointing qualifying, also replaced the engine, turbo, MGU-H and exhaust system on his car in a weekend where the team has had major reliability issues. Ocon missed part of FP1 and the whole of FP3 due to technical issues, while his teammate Pierre Gasly missed FP2 due to a battery issue. Realistically, Alpine took the opportunity to add a fresh engine to its roster, so as not to end up with a penalty later in the season.