Grid Penalty – Syndication Server

Verstappen’s five-place grid penalty in Brazil confirmed

The FIA has confirmed Max Verstappen will take a five-place grid penalty at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix for exceeding power unit components. Red Bull had been analyzing when would be best to fit a new internal combustion engine (ICE) following issues …

The FIA has confirmed Max Verstappen will take a five-place grid penalty at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix for exceeding power unit components.

Red Bull had been analyzing when would be best to fit a new internal combustion engine (ICE) following issues in Mexico City, and selected Interlagos for a number of reasons. One is the ability to use the new power unit in the Sprint — and potentially picking up further points — prior to the penalty kicking in, as well as the ability to overtake on the Brazilian circuit compared to the remaining tracks on the calendar.

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The ICE that Verstappen is using is his sixth of the season, having previously taken a penalty at the Belgian Grand Prix before the summer break. On that occasion, as it was his first time exceeding the limit, it carried a 10-place grid penalty, but each subsequent infringement is a five-place drop.

The penalty only applies to Sunday’s grand prix, so where Verstappen starts the Sprint on Saturday will be unaffected by the change.

Verstappen enters the Sao Paulo Grand Prix weekend with a 47-point advantage over Lando Norris in the drivers’ championship, having seen that deficit cut by 10 points in Mexico City last weekend.

Grid penalties for Ferrucci, Rasmussen

IndyCar has added two more entries to the list of those taking nine-position starting grid penalties for this afternoon’s Big Machine Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway. The No. 14 A.J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet of Santino Ferrucci made an unapproved engine change following final practice Saturday, while the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy of Christian Rasmussen made a similar change following qualifying. They drop to 14th and 25th respectively as a result.

The new additions bring the total number of entries getting grid penalties for the season finale to six, joining those driven by Alex Palou, Scott McLaughlin, Alexander Rossi and Nolan Siegel.

STARTING LINEUP (includes grid penalties)

Palou, McLaughlin, Rossi, Siegel get grid penalties for Nashville

Another set of grid penalties have been announced for the final NTT IndyCar Series round of the season, and they affect two of the three championship contenders. IndyCar has assessed a nine-position starting grid penalty for the No. 10 Chip Ganassi …

Another set of grid penalties have been announced for the final NTT IndyCar Series round of the season, and they affect two of the three championship contenders.

IndyCar has assessed a nine-position starting grid penalty for the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda of championship leader Alex Palou, the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet of Scott McLaughlin — who is third in points with a mathematical shot at the title — and the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevy of Alexander Rossi for Sunday’s Big Machine Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway. All three entries made unapproved engine changes following the Sunday, Sept. 1 race at the Milwaukee Mile.

In addition to the these three entries, IndyCar added a fourth penalty for the No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevy of Nolan Siegel, who required a new engine following a crash during practice.

The teams were in violation of:

Rule 16.1.2.3.2. A fifth (5^th) Engine is eligible to earn Engine Manufacturer points if a Full Season Entrant has completed the Full Season Entrant Engine Mileage with its first four (4) Engines. Otherwise, a fifth (5^th) or more Engine does not earn Engine Manufacturer points and will be considered an Unapproved Engine change-out.

According to Rule 16.1.6.1.2., the penalty is a six-position starting grid penalty on road and street course events and nine positions at oval events and are served at the series’ next race.

ED: This article was updated to reflect an additional penalty following practice.

ECR, JHR get Milwaukee grid penalties

IndyCar has assessed two more nine-position starting grid penalties for Saturday’s first half of the Hy-Vee doubleheader at the Milwaukee Mile, this round affecting the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet entry driven by Christian Rasmussen and No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevy of Conor Daly, for unapproved engine changes following Friday’s practice session. They join cars from Arrow McLaren, Chip Ganassi Racing Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and Team Penske in receiving nine-place penalties for tonight’s race.

The teams were in violation of:

Rule 16.1.2.3.2. A fifth (5th) Engine is eligible to earn Engine Manufacturer points if a Full Season Entrant has completed the Full Season Entrant Engine Mileage with its first four (4) Engines. Otherwise, a fifth (5th) or more Engine does not earn Engine Manufacturer points and will be considered an Unapproved Engine change-out.

According to Rule 16.1.6.1.2., the penalty is a six-position starting grid penalty on road and street course events and nine positions at oval events and will be served at the series’ next race, which is the Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250s Race 1.

Arrow McLaren, Ganassi, Penske and RLL take Milwaukee grid penalties

Another late-season IndyCar race, another set of grid penalties for unapproved engine changes. This time, IndyCar has announced a nine-position starting grid penalty for the first race of this weekend’s Milwaukee doubleheader for the entries of No. …

Another late-season IndyCar race, another set of grid penalties for unapproved engine changes.

This time, IndyCar has announced a nine-position starting grid penalty for the first race of this weekend’s Milwaukee doubleheader for the entries of No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet driven by Josef Newgarden, the No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevy of Nolan Siegel, No. 11 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda of Marcus Armstrong, and the Nos. 30 and 45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Hondas of Pietro Fittipaldi and Christian Lundgaard for unapproved engine changes following last weekend’s race at Portland International Raceway.

The teams were in violation of:

IndyCar grid penalties for Andretti, MSR and RLL cars at Portland

It’s that time of the season where NTT IndyCar Series teams are making unapproved engine changes and grid penalties are the norm. Three Honda-powered drivers will receive six-position grid demotions after qualifying for the BitNile.com Grand Prix of …

It’s that time of the season where NTT IndyCar Series teams are making unapproved engine changes and grid penalties are the norm.

Three Honda-powered drivers will receive six-position grid demotions after qualifying for the BitNile.com Grand Prix of Portland as a result of their teams making unapproved engine changes — only four engines are allowed to be used each year, with the need to go to a fifth, or sixth, or more, coming with grid penalties.

The trio is led by Graham Rahal in the No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing entry, Kyle Kirkwood in the No. 27 Andretti Global car, and David Malukas in the No. 66 Meyer Shank Racing entry for changes made after last weekend’s race at World Wide Technology Raceway.

Grid penalties for Ganassi, Coyne and MSR cars at WWTR

Four Honda-powered NTT IndyCar Series entries have been assessed nine-spot grid penalties for going beyond the permitted number of engines for the season. The unapproved engine changes were made to the championship-leading No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing …

Four Honda-powered NTT IndyCar Series entries have been assessed nine-spot grid penalties for going beyond the permitted number of engines for the season.

The unapproved engine changes were made to the championship-leading No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing car of Alex Palou, this week in the new colors of Samaritan’s Purse (pictured above); teammate and third-place contender Scott Dixon in the No. 9 Ganassi entry; plus the No. 51 Dale Coyne Racing car driven this weekend by Katherine Legge; and Felix Rosenqvist’s No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda.

Restricted to four motors per entry for the entirety of the season, the need to use a fifth, or sixth, etc., comes with a nine-position penalty on ovals and six spots on road and street courses for each infraction. The four Hondas were changed between the last race at Toronto to provide fresh engines for the final five races, starting with Saturday night’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway.

According to Rule 16.1.2.3.2, “A fifth (5th) Engine is eligible to earn Engine Manufacturer points if a Full Season Entrant has completed the Full Season Entrant Engine Mileage with its first four (4) Engines. Otherwise, a fifth (5th) or more Engine does not earn Engine Manufacturer points and will be considered an Unapproved Engine change-out.”

10-place grid penalty confirmed for Verstappen in Belgium

Max Verstappen will take a 10-place grid penalty at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix as a result of a power unit change. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner had previously admitted it was inevitable that Verstappen would require an extra power …

Max Verstappen will take a 10-place grid penalty at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix as a result of a power unit change.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner had previously admitted it was inevitable that Verstappen would require an extra power unit at some stage, and the team has now opted to take a fresh internal combustion engine (ICE) at Spa-Francorchamps. The track offers overtaking opportunities and Verstappen has climbed through the field from similar penalties at each of the last two years at the same venue, winning from 14th on the grid in 2022, and sixth last year.

However, the championship leader has not won in three races and will face a tall order to do so again on Sunday, admitting that the current competitive picture makes it unlikely that he can repeat the success of the last two years.

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“If you look at our last few races where we haven’t particularly been the fastest, I wouldn’t say that with 10 places extra we have a chance of winning,” Verstappen said.

As it is the first component that Verstappen has exceeded limits for this season, it carries a 10-place grid penalty.

The Dutchman is not the only driver taking a penalty this weekend, with Yuki Tsunoda set to start from the back of the grid after RB took a complete new power unit. As well as the ICE, Tsunoda has a new MGU-H, MGU-K, turbocharger, energy store and control electronics.

Rahal, Simpson penalized for unapproved engine changes

Graham Rahal and Kyffin Simpson will both carry nine-place grid penalties into this weekend’s NTT IndyCar Series doubleheader at Iowa Speedway for unapproved engine changes following the July 7 race at Mid-Ohio. The No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan …

The No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda and No. 4 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda were both found to be in violation of Rule 16.1.2.3.2., which states that ‘A fifth (5th) Engine is eligible to earn Engine Manufacturer points if a Full Season Entrant has completed the Full Season Entrant Engine Mileage with its first four (4) Engines. Otherwise, a fifth (5th) or more Engine does not earn Engine Manufacturer points and will be considered an Unapproved Engine change-out.’

According to Rule 16.1.6.1.2., the penalty for such infractions is six grid places on road and street courses, and nine places on ovals.

Both entries will serve their penalties in the first race of the weekend on Saturday evening.

Horner says it’s inevitable Verstappen will take an engine penalty this year

Max Verstappen will have to take a power unit penalty at some stage of the current Formula 1 season as a result of problems suffered earlier in the year. The championship leader had to take a new power unit during the Canadian Grand Prix weekend …

Max Verstappen will have to take a power unit penalty at some stage of the current Formula 1 season as a result of problems suffered earlier in the year.

The championship leader had to take a new power unit during the Canadian Grand Prix weekend after an issue in Friday practice. Following the decision to take a new power unit on Sergio Perez’s car at Silverstone — with the Mexican already starting at the back of the grid — Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says at some stage there will be a similar penalty for Verstappen.

“I’m sure at some point we’ll end up taking an extra engine for Max,” Horner said. “It’s just a question of when you choose strategically to do that. So we’ll work with Honda on that. Inevitably, we will take a penalty at some point in the year.”

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Verstappen has extended his championship lead to 84 points over the past five races despite only winning two of those, and Horner believes the fluctuating form that has seen four teams winning in 2024 is down to getting performance out of different tire compounds.

“Lots of data and information to take out of that, to understand where these big fluctuations [come from],” Horner said, “because at different points in time, different cars looked quick. One minute, it started off as Mercedes, then it looked like McLaren had everything under control, and then suddenly, second half of the race, Max started coming back and very nearly won it. For the fans… a fantastic race. But obviously a lot to try and understand where the fluctuations are coming from.

“I think it’s all about these tires. I think it’s all about the tire working at a certain point in time, certain condition, whether it’s hot or cold. Different cars working the tires in different ways, and you saw an extremity of that as a circuit [Silverstone] obviously went from damp to wet to damp to back to dry.”

Despite the difficulty of trying to understand the competitive order and fight off challenges from multiple teams from a Red Bull perspective, Horner admits it’s a scenario that is good for the sport as a whole.

“I think Formula 1 can’t be in a better place at the moment. If you look at the last five or six races, we’ve had Lewis [Hamilton], we’ve had Lando [Norris], we’ve had Max, we’ve had Charles Leclerc… It’s moving around,” he noted. “And the only one that’s managed to be there consistently, has been Max. So I think the sport, you can see by the crowds that it’s delivering and so on, and I’m sure Lewis’s win was a very popular win in front of a home crowd.”